Natus Vincere has been without their normal in-game leader Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov in the first matches of ESL Pro League Season 15. The Russian is rumored to be back tomorrow, but against Complexity, it was still the NAVI Junior player Daniil ‘headtr1ck’ Valitov on the server.
The young Ukrainian could enjoy his teammates on Ancient, where especially Perfecto was dominating. The Russian had an almost flawless CT-side to set his team up to a 12-3 lead at the break. Despite an impressive display in the second half, the deficit was too big for the NA team to force a comeback.
On Dust2 it was obvious, that NAVI was on home soil. The worlds #1 once again established a 12-3 lead at the break leaving Complexity with another mountain to climb. The NA team was looking into a 0-3 start in Group D with a defeat against NAVI, and would have to win the last two remaining matches while getting help in other matches to stay in contention for the playoff spot. So to put it lightly, it was time to shine for Johnny ‘JT’ Theodosiou and his men in the second half.
And so they did. Justin ‘FaNg’ Coakley got activated big time, and the Canadian showed some of the potentials, that the team has been very vocal about before the tournament started. At 13-13 Complexity had finally caught NAVI’s lead. But then s1mple and NAVI stepped up and found the last three rounds to deny the young North American squad.
NAVI is now 3-0 up in the group alongside Heroic in the first place, and is now guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.
Natus Vincere – Complexity 2-0 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group D)
16-13 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} Perfecto – 1.44 Rating / 29-19 K-D / 95.3 ADR
16-14 (Dust2) | {cflag:UA} s1mple – 1.43 Rating / 25-19 K-D / 89.2 ADR
MVP: {cflag:UA} Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev – 1.29 Rating / 46-38 K-D / 85.0 ADR
