Cloud9 overcome NAVI challenge in Copenhagen

The second match on Day 1 of the BLAST Premier Fall Finals saw NAVI take on Cloud9 in Group A. The match is one fans have been eagerly waiting for since S1mple is not around on the NAVI team for now. And it did not fail to disappoint.

With no S1mple on the roster, it was always going to be interesting to see how NAVI would fare up against opponents. The BLAST Premier Fall Finals is the final opportunity for teams to qualify for the World Finals later this year. And even if they didn’t qualify for the World Finals, the Fall Finals has a sizeable prize pool of $425,000.

NAVI won the first round, the pistol round which enabled iM to get four quick frags in the second follow-up round. 

NAVI built on their early momentum to secure a 4-0 lead, before Cloud9 finally managed to stop them in their tracks. The first half was relatively even on both sides, even though we saw glimpses of individual brilliance from some of the players. However, with a 7-5 lead for NAVI, there was not much to distinguish between the two.

Cloud9 ran away on the T-side partly due to their quick rotations. Quite often, they were able to catch NAVI players off-guard or out of position, which allowed them complete map control. But it was not completely without opposition as NAVI showed some resilience in the first few rounds. Unfortunately, it came down to which team performed better and Cloud9 did, winning 13-11.

The second map of Ancient was NAVI’s map of choice. And if you watched the first half, you would not believe it was their map pick. NAVI looked completely out of sorts on their CT defense. The three rounds that NAVI did manage to win were also due to defusals, which means that Cloud9 managed to plant the C4 in those rounds as well.

Cloud9 marched ahead to a 8-3 lead, partly helped by electronic and boombi4 leading the charge. The two former NAVI players, now on Cloud9, clearly knew how to deal with NAVI on this map, at least on their T side. Unfortunately, for Cloud9 fans, the team received a similar treatment when they were on the CT side. As NAVI players took complete advantage of the map’s layout to secure constant entry frags and subsequent round victories.

Ancient was a map of a comeback and NAVI ultimately managed to win this map with a 13-9 score. And as luck would have it, the decider map (as it has been for many top tier events was Inferno). 

Fortunately, for NAVI, they carried their Ancient momentum into Inferno. Starting on the CT side, NAVI repeatedly repelled Cloud9 attacks putting them at an economic disadvantage. 

The BLAST Premier Fall Finals is the penultimate tournament of the year for the BLAST Pro Series. The winner of this event will earn a spot in the upcoming BLAST Premier World Finals that takes place next month. 

W0nderful had a phenomenal performance on Inferno towering over everyone else in the server. The 18-year-old talent led the team in frags, and his confidence was clearly improving with each passing round. With an 8-4 lead in the first half, Cloud9 had a much easier path to the end of the map.

They even won the first four rounds but then allowed NAVI to stall them for five more rounds. However, they’d already reached series point and it was only a matter of time before they sealed the series.

With this win, Cloud9 are one series victory away from the playoffs. Earlier today, FaZe Clan won their series against NiP taking their win streak to sixteen matches. 

With this victory, Cloud9 will now face FaZe for the top spot in the Group stage.

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