In the ESL Pro League season 16 playoffs, NAVI’s first best-of-three encounter has been hampered by technical difficulties on their last map. In spite of all the drama, NAVI defeated their Danish rivals, Heroic.
In the best-of-three, Heroic hung on for dear life through the first two maps, but all the technical hiccups seemed to take the wind out of their sails as NAVI pressed on to dominate the Danes on the penultimate game.
The Match Recap
Despite Casper “cadiaN” Mller’s valiant efforts, the first map, Mirage 16-14, was won by NAVI. The Danish IGL carried his team to a thrilling victory by carrying them on his back, but he was eventually unable to defeat the Heroic team.
The following map was Inferno 14–16, where Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev awoke and recorded 28 kills, with a particularly impressive performance on the CT side. The Danish Heroic team persisted though, and in the final few rounds of the game, they managed to turn the tide and win.
Overpass 16-7 was the series’ final map. There were numerous technical problems in this game that caused a lot of debate.
Despite the fact that NAVI was primarily affected by technical difficulties, Heroic’s momentum seemed to vanish, allowing the CIS side to seize control of the map and win easily. S1mple’s most recent knife death was an example of the damage they had just produced.
As s1mple and the team advance to the quarterfinals to face Nikola “NiKo” Kovac and the rest of the international lineup, the resurrected G2 team becomes NAVI’s next objective.
The Conclusion
Considering the names in G2’s roster, they will be a much bigger challenge for NAVI, but there is no way G2 can have easy time with the rejuvenated Ukranian team. Depending on the circumstances, either team can pull off a victory. The things will eventually come down to who can adjust faster and better.
