The third day in Katowice kicked off with a quarter-final series as Natus Vincere eliminated Tempo Storm 2-1 to advance to the semis (16-10 on de_overpass, 15-19 on de_cbble, 16-13 on de_mirage).

The first quarter-final of IEM Katowice 2016 brought Natus Vincere and Tempo Storm together in a best-of-three series. Natus Vincere was in Group A and finished their group in the third place with three wins and two losses. Tempo Storm, on the other hand, managed to finish Group B in the second place with 12 points, coming second only to Astralis.

The battle commenced on de_overpass with the Brazilians electing to start on the CT-side. João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos opened up with the first kill but Natus Vincere picked up three unanswered kills, bringing it to a 4v2 and securing the pistol round. The Brazilians lost the following two rounds as well but kept Natus Vincere honest as they survived both rounds with only two players alive.

Tempo Storm gained the advantage in the first weapon round with an opening kill but Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev's triple-kill was enough for Natus Vincere to extend the lead (4-0). A similar situation occured in the sixth round as Tempo storm got the opening kill only to be stopped by Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin's quad-kill.

Photo taken by Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski

seized started out strong with a 1.95 rating on de_overpass

Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles & company almost lost in a 4v2 but Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass managed to kill Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács in a 1v1 (6-1). HEN1 kept rolling with a quad-kill as Tempo Storm picked up their third round. They had a chance to tie it after Lucas "⁠LUCAS1⁠" Teles and felps' marvelous 2v5 but the CIS team didn't let it happen (7-5). Natus Vincere won the half 9-6 with seized's 20 kills.

Gustavo "⁠SHOOWTiME⁠" Gonçalves' triple-kill on the B-site insured the pistol-round for his team and they grabbed the subsequent two rounds to tie it at 9-9. Natus Vincere's solid hold on the B-site in the weapon round. seized's quad-kill and Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko's ace gave a big boost to their team as they led 12-9.

seized showed up once again in a 2v5 with a quad-kill made things even better and Tempo Storm called a timeout after the score reached to 9-14. Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev & co. immediately attained six match points. They finished it off 16-10.



flamie led the comeback on de_cbble

The second map (de_cbble) started with Tempo Storm's T-side pistol round victory and Natus Vincere was close to win with a force-buy but didn't have time to defuse the bomb after they eliminated all the opposing players. The weapon round victory by the CIS team was answered right back and the Brazilians brought the score to 4-1 in favor of themselves.

After this point, the Brazilians took charge and had relatively comfortable rounds. Natus Vincere got their second round in the tenth round of the map and followed it up by another but the finished the half 3-12 behind. They got the pistol round despite a 3v5 disadvantage and followed it up with two more rounds. HEN1 & co. grabbed the first gun round to put Edward's team in a tough situation (13-6).

Na`Vi's veterans, undaunted, secured four rounds consecutively, triggering a timeout by Tempo Storm (13-10). HEN1 stepped up once again to get Tempo Storm their 14th round and went on to get four map points (15-11). The CIS team did not give up though and reached to 15, meaning they went to overtime.



GuardiaN wasn't his true self throughout the series

Tempo Storm woke up to start the overtime and got all of the three rounds on their CT-side, equaling the amount they got in the regulation. They finished it off 19-15 after a domination overtime performance.

The last map was de_mirage and it saw Natus Vincere start on the T-side and lose the pistol round. Force-buys by Edward's team hurt their economy and Tempo Storm started the match with a 5-0 lead. The CIS team called for a really early timeout to turn things around but it didn't pan out for them as Tempo Storm continued their roll (8-0).

A really close defuse stopped Natus Vincere's three round streak but Na`Vi answered right back with Zeus's 1v3 clutch (9-4). At halftime, the score was 10-5 with TS leading. They got the pistol round in the second half but lost to their armorless opponents in the eighteenth round as comeback warning alarms started to bell once again (12-6).

Natus Vincere came back once again to get the lead 15-13 and get two match points. They finished it 16-13.

Natus Vincere will go up against Luminosity in the semi-finals today while Tempo Storm will be exiting the tournament. Next up in Katowice, fnatic will be facing Virtus.pro in another quarter-final best-of-three match. Be sure to follow @HLTVorg to get updates from IEM.

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