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IEM Beijing EU: Natus Vincere and G2 Enter Grand Finals

The Semi Finals were the limit for G2 Esports. During their second event with NiKo on board, they had... Fabio | 22. November 2020

The Semi Finals were the limit for G2 Esports. During their second event with NiKo on board, they had to let Natus Vincere pass through. On the other side of the bracket, Complexity fought against a much stronger Vitality, who are now joining NaVi in the Grand Finals.

Following the takedown of Astralis, Natus Vincere have now eliminated the second superteam. G2 Esports managed to put up a great performance versus FaZe earlier on, but they stood no chance against NaVi. On Overpass, they may have posted a solid 16-12 win, but they couldn’t keep up in the aftermath. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev helped his team equal the overall score on a 16-12 scoreline, after which they produced a dominant 16-3 win on Nuke. There, NaVi were in control from the get-go and all players earned themselves 1.28 ratings or better. The Frenchmen didn’t deliver as much. Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač and Audric “JaCkz” Jug were the only players to reach double-digit kills.

After such a performance, Natus Vincere certainly look great and should make their Grand Finals opponents quite nervous. However, with their fantastic game against Complexity, Vitality look quite scary themselves.

VITALITY CRUSH COMPLEXITY

Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and his team have had a great tournament to this point. Winning over Fnatic, Natus Vincere, and BIG, they have accumulated quite a sizable list of eliminations, but Vitality were one cut above the rest.

The Frenchmen didn’t even have to bring Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom in. The Belgian had to sit yesterday’s match out, as Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier played the full length. He didn’t really get a chance to shine, but that was because Cédric “RpK” Guipouy, Richard “shox” Papillon, and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut ran away with most of the kills.

On the other side, Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke put up the show of his life. His performance on Vertigo was on par with that of ZywOo, but his team failed to replicate this. Valentin “poizon” Vasilev collapsed and only delivered 7 kills for the entire map. Vitality secured Vertigo on a 16-11 scoreline, taking the lead in this Best-of-Three.

On Complexity’s pick, Mirage, things got even worse for the international team. There, even k0nfig was unable to post a positive KD ratio, whereas RpK posted a 121 ADR. He and ZywOo put blameF and his team in their place, booting them off the tournament with a one-sided 16-7 victory. We haven’t witnessed Vitality playig this dominant in quite a while, which makes the upcoming Grand Finals all the more interesting to watch.

WHO CAN SECURE THE TROPHY

The stars are firing from all cylinders – so the duel between ZywOo and s1mple is guaranteed to be entertaining. But even the more quite players have stepped up. RpK and Perfecto have both played out a great tournament so far, which makes the race for the trophy even closer. But Vitality have one trick up their sleeves – Nivera.

Each and every time the Belgian enters the sever, he takes control of the match and can almost play up to ZywOo’s standards. On top of that, Natus Vincere cannot possibly know when this youngster will be rotated in. So Vitality remain unpredictable and at the most crucial moment, they can bring in a star who can completely alter the course of the match.