Natus Vincere narrowly defeated Complexity 2-1 over the course of a grueling three-map series to secure their spot in the BLAST Spring Final in Washington, D.C. Andrey #B1ad3 Gorodenskiy’s team overcame an 8-14 deficit to win the series in regulation after pulling off a comeback on Complexity’s choice of Anubis, but they struggled on Inferno and needed the decisive Overpass match to do it.

NAVI’s triumph allows them to leave the competition feeling fairly content. Despite not playing at a world-beating level throughout the tournament, they managed to earn a seat in the Spring Final and fulfilled their promise to use the competition as a warm-up and prepare for IEM Katowice, which begins in less than a week.

The Match Recap

Efficient ways of stopping back-to-back A site hit gave Natus Vincere an early advantage on Anubis, and Complexity’s victory in the opening gun round enabled the Ukrainian team to increase their lead to 3-1. However, Complexity soon countered, and Johnny #JT Theodosiou’s team quickly gained control of the map.

Ricky #floppy Kemery and Hkon #hallzerk Fjaerli’s 1vs3 and 1v2 clutches were the key players in their opponents’ score being doubled. However, Complexity went into the half with a tiny advantage owing to another outstanding round from hallzerk, who scored a quad kill and a 1vs2 clutch to give his side the advantage. NAVI weren’t entirely shut out of the half and fought back to post seven rounds.

After the break, Complexity increased their advantage to 11-7. A pistol round victory and successful conversion against NAVI’s opening gun round gave them a commanding lead on the CT side. Once NAVI gained access to weapons once more, that advantage quickly vanished.

Valeriy #b1t Vakhovskiy led the charge in a streak of seven rounds that gave NAVI a 14-11 edge. Complexity overcame their deficit and increased their round count to 14, however they were unable to win on their own chosen map since Natus Vincere won the final two rounds to claim the triumph.

Grim stepped up for Complexity on Inferno, and his outstanding personal performance helped propel his team to victory. Although the North American team just edged to an 8-7 advantage in the first half, Complexity completely controlled the map once the teams switched sides.

NAVI’s very immobile defenses continually came back to haunt them, which JT’s team took advantage of by dominating top mid and banana round after round. NAVI only won four rounds in the second half and was unable to stop Complexity’s attack, who tied the series with their first LAN victory on Inferno since May 2022 and snapped a 0-12 run on the map.

Although it would be difficult to guess at the start of the map, Overpass was just as contentious. NAVI got off to a quick 4-2 lead before Complexity took full control of the game, with another raucous individual performance from Grim giving his team a 9-6 advantage at the break.

The Final Blows

Following the break, a pistol win and subsequent conversion helped Complexity widen their lead. Despite NAVI putting up two rounds of their own in response, JT and company maintained their lead. Complexity won the 12th round with a quick strike on the B bombsite, and Grim then delivered a stunning ace in a 3vs5 match.

After then, it looked like Complexity would win easily because they won the following round and took a 14-8 lead, but they gave up at the very last minute, blowing their chance to win. Oleksandr is a #simple A resurgent Kostyliev decimated his opponents, crucial B bombsite defenses again stopped Complexity, and NAVI embarked on a run of eight straight rounds to grab the victory, 16-14.