Natus Vincere 2, BIG 0
Natus Vincere opened the FACEIT Major 2018 playoffs by defeating BIG in a 2-0 sweep in front of a deafening London crowd.
Starting off on BIG's map pick of Dust 2, it was clear from the first few rounds that BIG was going to have its hands full. With Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and Egor "flamie" Vasilyev leading the way on the CT-side, Na'Vi was firing on all cylinders. Not only did the team win the first five rounds, but it went into the half with a 13-2 lead as BIG was seemingly unable to do anything to stop s1mple and crew. The only thing that BIG had going for it in the first half was four kills early on in Round 3 from Tizian "tiziaN" Felbusch, but even that wasn't enough to stem the tide of Na'Vi.
The second half of Dust 2 was no different as Na'Vi seemingly read every single move that BIG made and countered with blistering executes and retakes of its own, hardly giving any room for BIG to maneuver. S1mple continued pouring on the damage in the second half, finishing with a 21/6 KD (kills/deaths) and a 125.2 ADR (average damage per round). He was flanked by Denis "electronic" Sharipov and his 21/9 KD and 118.8 ADR. The lopsided 16-2 win gave Na'Vi plenty of momentum heading into Nuke for the second map of the series.
BIG tried to change its fortune on Nuke and managed to pick up the first round of the map, but that was just about all it could muster in the first half. Na'Vi proceeded to go on a 12-to-2 run throughout the rest of the first half to take another strong lead into the break. This time around, though, BIG responded in the second half to bring the massive deficit a bit closer. Led by Faith "gob b" Dayik who pulled in five kills in the first three rounds of the half, BIG surpassed its Dust 2 score and hit six rounds with a full head of steam in hand.
Na'Vi found its footing in a hurry, however, and quickly dashed any hopes at a BIG (pun intended) comeback. Once again crumbling BIG's economy, Na'Vi had no trouble picking up the final four rounds needed to close out the map and move on to the semifinals on Saturday.
While BIG was sent packing, Na'Vi will now turn its sights towards Thursday's next match between compLexity Gaming and MIBR. The winner of that match will face off against Na'Vi in the first semifinal match at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday.
--Wyatt Lyles
MIBR 2, compLexity Gaming 0
MIBR survived a scare from compLexity Gaming on Inferno to claim a 2-0 victory and advance to the semifinals of the FACEIT Major.
As was the case in the first match of this opening day in the FACEIT Major playoffs, the crowd was heavily leaning toward one of the teams. This time it was compLexity Gaming, which was fielding hometown hero Rory "dephh" Jackson. Even with the crowd on its side, though, compLexity was no match for MIBR on Train. The veteran squad played loose and crisp, leaving compLexity constantly on the back foot.
Marcelo "coldzera" David led the way for MIBR in this opening game. He tallied a 22/11 KD (kills/deaths) and was the driving force for the easy 16-4 win for his squad. CompLexity tallied more than one kill in only 10 rounds during the rout.
Once the series moved over to Inferno for the second map, it seemed like it was finally time for compLexity to get back on track. Strong performances on this map have been compLexity's calling card in London, and this match was no different. Even though MIBR started off with three wins, compLexity bounced right back and rattled off five straight to finally make this series interesting, and compLexity took a narrow 8-7 lead into the second half.
With compLexity's tournament lives on the line, Peter "stanislaw" Stanislaw showed up after being invisible on Train. His squad took a 12-10 lead and was threatening to send this match to Cache for a third map when MIBR's Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo decided that it was time to pack things up. With fer pouring on damage with his rifle and FalleN using his AWP to completely shut down compLexity, MIBR went on a clean 6-0 run to close out Inferno and punch its ticket to the semifinals.
The ending might have been a tough pill to swallow for compLexity, but the top-eight finish is commendable for a team that came into the tournament unheralded. MIBR will now look forward to a matchup with Natus Vincere in the semifinals at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday.
-- Wyatt Lyles