Natus Vincere Bags StarLadder TV StarSeries Season XIII Crown
After three days of non-stop Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) action, Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) grabe the StarLadder TV StarSeries XIII championship after beating formidable French side EnVyUs (NV), 3-1, in a best-of-five series.
The map picks included Cobblestone for the Ukrainian side, followed by Dust 2 for the French squad, then Overpass for Na’Vi, Inferno for NV and finally Train as the deciding map.
Natus Vincere grabs $22,000 for getting the top spot in the tournament, while EnVyUs earns $12,000 for placing second in a tournament that included top-tier teams such Titan, Hellraisers and Dignitas among others.
Cobblestone: The Grinding Map
Cobblestone is up for grabs and according to general consensus, Cobblestone is a Terrorist (T)-sided map due to the fact that it is very easy to enter a site and to defend it from a retake. The French start on the favored T side, while the Ukrainians begin on the Counter-Terrorist (CT) side of the map.
These two teams proved a lot of people wrong as it became an all-0ut brawl that lasted for 30 rounds before the Ukrainian side finally came out on top, getting 16-14 in the process, showcasing some very good plays from Ukrainian fragger Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev as well as French captain Richard “shox” Papillon throughout the game, getting seemingly unrealistic frags for their respective teams.
However, there are two particular moments that stood out. In the 7th round, Vincent “Happy” Cervoni got a quad kill, rotating between the drop zone, connector and B site to clean up the Ukrainian push. Then, on the 9th round, Denis “seized” Konstin stopped the French on their tracks when he killed three EnVyUs players as they tried to push towards the A site.
Finally, it featured a very elaborate mindgame by the French squad on the 20th round when Happy and Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux stacked the back of the A site, preventing Na’Vi from planting at the very last second.
Just unreal. Photo: LEX TV via Youtube
With these results, Na’Vi take the first map, 1-0.
Dust 2: The French Kitchen
Here comes the second map in the form of Dust 2 and the French are here to show why this is considered to be their “home map.” NV started on the CT side, while Na’Vi went for the T side in the first half.
NV just took five straight rounds before Na’Vi placed one on the board in the sixth. However, this is not before shox gave Na’Vi a taste of his beastly form as he took three Na’Vi players as they pushed into the B site in the fifth round.
The French captain has just turned this round into a shooting gallery. Photo: LEX TV via Youtube
Wherever the Ukrainians went, there was someone to shut them down: Nathan “NBK” Schmitt gave them a warm welcome into the B site, while SmithZz just held the long doors very effectively.
The French end up 12-3 in the first half and despite Na’Vi’s best efforts to come back, they could only string seven rounds to make it 16-10 in favor of NV.
It is now 1-1, with both teams having a map apiece.
Overpass: Ivan Avalanche
Now going into the third map, Overpass is a heavily CT-sided map, similar to Nuke. NV get the CT side of the map, while
Then Natus Vincere just proved this notion wrong when they rolledover their opponents as they took 11 rounds on their T side of the map, as well as not giving EnVyUs a single round on the second half of the map.
The key to this dominating performance was the fact that captain Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko just made the right calls and strategies to take sites, while Edward and Egor “flamie” Vasilyev were just on point with their aim as they racked up kill after kill on this map.
You know that life is good when your captain gets a 4k like this. Photo: LEX TV via Youtube
To put things into perspective, NV got only four rounds in this map: on the ninth round when they stopped the Ukrainian push and during the last three rounds when they aggressively played for picks, catching Na’Vi off guard.
It is now 2-1 in favor of the Ukrainian side, and Na’Vi are only one map away from getting the championship.
Inferno: The Longest Road
As with any game associated with this map, there is no way to predict how will the map go despite the fact that it is nominally a CT-sided matchup.
The French started on the CT side, taking ten rounds in spectacular fashion. However, five rounds on the T side was all that Na’Vi needed in order to bring it to overtime. Then, it proved to be a nail-biter as it went very far ahead up to a triple MR3 overtime.
Zeus is just pumped up. Photo: LEX TV via Youtube
It was a long and tiring road for both teams, but in the end, Na’Vi were just a notch higher by taking it 25-23, after the French fail to make a 3v2 retake work on the B site!
Here are the final results of the tournament:
1st place: Natus Vincere ($22,000)
2nd place: EnVyUs ($12,000)
3rd/4th place: Gplay.bg ($5,500)
3rd/4th place: Flipside Tactics ($5,500)
5th/6th place: Gamers2 ($2,500)
5th/6th place: Hellraisers ($2,500)
Featured image taken from the SLTV official website.
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