ESL One: New York 2016 - Natus Vincere are the champions

The grand final of ESL One New York saw Na'Vi defeating Virtus.pro 2-1 after a nail-biting over-time on the decider map, Mirage.

The $250.000 event ended with the CIS derby. Both teams were pretty comfortable on their map picks but on the decider map, everything got serious. At the end, Na'Vi emerged victorious over their Polish opponents to lift the Champions' trophy and receive the lion's share of $125.000 from the prize pool.

ESL One New York - Grand Final

Natus Vincere vs. Virtus.pro

Winner: Natus Vincere

Maps: de_Cobblestone, de_Train, de_Mirage 2:13, 1:3 (3:16); 12:3, 4:5 (16:8); 7:8, 8:7, 4:2 (19:17)

MVP: Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács

The grand final began with Cobblestone which was Virtus.pro's map pick. The Polish side won the pistol round thanks to Paweł "byali" Bieliński's four kills including a 1v1 clutch. They were able to keep the momentum going for the next five rounds, making it 6-0. Na'Vi woke up for just one round where Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács got a triple kill with lack of utility on a low buy. The round after Kovács' triple seemed to go to Na'Vi's way but Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski managed to win the round with an impressive 1v3 clutch to break Na'Vi economy. VP's confidence was sky-high as they've continued to dominate the first half. The score wasn't looking like a grand final match on the halftime, VP were 11 rounds ahead with a 13-2 score line thanks to their brilliant T side.

Na'Vi's chances of winning Cobblestone were low but they wanted to keep the map alive but yet another time Pogorzelski got a clutch, this time on a 1v4 situation in the second pistol round. Na'Vi managed to win the next round with a force-buy but losing the following two rounds wasn't helpful for them as VP closed the map 16-3 with another 1v3 clutch from Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas.

The second map, Train was completely another story. Learning from their mistakes and rejecting to give away the trophy without a fight, Na'Vi started the map as the T side strongly with an early 5-1 lead. VP looked unable to defend the bombsites as Na'Vi executed successfully on the next five rounds to make their lead even more comfortable, 10-1. Remaining four rounds of the first half were shared evenly by the teams, making Na'Vi 12-3 ahead at the halftime. Five rounds that were won by VP on the second half weren't enough for the Poles as Na'Vi won four rounds to close the map 16-8.

Then Mirage happened. 36 rounds, balanced from the beginning to the end and extremely intense. Na'Vi got an early lead of 4-1 as the CT side but VP had some tricks. It was the battle of equally high-quality forces. Rounds were traded, clutches were made, top quality Counter-Strike was played. At the end of the first half, VP were leading just by one round and their lead didn't last long as Na'Vi won the second pistol round. Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev shoned with great plays to put his team 13-8 ahead. But it wasn't that easy to snatch one trophy away from VP as the Poles fought back to even things at 14-14. Na'Vi were the team to reach the match point but Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski saved the day for VP by stopping Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev's 1v3 clutch attempt which was really close to be successful.

Na'Vi, lead by Sukhariev and Kostyliev won the first round of the overtime but just after it, Wojtas won a 1v2 clutch to even the things once more. The last round of the first half of the overtime went VP's way. Kovács' triple kill in the first round of the second half made the score 16-16. Two more rounds meant becoming ESL One New York champions for both teams. Kovács and Kostyliev grabbed 3 and 2 frags respectively to win the next round with successful bombsite A re-take. VP desperately needed the next round in order to stop their opponents becoming champions over them. VP didn't have the most favourable buy as Pogorzelski had just a tech-9. Wojtas' opening kill over Sukhariev favoured VP considering the bomb plant on A but Denis "seized" Kostin's triple kill while guarding Kovács' defuse won the round for Na'Vi. By doing so, Na'Vi became ESL One New York 2016 champions over Virtus.pro with a 2-1 map score.

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