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Natus Vincere are through to the semi-finals at the IEM Katowice Major after beating FaZe on two maps (16-13 on Inferno, 16-7 on Mirage).

The first quarter-final of the tournament kicked off on FaZe's map pick, Inferno, where Natus Vincere won their CT pistol on the back of an all-headshot ace from Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev, and the subsequent anti-eco to take control of proceedings. The Ukrainians looked set to follow that up with the first gun round, but Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer and Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev denied them by turning a 2v4 situation around.

The match quickly turned into a one-way street, with FaZe constantly punishing the defense with slow-paced executions, fake plays or even with a successful 3v5 clutch in the 10th round. Then, in the 11th, Natus Vincere finally got back on the board, but they were immediately reset by the European mixture, who would close out the half with a 10-5 lead.

Just like in the first half, flamie found a crisp and clean ace to win the second pistol for Natus Vincere, setting his team up for another great run. FaZe responded with their 11th round as Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev could not clutch a 1v2 after flamie had failed to find what seemed to be an easy frag.

Natus Vincere still lost one more round, but then, in part thanks to a series of multi-kills from Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko, they strung five rounds together, 14-12, and remained calm and collected to lock down the map at 16-13, with Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and flamie leading the way with 22 and 23 frags, respectively.

Zeus' men never looked back in the series

Next up was Mirage, Natus Vincere's map pick, but it was FaZe who began the map on the right foot, winning their CT pistol and an anti-eco. Zeus' men responded with nothing but pistols, however, and quickly bagged three more rounds to make it 4-2 in their favour.

FaZe then equalised the score, but Natus Vincere managed to break their opponents' economy with doubles from Edward and Zeus, eventually securing a 6-4 lead. Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard then stepped up to the plate with a triple-kill in a 3v3 retake, but FaZe would only win one more round before switching sides.

Down 6-9, FaZe started the second half well, picking up a near-flawless pistol, but Natus Vincere replied with a great and triumphant Deagle buy. From that moment, the Ukrainians were far too hot for their opponents to handle, and went on a flawless run to seal the deal with a convincing 16-7 scoreline.

IEM Katowice 2019Best of 3 Natus VincereMatchpage 2 0 28th February 2019 FaZe 16Inferno 13 16Mirage 7

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	46 - 27	+19	94.1	1.49
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	41 - 28	+13	83.6	1.25
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	28 - 32	-4	67.0	1.05
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	34 - 31	+3	63.7	1.05
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	31 - 31	0	64.4	0.97

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	37 - 37	0	82.3	1.01
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	30 - 33	-3	63.2	0.89
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	29 - 36	-7	59.2	0.86
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNiKo	28 - 39	-11	58.7	0.77
Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevAdreN	25 - 36	-11	62.6	0.77

Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev Age: 31 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 1309 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.67 Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko Age: 31 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 1323 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.69 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer Age: 27 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1199 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov Age: 20 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 705 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.67 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard Age: 24 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1035 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.69 Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev Age: 21 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1137 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 FaZe #5 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev Age: 29 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 1264 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.69 Natus Vincere #3 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov