Vitality advanced to the playoffs of PGL Masters Bucharest with a 3-1 record after a resounding victory over Natus Vincere, robbing Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen's men of their Inferno pick (13-2) before putting on a flawless defense on Dust2 (13-9) to complete a comeback from 3-9 down.
It was the first meeting for Justinas "jL" Lekavicius against Natus Vincere in his career and since he departed the organization in July, and he was all smiles after helping Vitality secure the victory.
Natus Vincere will hope to convert upon their third chance to make the playoffs after faltering against BETBOOM on Monday, but will need to show far better form than they did today as their calling and individual decision-making left much to be desired.
Vitality utterly dominated Natus Vincere's Inferno pick, a team-wide performance leaving Natus Vincere's meek offense destitute at every turn. Early multis from Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut gave way to a stellar defensive half by William "mezii" Merriman, who bagged a kill in 11 straight rounds while Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and jL locked down Banana.
Mihai "iM" Ivan had a map to forget, dying in every round of the first half, failing to tally a kill, and ending the effort with 5.1 ADR. He avoided finishing the map on a goose egg with two MP9 frags in the second half, and NAVI could do nothing but laugh as they managed to avoid a 0-13 loss.
The Romanian rifler had a return to form on Dust2, where he combined with Drin "makazze" Shaqiri and Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov in a rock-solid defense. Two of Vitality's three rounds in the first half came by way of clutches as Natus Vincere ran away with a dominant lead at the break, but the tables turned after the swap.
Vitality put up a brick wall on their own CT side, aggression up Catwalk and excellent positioning on B leaving Natus Vincere no avenue for entry. Aleksib's men got the bomb down on just two occasions, once in the pistol and again in the final round, but even the latter plant was soured as mezii clutched a 1v2 to seal a flawless 10-round run to victory.
Drin 'makazze' ShaqiriPast 3 months
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanPast 3 months
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautPast 3 months
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusPast 3 months
Mihai 'iM' IvanPast 3 months
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenPast 3 months
BETBOOM
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko
Pavel 'S1ren' Ogloblin
Daniil 'd1Ledez' Kustov
Kirill 'Magnojez' Rodnov
Artem 'Fierce' Ivanov
Natus Vincere
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy
William 'mezii' MerrimanPast 3 months
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Ihor 'w0nderful' ZhdanovPast 3 months