As Natus Vincere defeated MIBR 2-0 in the fourth round of matches in ESL Pro League Group C, the CIS side has edged towards a spot in the knockout stage, while MIBR is out of contention.
The series featured a marathon Mirage game, where Valeriy “B1T” Vakhovskiy and Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev were pulling in one way, and Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes in the other. Despite being in a favorable position in regulation, Gustavo “yel” Knittel‘s team wasn’t able to close it out, and dropped their pick 25-23. On Dust2, Natus Vincere cruised to the victory, and locked in the series with a 16-8.
In the post-match interview, Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov spoke about the addition of B1T to Mirage, having previously only fielded the youngster on Inferno, saying that they are still feeling things out and figuring out roles. “We switched positions and tested new things, we’ll see how it works tomorrow”, the 22-year-old said. He also addressed Egor “flamie” Vasilyev‘s pre-game comment about Denis “electronic” Sharipov calling the shots on Mirage, clarifying that that was the case in the previous two Mirage games played, against FURIA and Gambit, but not today versus MIBR as they reverted the change.
B1T stepped up to the task of being s1mple’s sidekick on Mirage
s1mple‘s four kills on the pistol were counteracted by MIBR force-buy win, inspired by Ricardo “boltz” Prass, allowing the Brazilian team to go up 5-1 on the T side of their map pick, Mirage. Natus Vincere made the map manageable with a late-half comeback and a good start on the offense, 5-0. As the scoreline was 11-9 for the CIS side, yel picked up a quad kill and it was looking like his team was pulling it over the line.
However, s1mple‘s 1v2 clutch and great combination with B1T in a 2v3 saw the game go to overtime. The same duo continued to deliver as the game was extended, but chelo kept up with their pace on the other side, seeing the game go to three sets of added rounds before Natus Vincere closed it out, 25-23.
Dust2 was a completely different affair. After a disappointing loss on Mirage, MIBR struggled to straighten things up on the second map. s1mple was finding entries left and right, putting his team in favorable positions on which they capitalized almost flawlessly. MIBR got two rounds on the board after being 6-0 down thanks to chelo‘s force buy antics, but couldn’t lock down the approaches a single time after that. With a massive 13-2 lead, Boombl4‘s men were certain to close it out, doing so after a good effort from the Terrorist side, 16-8.
Going into the final games of the group, Natus Vincere and Cloud9 are the last two teams in contention for the final playoffs spot. FURIA could help NAVI seal the deal early, as a win over Cloud9 would eliminate Alex “ALEX” McMeekin and co.
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Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/31420/navi-secure-second-win-in-pro-league-end-mibrs-playoff-hopes