This article is part of our CS:GO Recap series.
Not content to be outdone by the first two days of competition, Day 3 of ESL One New York had plenty of heart pounding action from start to finish. While it took some drama to get to the final outcome, one team pushed through and finished what it started this weekend.
Na'Vi Minorly Tested by Team Liquid
The day started off with Team Liquid looking to continue its wild run through the tournament against Navus Vincere. After Game 1, it certainly looked as though Team Liquid might have been able to pull off an upset of epic proportions. On the back of a ridiculously strong 25/9 performance from Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, Team Liquid got out to a 1-0 lead after defeating Na'Vi 16-7 on Cobblestone.
Turns out that this Game 1 loss was all it took to awaken the two sleeping giants, Egor "flamie" Vasilyev and Aleksander "s1mple" Kostyliev, who shut the door on Team Liquid's hopes of glory in New York. flamie took over Game 2 on Train with an out-of-this-world 39/19 performance that left no doubt as to who the superior team here. Game 3 was s1mple's turn to step up and do some major damage. His 26/12 KD was enough to give Na'Vi a 16-10 win that catapulted them into the grand finals. Team Liquid put up a bit of a fight in the second half with eight wins, but the hole was far too large for it to crawl out of. Thus, Team Liquid's cinderella run at ESL One New York came up just short while Na'Vi moved to the grand finals to try and exercise its demons.
SK Gaming Knocked Off Pedestal
The second series between SK Gaming and Virtus.pro proceeded a bit differently. It was an extremely close series for two games before one team took over and dominated the final frame. SK Gaming got on the board first with a 19-16 win in Game 1 on Mirage. Lincoln "fnx" Lau was the main contributor in this game with a stellar 36/24 KD and a 99.9 average damage-per-round. It would continue looking strong into Game 2 on Overpass with a 15-12 lead before Virtus.pro creeped its way back in to force overtime. The game eventually went to double overtime where Virtus.pro finally prevailed in the 25-21 game.
With everything on the line in Game 3, one would have thought that the crowd would get another close match. That, unfortunately, wouldn't be the case. It seemed as though the will of SK Gaming was broken after back-to-back overtime games, and Virtus.pro just had the mental fortitude to push through and snag the win. The 16-7 win was punctuated with a quad kill by Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski in Round 22, which put Virtus.pro on a match point, securing the win just one round later. With the big win over argubably one of the best teams in the world, Virtus.pro was on its way to another grand final to take on Na'Vi.
Na'Vi Exercises Demons of Tournament's Past
With the way Na'Vi had been playing up to the grand finals, one would have thought it would steamroll Virtus.pro on its way to a championship victory. In reality, Na'Vi came out the gate extremely flat in Game 1 on Cobblestone and were basically ran right off the map in the 16-3 loss. No player on Na'Vi posted a positive KD, while Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski went off for Virtus.pro, finishing with a 26/7 KD and a 123.8 average damage per round. Game 2 was a complete reversal of fortune that saw Na'Vi bounce back with a 16-8 win of its own to tie things up and send it to a final Game 3.
The third game was the culmination of what everyone was anticipating of the grand finals match, with it eventually coming down to a clutch play in overtime for the win. Na'Vi actually got out to a good start and secured a 14-8 lead late in the second half. From that point on, it was all Virtus.pro, as it came on incredibly strong with six straight wins to tie it at 14 and eventually force overtime with another big clutch in Round 30. Once in overtime, Virtus.pro took a 17-16 lead and looked poised to secure another major title this year. Na'Vi wouldn't let that happen, though. Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács put the team on his back with some clutch snipes with the AWP, and a championship-winning defuse under the cover of smoke in the final round.
Congratulations to @natusvincere, Champions of ESL New York! #ESLOnepic.twitter.com/1EMA6RHLvi
— Twitch Esports (@TwitchEsports) October 3, 2016
With the win, Na'Vi are $125,000 richer, but more importantly, have shaken off some of the stigma that the team has garnered after failing to seal the deal at major tournaments. It was certainly tightly contested in the end, but Na'Vi was still able to prevail and take the top prize. Both teams will shift focus back to the last two weeks of Season 4 of the ESL Pro League. Both teams will look to lock in their respective sports in finals, which will take place in Brazil at the end of the month.
