CS:GO team Natus Vincere dominated the Playoffs of the Intel Extreme Masters Season 14 World Championship and swept all opponents to become the champion. Held in Katowice, the win lets Na’Vi take home $20,000. That’s not all, as the team also gets 1800 points for the Pro Tour and 3000 points for the BLAST Premier.
Na’Vi had received an invite to the tournament and was placed in Group A. Here the team’s performance was good, but not that excellent. Na’Vi managed to get a 2-1 win against FaZe Clan, but was dropped to the Lower Bracket by Fnatic with a 1-2 loss.
Going to the Lower Bracket turned out to be favorable for the team, as they beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 and then won against FaZe again with a score of 2-1. That win meant that Na’Vi got to be part of the Playoffs.
Na'Vi's first match was against Team Liquid, and it was close. Despite a 10-5 score lead in the first half of Game One, Liquid managed to get it to 10-6 early in the second half. Na’Vi eventually got away with the win. Game Two again was close with Liquid almost securing victory before Na’Vi got the much-needed win.
Up next was Astralis, and it was a blowout. In Game One, Na’Vi ended the first half with a 14-1 score and easily got the victory by the second half. The story was pretty much the same for Game Two. Na’Vi ended the first half at 13-2 and while Astralis did win the first three rounds of the second half, it was all Na’Vi after that.
The Grand Finals pit Na’Vi against G2 Esports. In Game One, G2 picked the Nuke map. The highlight of this game was Kirill “BoombI4” Mikhailov, who managed to get 28 kills in the first half and ultimately score a total of 32 kills to help Na’Vi get the win.
Game Two was on the Dust2 map, and the teams went back and forth. Na'Vi ended the first half with an 8-7 lead against Astralis. In the second half, the score eventually became tied at 13-13. Na’Vi then went into overdrive and managed to win the next three rounds and claim the victory.
With the championship on the line, G2 did what it could to prevent Na’Vi and its winning streak. However, it wasn’t mean to be. The last map was Mirage and Na’Vi took a big lead by the end of the first half with a score of 14-1. That’s right, entering the second half Na’Vi only needed to win two rounds. Na’Vi ended Game Three with a score of 16-2.
The final results of the tournament are:
- 1st Place
- Natus Vincere
- 2nd Place
- G2 Esports
- 3rd – 4th Place
- Astralis
- Fnatic
- 5th – 6th Place
- Team Liquid
- 100 Thieves
