IEM Katowice, the week long celebration of the best Counter-Strike in the world, has concluded. The Grand Finals saw Natus Vincere demolish G2 Esports in a 3-0 sweep to earn one of CS:GO’s most prestigious titles.
Na’Vi demolished G2 3-0 to win their first IEM Katowice title.(Photo courtesy ESL)
Starting on the favored CT side on Nuke, Na’Vi quickly earned a 3-0 lead. G2’s gun round game plans revolved around outside smokes into secret. Unfortunately for them, Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov and the rest of Na’Vi were ready to deny it every time. G2’s one round came on a coordinated A site execute. Aside from that, G2’s pushes were stopped every time as Na’Vi crushed them from multiple angles.
Pistol round was won by Na’Vi, quickly putting them on match point. G2 did manage three more rounds before Na’Vi ended the map 16-4. Boombl4 ended with an insane 32-11 KDA, 161.7 ADR, and a 2.58 HLTV Rating.
Na’Vi won their T side pistol round on Dust2, but G2 defended the A site with a force buy right after. G2 earned five rounds in a row before Na’Vi finally took one back. The lead ballooned to 7-2 as G2 successfully shut down Na’Vi’s Catwalk and Long focused strategy. However, Na’Vi didn’t give up their game plan. They kept hitting the A bombsite, and eventually they got through. The last six rounds all went to Na’Vi as they stole the lead before half time 8-7.
The Na’Vi momentum was still going strong on their CT side. They picked up five of the first six rounds as G2’s economy couldn’t get set. In round 24, G2 tried a Catwalk to A site push. Nemanja “nexa” Isaković saved the round and the game for G2 with a 1v3 clutch.
From there, G2 went on a five round win streak to tie the game at 13 apiece. The A site was again the target in round 27 as Na’Vi won the retake to maintain the lead. G2’s next two attempts on A were also denied as Na’Vi took map two 16-13.
With their backs against the wall, G2 went to their Mirage pick. It would start off badly as they lost the first three rounds in spectacular fashion.
