NRG carried their form from the New Legends Stage into today by defeating Natus Vincere 2-0 to qualify for the StarLadder Berlin CS:GO Major semifinals.
The North Americans won today’s match due to their teamwork and calmness during the many clutches they won during both maps. This is a much better campaign than their previous Major at IEM Katowice in February where NRG were eliminated in the early stages.
NRG showed better form on their T-sides today. They won 11 rounds on Dust II and 10 on Mirage. They struggled to close out the game on Dust II but won 16-12. Tarik Celik and Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte combined for 50 kills.
Mirage was much more intense for NRG after Na`Vi won the first half 10-5. But the North Americans reacted on their T-side even though they didn’t win the game in regulation. NRG won 19-17 and tarik once again played a huge role in the victory. He didn’t finish on top of the scoreboard but he had two clutches, including an incredible one-vs-three play.
In the post-match interview, NRG’s captain Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz said that he’s confident playing against either Astralis or Team Liquid because NRG defeated both of them in the New Legends Stage. Stanislaw certainly made things spicier for the semifinals.
For Na’Vi, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev didn’t have his best day. The superstar usually carries Na’Vi at big tournaments. But today, he was only average in terms of frag, finishing with 44 kills—three less than Egor “flamie” Vasilyev.
NRG will now wait for the winner of Astralis vs. Liquid, which will start today at 11:30am CT. You can keep up with the StarLadder Berlin Major playoff results here.
