NAVI move past HEROIC to reach Rio Grand Finals

NAVI and Heroic face each other in the IEM Rio Semifinals. The two teams have had differing paths to so far and the loser would face elimination. While NAVI is the undisputed favorite, HEROIC as a team is trying hard to prove itself on the international stage. Here’s how it all went down.

NAVi are one of the strongest teams in Coutner-Strike. Teh team has had a straight run through the Group A upper bracket rampaging through Imperial Esports, Team Liquid and FURIA. Their 2-0 victory over FURIA was in particular impressive and the team has been finding its form recently. In the playoffs, they faced off against Virtus.Pro and needless to say, it was a relatively easy route through to the semifinals.

While every player can and does step up from time to time, jL has been impressive when push comes to shove. The aggressive playstyle allows the rest of the squad to take up dominating positions, which puts the team at a natural advantage.

Their opponents, Heroic, has been together for some time. They had last brought in Degster back in May, and have had some time with the young player. The team. However, has not been impressive so far, failing to reach the top eight in most of the events they attend. The team’s failure to stand up to the top teams in Counter-Strike, something that Heroic was known for has been a big letdown for the organization’s fans. 

In this event, HEROIC have been impressive, defeating MongolZ and Team Vitality to go undefeated through the Group B upper bracket. The impressive 2-0 victory over Vitality was enabled by some impressive statistics by TeSeS who finished the map with 41 frags over two maps. 

The series started off with an upset as Heroic managed to pull off a victory in the first map of the series. Ancient saw HEROIC start off strong on the CT side with a 7-1 lead. NAVI managed to pull back a bit in the last few rounds, but the strong start (8-4) was a substantive lead for HEROIC.

Heroic won Ancient with a 13-9 score taking a lead in one of the most important series of the tournament. NAVI clawed back in the next two maps winning both Dust 2 and Mirage. Dust 2 went to overtime, and it was the best chance for HEROIC to try to win the series.

They had a strong start, in fact, it was a much better start than just Ancient. They had a 9-3 lead on the T-side partly fuelled by some great opportunistic plays by NertZ. Unfortunately, they were the victims of their own playstyle in the second half as NAVI stepped up on the pedal to bring the score to an even 12-12. In overtime, it was anyone's game and it came down to who performed better - and this time it was NAVI.

NAVI sealed the deal with the final map of Mirage. Mirage has always been one of the strong fortes for NAVI and they came out strong, yet again. With this victory, NAVI march on ahead to the Grand Finals. They will face off against the winner of FURIA and MOUZ.

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