EPL EU Playoffs: NaVi in the Grand Finals!

After some exciting match days, Natus Vincere have expectedly made it to the Grand Finals. On the other side of the bracket, the tournament favorites, Astralis, have surprisingly fallen to the Lower Bracket. While they have put up a solid performance ever since, their biggest challenge still awaits them.

MOUZ ARE RECOVERING IN THE LOWER BRACKET

The mousesports players could have won their match over Natus Vincere, but in a crucial clutch round, Finn “karrigan” Andersen suffered computer problems and had to give the round away, which led to NaVi winning the decider on Inferno.

After such a narrow defeat, the boys haven’t lost hope. They have managed to put up a solid display against ENCE and secured a decisive 16-4 on the first map, Nuke. Despite the Finns striking back with a 16-8 on Train, they eventually lost the match on Inferno. So Aleksi “allu” Jalli and his mates are out of the tournament, whereas Robin “ropz” Kool continued on after a monster performance. With 72 Kills and a 1.52 rating, he was the star of the match.

They had some difficulties facing BIG. In this encounter, the teams traded their map picks and arrived on Inferno to decide on the match winner. BIG, led by Tizian “tiziaN” Feldbusch, mounted a 9-6 half and wanted to win the match on the CT side. However, mousesports played a perfect offensive half. Securing 10 rounds in a row, they held a 16-9 scoreline on the last map. Again, ropz was the one who made this possible with 21 kills and a 1.40 rating.

After these relatively clean matches, mousesports are finally looking as though they can perform consistently. However, this form will be put to the test today already, as their next opponents in line are Astralis. The Danes have had a similar journey throughout the playoffs.

WILL ASTRALIS MAKE THE GRAND FINALS?

After a surprise defeat to Heroic in the Danish derby, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and his players were unimpressed by Spirit and Complexity. They succeeded in both games and Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen even got a 1.59 rating versus Complexity. Now, they’re facing mousesports and should have the upper hand. But we said the same about their chances versus Heroic, so the players shouldn’t feel 100% safe just yet.

Even if they manage to advance over mousesports, Heroic are still standing between them and their Grand Finals ticket. Only when they overcome René “TeSeS” Madsen and company can they actually meet Natus Vincere in the Grand Finals. Both encounters with mousesports and Heroic will be played out today, but ESL have put a sizable buffer in between those games. So the winning side of the first match can lay back, recover, and prepare for the second match.

ARE NAVI THE EPL EU WINNERS ALREADY?

The ESL Pro League EU Season 12 trophy will be awarded after a Best-of-Five game. But Natus Vincere already hold a map advantage, having made their way to the Finals via the Upper Bracket. So even if an equally capable opponent rises to the challenge, this team will first have to work its way out of a deficit. Taking a look at the decimated list of participants, there is hardly a team left that is capable of such a feat. Astralis are shaky, mousesports and Heroic have both lost matches to Natus Vincere already. Denis “electronic” Sharipov was in peak form during his last match.

Everything looks as though NaVi can finally run away with a new trophy again. At 14:00 CEST, Astralis and mousesports are slated to clash. Following that match, the winning side will have to face Heroic. Tomorrow, the Grand Finals will conclude this event. Natus Vincere already boast a considerable advantage going into this last and all-important encounter.