NAVI reverse sweep PARIVISION to make the semi-finals in Beijing
Natus Vincere are through to the semi-finals of IEM Beijing thanks to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over PARIVISION, recovering from a loss on Mirage (14-16) with victories on Inferno (13-9) and Ancient (13-10) to book their top-four berth.
For Natus Vincere this represents the next step in a late-season resurgence that has seen them go from repeated early tournament exits to back-to-back playoffs, which has been fuelled in no small part by the contributions of Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov.
The 21-year-old AWPer was in fine form once again to power his team to victory in this series, his consistency on all three maps putting him miles ahead of anyone else on the server and booking Natus Vincere a top-four berth.
Natus Vincere opted for a bit of a risk in the veto by picking Mirage to open the series, a map that is the worst in Natus Vincere's seven-map pool but is also a difficult ground for PARIVISION.
Natus Vincere's T side on their punish pick was a complete disaster thanks to Dzhami "Jame" Ali and Ivan "zweih" Gogin. After a 3-0 start off the back of a victorious pistol Natus Vincere couldn't get going in the gun rounds, Jame reading the offense to perfection and finding opening after opening, whilst zweih sprinkled in a number of high-impact rounds to ensure a dominant 9-3 half.
With a pistol victory of their own on offense it seemed PARIVISION would seal Mirage with ease, but w0nderful had something to say about that. The Ukrainian sniper matched the first-half performance of his counterpart with openings and multi-kills galore, before Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen made two huge contributions towards the tail end of the half to send the map to OT.
Vladislav "xiELO" Lysov stepped up to bulldoze the A bombsite as OT kicked off, grabbing a vital T-side round, before zweih took over with a late surge on the CT half to deny Natus Vincere's comeback and grant PARIVISION a lead in the series.
On Inferno it was once again PARIVISION who started strongly, their T side beginning with a 4-0 lead, before w0nderful once again stepped up and made the difference, grabbing a multi-kill in nearly every single Natus Vincere CT round win. In the second half Aleksib called a fantastic offense, aided by Drin "makazze" Shaqiri stepping up and providing a number of entry kills, to ensure Natus Vincere levelled the series comfortably.
Natus Vincere opened Ancient with a proactive CT approach, finding openings in Middle and pushing up through B to take a commanding lead early doors. Evgenii "FL1T" Lebedev and Abay "HObbit" Khassenov rescued the half, however, providing a solo-carry round apiece to prevent a disastrous scoreline.
The second half was the most back-and-forth of the whole series, each team finding a couple of rounds before the other adjusted and answered back. PARIVISION relied on the impact of FL1T whilst Natus Vincere were turning to Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy, and ultimately it was the latter who succeeded, finding two entries on a B rush to close out the map and push Natus Vincere to the semi-finals.
More highlights:
Jame's AWP locks down A with 3K
makazze can't complete the 4K as Jame's clutch puts PARIVISION on map point
Aleksib 3K keeps the comeback rolling
zweih fries NAVI with stylish triple
Aleksib sweeps through A with crazy triple entry
FL1T goes huge in 3v4
b1t takes control in 3v4 to win vital swing round
Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovPast 3 months
Dzhami 'Jame' AliPast 3 months
Drin 'makazze' ShaqiriPast 3 months
Ivan 'zweih' GoginPast 3 months
PARIVISION
Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Vladislav 'xiELO' Lysov
Ivan 'zweih' Gogin
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
Vladislav 'xiELO' LysovPast 3 months
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenPast 3 months
Natus Vincere
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy
Valeriy 'b1t' VakhovskiyPast 3 months
Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevPast 3 months
Ihor 'w0nderful' ZhdanovPast 3 months