The #2 team in the world is out of the Major in 9th-11th place after G2 outplayed them in three maps.
After a marathon series, NAVI is out of the Major, having been outdone by G2. They fall in another nailbiter series after just falling short yesterday against Falcons.
Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen admitted that G2 was better in the closing stages.
I thought they were the better team […] We just didn’t deserve it this time.
NAVI arguably should have lost all of the maps, only winning the first map due to a game-defining 1vs4.
w0nderful stole Dust2 from G2
Dust2 saw many of the same issues NAVI have suffered in this tournament. They started out by winning the pistol round, but lost the first gun round after being in a 5vs3 situation.
G2 brought back the half from there, and were competitve to bring it to a 5-7 half.
After getting up to a great start in the second half, G2 were in full control at a 9-11 score, in a 4vs1 situation against Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov.
It was remarkably like the clutch yesterday from Ozgur ‘woxic’ Eker against 9z. Picking apart G2 players peeking one by one with very little margin for error, w0nderful have hope back to NAVI.
NAVI ended up closing the map 13-11, taking all the momentum.
G2 almost throw away Inferno right after Dust2
G2 came into Inferno with a point to prove, shutting down NAVI’s attack. Nikita ‘HeavyGod’ Martynenko was in his usual dominant form, helping get G2 an 8-4 lead.
Despite this, NAVI’s resilience shone through. Back-to-back 1vs2 clutches from Aleksib and Mihai ‘iM’ Ivan gave them a necessary two extra rounds at the very end of the half.
NAVI ran with their momentum and managed to get back into the game. However, G2 were relentless. They put pressure on NAVI’s economy and got to an 12-8 lead.
Still, NAVI wouldn’t budge. They put four rounds together to reach overtime, somehow with the opportunity to close out 2-0.
However, that is now what fate wanted. NAVI won two CT rounds out of three, but G2 responded with three out of three, thanks to HeavyGod’s eternal haunting of NAVI’s attack, winning the map 16-14.
G2 held their nerve on Mirage
Mirage kicked off with Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri picking up a fest of kills – a change from the underwhelming series he was having. That didn’t deter G2, who turned another situation in their favor to win the first gun round.
NAVI’s lack of discipline kept costing them, now being economically hampered by G2 down 2-5 in the decider map.
NAVI got to a 5-5 scoreline, but a fialed mid push from iM gave G2 a free 5vs3 that they converted. They closed the half 7-5 going into their CT-side.
NAVI won the second pistol round, getting into an 8-7 lead as a result. From there Alvaro ‘SunPayus’ Garcia stepped up to deny NAVI free access anywhere, finding multiple opening picks.
On the side of NAVI, frustrations mounted, especially for w0nderful who was far from his usual self on Inferno and Mirage, getting only 10 kills in each map.
On the other side, G2 was thriving with SunPayus’s AWP support. With that, they got the lead back in the map, and closed out against a flat NAVI T-side.
Player of the match: HeavyGod
A master of quietly lighting up the server, Nikita ‘HeavyGod’ Martynenko was by far the player of the series with the most kills (63) and by far the most multikills (17).
It was the battle of the anchors, as Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy was the star on the other side, having the most opening kills (12) despite his passive style of play.
A lop-sided playoff bracket
With the Round 5 results today, FURIA is counting their lucky stars, avoiding Vitality, Spirit and Falcons on their side of the bracket.
Quarter-finals:
- Falcons vs Vitality
- Spirit vs G2
- BetBoom vs Aurora
- FURIA vs 9z
