Vitality send NAVI to BLAST Premier Fall Finals lower bracket after double overtime affair

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company have secured a place in the upper bracket final of the tournament.

Vitality defeated Natus Vincere after a heated battle on two maps, winning both Nuke and Dust2 in overtime affairs. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's squad now have to fight through the lower bracket, which will see them take on FURIA in a first encounter between the two organizations since mid-2019.

After handily beating the French side on Nuke a few weeks ago at IEM Beijing-Haidan, Natus Vincere opted to pick Nuke as the first map of the series, but this time Vitality proved to be a much tougher nut to crack.

The opener went back and forth, with neither team being able to establish dominance after the first half as they kept exchanging a few rounds at a time until the map reached overtime. There, Vitality found the recipe for success, with Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut playing key roles as the French team went 4-0 to clinch their opponent's pick.

Vitality will next face the winner of G2 and BIG in the upper final

NAVI looked poised to answer on Dust2 with force after the opening stretches of the first half saw them string together eight rounds on the defense, but once Vitality broke through the first time the whole map flipped on its head. Playing with Nabil "⁠Nivera⁠" Benrlitom instead of misutaaa, the Frenchmen closed out the half with six in a row and quickly got the second half under control with a forcebuy win, consistently getting early picks and maintaining the advantage in retake scenarios.

Their successful run came to a halt at 14-10, however, with Natus Vincere choosing the correct timings to explode each bombsite and abuse Vitality's forward setups, and the map reached overtime once again. This time, NAVI were the first to strike, courtesy of Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev's 1v2 clutch, but the French side responded with four in a row, with Nivera closing out the match with an all-important triple.

BLAST Premier Fall 2020 FinalsBest of 3 VitalityMatchpage 2 0 10th December 2020 Natus Vincere 19Nuke 15 19Dust2 17

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautZywOo	63 - 48	+15	97.6	1.40
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabiermisutaaa	24 - 22	+2	72.4	1.01
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	47 - 47	0	71.3	0.99
Nabil 'Nivera' BenrlitomNivera	24 - 26	-2	69.3	0.97
Cédric 'RpK' GuipouyRpK	37 - 50	-13	56.5	0.81
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	34 - 50	-16	56.7	0.77

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	65 - 48	+17	97.2	1.37
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	57 - 45	+12	91.2	1.27
Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto	44 - 45	-1	67.6	1.01
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	41 - 46	-5	64.5	0.96
Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4	36 - 45	-9	57.5	0.86

Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Age: 17 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 202 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.66 Natus Vincere #4 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Vitality #1 Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireRichard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Age: 20 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.28 Maps played: 749 KPR: 0.86 DPR: 0.62 Nabil 'Nivera' Benrlitom Age: 19 Team: VitalityS Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 169 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.62 Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev Age: 23 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1452 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.67 Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Age: 27 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1736 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.70 FURIA #7 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Age: 23 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 1274 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.65