With G2 taking down NIP comfortably in the opening match of Group C, we were due a more scrappy affair in the second game of the day.
Still a 2-0 victory, this time in favour of NAVI, let's take a look at how they managed to comeback and take a close victory against Complexity.
Complexity started flawlessly on the T side, it wasn't until he was already saving that iM picked up NAVI's first kill in round four.
The NA side continued strong as they secured their fifth consecutive round and a 5-0 start, but they were halted in their tracks thanks to NAVI responding off the back of a partial buy.
With the individuals beginning to come alive for NAVI, it was Ukrainian sniper w0nderful who helped them secure their second round. They then looked like they would extend their consecutive round wins to tie the game 5-5, but a bald-buffed Grim mopped up the A site to keep Complexity ahead.
NAVI's economy may have been broken by Grim's antics, but their aim wasn't. They instantly responded by winning their eco round and closed out the half 6-6 after b1t and Aleksib shut down the B rush.
They continued to turn the game in their favour in the second half, taking the B bombsite twice as they first won the pistol round and then followed up with a clean conversion against Complexity's force-buy.
Complexity began to look comfortable once again as the gun rounds began. NAVI managed to register one of their own, but it wasn't long before Complexity were back in the lead at 11-9.
NAVI gifted Complexity map point as they rolled back the years to the Zeus era, paying homage to their legendary leader by running down the clock so far they were forced to save instead of even attempting to enter the site.
Clearly regretting that mistake, NAVI didn't allow themselves to fall easily, grinding out three incredibly close rounds in order to tie the game 12-12 and force overtime. hallzerk especially will be kicking himself for allowing that to happen, that's thanks to this key miss at 12-9.
The scrappiness continued in overtime as EliGE opened up round 25 with two quick kills. Aleksib didn't like that though, and he outdid EliGE with a rapid 3k to take the B site and tie the game once more at 13-13. A captain's performance that pushed his squad forward, NAVI then managed to win the following two rounds to give themselves their first map point of the series.
Complexity managed one more round in the overtime, but ended the game the frustrated losers as NAVI closed the game 16-14.
The opening rounds of Anubis were equally as scrappy as the closing rounds of Overpass. Complexity drew first blood as they won the pistol round, although NAVI bounced back on their first gun round and picked up four rounds in a row.
Complexity prevented that become five rounds in a row on round seven though, a quick B rush disorientated the NAVI defence and JT did what was needed from the Plateau to secure his team an important eco-round win.
The NA team strung a few important rounds together from that point to secure themselves an 8-4 lead at the half. A typically T-sided map, every round would count if they were to push NAVI in the second half.
Despite the lead, it mattered for very little as NAVI won eight rounds in a row to clean-sweep their T side. b1t, jL, and w0nderful were the stars in that run, with the AWPer managing to go 9-0 and in the second half and picking up an important 1v2 while his team was still 8-6 down.
NAVI will now face off against G2 for a chance to play in the Group Final.
On the other hand, Complexity will fall into the lower bracket and will play NIP next to keep their hopes of appearing at Spring Final alive.
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