Natus Vincere have advanced to the BLAST Premier Spring Final title decider after beating a resilient OG in the semis. s1mple was the man of the hour as usual with a 1.45 rating across the three-map series, but he had his long-time sidekick electroNic deliver a great performance, with the recently named IGL closing out the series in style with a 35-14 K-D on Mirage (1.99 rating). The Ukrainian-Russian team await their opponent in the grand final, which will be the winner of G2 and Vitality.
The loss sees OG‘s campaign in Lisbon end in disappointing fashion, as they kept things competitive over the course of the series only to falter at the last hurdle, but they’ll likely leave the event satisfied in any case after getting to their first arena match in front of a big crowd while playing with Abdul “degster” Gasanov as a stand-in.
The Russian AWPer was OG‘s best player not only in this series but at the event overall, showcasing himself in a great light for potential suitors as he looks for a new team following his recent benching from Spirit.
Newly-made IGL electronic pulled NAVI across the finish line with a massive Mirage performance
Dust2 went the way of Natus Vincere in what perhaps seemed like comfortable fashion but was a bit further from that in reality. OG got an early lead off a degster triple in the first pistol round, but when they had the chance to amass some early momentum they gave up a couple of advantages, with NAVI taking full advantage of the mistakes and running away with the early gunrounds.
It wasn’t until 7-3 that OG got back into contention off a Shahar “flameZ” Shushan 1v1 clutch on B and a defense of a long control play from their opponents, and the two teams were just one round apart at halftime. Heading into the second half, Natus Vincere pulled off a clean retake of the A bombsite to lock down the second pistol, extending their lead to four before OG claimed the first two gunrounds.
Down 9-11, the European squad around Nemanja “nexa” Isaković looked like they would be able to equalize things with a couple of plays towards A from the catwalk side, but NAVI managed to turn both rounds around despite being a man down and outpositioned, once thanks to a well-coordinated retake and once thanks to Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev stepping things up with a quad-kill from A long. From there, the favorites closed it out without any drama, picking up the opener 16-9.
OG looked to respond with aggression on Inferno, getting off to a dominant start on the T side with the game plan being clear. Several quick plays all around the map had NAVI struggling to find answers, and by the time they did it was already 6-1.
OG finish BLAST in joint-third place with degster as a stand-in
After a late resurgence from their opponents the underdogs went over to the defense with 10 rounds to their name, but their lead was soon gone when Natus Vincere converted the first five after changing sides. OG were left undeterred, stopping a couple of B plays from NAVI, courtesy of a couple of three-man stacks and nexa‘s impact plays, and ran away with the next four rounds, but securing the last two proved a challenge.
electroNic‘s quad-kill in a halfbuy situation prevented an easy closing for the European side, and after resseting their opponents’ economy NAVI got to 13. OG found map point next with a convincing defense on A, and closed the game two rounds later after retaking the B site in a 2v3 situation.
Mirage was the decider, and it once again saw the two teams wrestle for control in a close battle over the first half. OG just about came out on top of the volatile and bloody affair with degster leading the way, but when they switched over to the T side they faced a red-hot electroNic, who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. With 22 kills across 11 rounds, the Russian led NAVI to a comfortable closing as he kept finding key timings and flanks, pulling his team over the finish line at 16-10, 2-1.
