dignitas have defeated Natus Vincere 2-1 (Cobblestone 16-9, Overpass 13-16, Nuke 16-12) to advance to the grand final of EPICENTER: Moscow.

The second semi-final began on Cobblestone, where Dignitas got the better start overall as Terrorists thanks to winning the second-round forcebuy. They lost the 2-1 lead shortly afterwards however, as Natus Vincere stacked the wrong bombsite, kept all five players alive and won the next round with the saved weaponry.

Great openings from Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács gave his team a solid 6-3 lead, before Dignitas won a close round and got their economy broken. That allowed Na`Vi to extend the lead to 8-4, though the last three went the other way as Dignitas stabilized.

Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke's triple sealed the second pistol round, and with the first gunround going their way, the Danes got a 12-8 lead. Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev's huge double entry in the B bombsite and a quad-kill overall put Na`Vi on nine, but Dignitas destroyed their opponents' economy right afterwards.



Natus Vincere's Terrorist side on Cobblestone still looked shaky

The Ukraine-based team barely got a footing in the following rounds, as Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's side picked up a 16-9 win on the back of k0nfig's quad-kill and a 1v2 clutch.

At the start of Overpass Dignitas once again got the better of the pistol round as Counter-Terrorists, grabbing a 3-1 lead to start things off. Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's triple gave Na`Vi their second round, bu t their opponents' forcebuy win broke their economy.

Dignitas took full advantage of the situation, grabbing four rounds in a row afterwards for 8-2. Natus Vincere had a chance at a clean round, but they ended up hunting the last player and lost two players in the process, damaging their economy for the next round.

Dignitas closed out the half with four more rounds, switching over to Terrorists at a very comfortable 12-3. Natus Vincere began their comeback attempt with a won pistol round and one of the first two gunrounds, making the score 13-8. Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin then clutched a huge 1v3, where he only killed the bomb planter and managed to hide for the last several seconds.

A couple of good rounds from flamie and GuardiaN picking up the pace after an awful showing up to that point put Natus Vincere at an even 13-13. Na`Vi kept fending off all attacks, grabbing the last three rounds to force the third map, Nuke.



dignitas made their first big final

Natus Vincere got a great 5-2 start as CT after winning the pistol due to s1mple's quad-kill and one of the first two gunrounds. Dignitas lowered the deficit to one round before dropping the next, as Na`Vi shut down the attack on A.

The next three rounds went to Dignitas, who got their first lead on the last map at 7-6, but individual brilliance from seized (1v1) and GuardiaN (1v4) secured the half for Natus Vincere.

Winning the first three rounds, with seized coming out on top of another 1v1 in one of the anti-ecos, the home team got a four-round lead. Upon Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif's triple, Dignitas broke their opponents economy and equalized the score at 11-11 before Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev got a big triple of his own. Na`Vi's economy was in the dumps once more as they lost the following round and they could never get back into the map. After five rounds in a row going Dignitas' way, the Danes made their first huge final at 16-12.

EPICENTER: Moscow Best of 3 Natus Vincere Matchpage 1 2 Dignitas 9 Cobblestone 16 16 Overpass 13 12 Nuke 16