Natus Vincere became the champions of Intel Extreme Masters – Katowice 2020. In the final, the team from the CIS defeated G2 Esports 3-0.
Grand Finals
Na’Vi vs. G2 Esports
- Na’Vi won Nuke 16-4
- Na’Vi won Dust2 16-13
- Na’Vi won Mirage 16-2
The first map of the Best of 5 series was Nuke, picked by G2 Esports. The vetoes can be found here:
- G2 removed Overpass
- Natus Vincere removed Vertigo
- G2 picked Nuke
- Natus Vincere picked Dust2
- G2 picked Mirage
- Natus Vincere picked Inferno
- Train was left over
The grand finale series of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 between G2 Esports and Natus Vincere kicked off on Nuke with a decisive A site defence by the Russians, who did take the lead from the gate. Starting out on the CT side, the CIS giants did prove their supremacy as they went on to take an unassailable 8-0 lead and not letting the Frenchmen to win any of their gun rounds. Kirill “Boom4la” Mikhailov came out with all of his guns blazing after executing a nasty brawl against the French side. A perfect 3k B site defence from Boom4la did put his team in the driver’s seat hence taking an 8- Nil lead. But somehow the later failed to defuse the planted C4 on the A – site which saw the Frenchmen finally secure a round. But this little ray of hope was once again overshadowed by Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and his men as Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev did pick a crisp 4k to halt the wave of angry terrorists which saw Natus Vincere switch to the T side with a scoreline of 14-1. Coming from the break with the bloodlust still at its peak, G2 Esports did try their best to come out of the turmoil by winning 3 rounds successively on their CT side. But they were unable to counter the oppressing force of their opponents as we saw Denis “electronic” Sharipov notch up a stunning 3k to defend the ticking C4 from the CTs to help his team win the map 16-4, only making the French side to regret upon their own map pick.
With already a map in the bag, Natus Vincere did secure the pistol round on their T side on Dust2. But they couldn’t maintain their momentum as G2 Esports did win the next round by going for an Anti-eco strategy with JaCkz and AmaNEk picking up 2k each. Soon we did see the French side dismantling the plans of Terrorists with some heroics from Nemanja “hunTer” Kovač after the later kept them at bay. Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov and his men later did finally adjust to G2 Esports’s system and strung 7 rounds together as they did build up their economy and counter- figured out their opponents’ momentum. With Natus Vincere switching to the CT side with a scoreline of 8-7, they did manage to secure yet another Pistol round by successfully defusing the C4. The iconic duo of Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov did put up a stellar performance as they both did terrorize the terrorists even in their gun rounds. Under such chaotic circumstances, Nemanja “nexa” Isaković in the 22nd round did manage to clutch a scary 3k post c4 plant on the A site which did fetch some hope in the French camp. But this happiness was short-lived when Kenny “KennyS” Schrub and his men failed to defend their planted objective as Boombl4 did help his team to climb up to match point. Na’Vi did manage to seal their map pick when Ilya ‘Perfecto” Zalutskiy clutched out the round with just 1HP point remaining and thus helping his team to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the Finale series at Katowice.
The second map was nothing short of total domination. Natus Vincere annihilated G2 Esports 16-2. G2 apparently won seventh round and sixteenth round on Mirage. Flamie showcased early domination with triple kill in the initial two rounds and an ace in the third round. On the other side of things, huNter- got entry frags for his side though they couldn’t built upon it. KennyS was primarily absent for most part of the first-half while JaCkz bottomed the scoreboard with a couple of kills.
One of the yet another interesting fact is that NaVi’s new addition Perfecto was immortal throughout the first half with fourteen kills to his name. Flamie ended the map with +15 k/d and an impressive 1.91 rating. G2 got the bomb down only thrice on their T-side and Na’Vi succeeded in defusing it twice. Natus Vincere’s IGL Boombl4 had five succesful entry kills during the map which is quite a statement.
With trophy in the bag, Na’Vi grabbed $250,000. Natus Vincere also joins Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, mousesports, Astralis and fnatic in their race for $1,000,000 Intel Grand Slam S3. In other news, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev won 10th MVP Award in Katowice with 1.33 impact rating.
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