The most competitive event in 2019

Yesterday, the most competitive CS:GO tournament in 2019 so far kicked off in Cologne, Germany. The last year’s ESL One Cologne champion, Natus Vincere has come to defend their title this year.

The defending champion

Natus Vincere started out on the right foot with a close match against mousesports. They would then face the current #1 CS:GO team in the world, Team Liquid in the upper bracket. The clash of titans saw all 3 maps in a nail-biting situation where the first 2 maps swung back and forth.

The match was really close between 2 teams

The first map was Natus Vincere’s pick, Dust2. The CIS squad quickly proved their map choice right with a tight defense in the first half 9-6. Liquid would then reply with the good performance of Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski to tie out the score at 10-10.

In a good day for both Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and EliGE, the Ukrainian AWPer would steal the show, scoring 26 frags at the 27th round. When the scoreline reached 15-11, things seemed to be the end for Team Liquid at this point. All 4 members of Team Liquid were dead, only Nick "nitr0" Cannella left against 3 members of Na`Vi.

A critical moment for both team

This is where the ultimate reckless moment of s1mple took place. Spotting nitr0 from behind, s1mple drew his knife in an attempt to get a knife kill on nitr0. However, he panicked when 1 knife hit could not finish nitr0.

Such a crucial moment for Natus Vincere but they failed to close out the map following the lost 1v3 clutch

S1mple would then draw the pistol in an attempt to correct his mistake. But it was too late, nitr0 noticed s1mple and instantly killed him. Nitr0 would then go on the kill the 2 remaining members of Natus Vincere to win the unimaginable 1v3 clutch.

The game went on with the shocked reactions from everyone especially Na`Vi fans. Natus Vincere had that game in the bag, they let it slip away by one “s1mple” mistake. The game reached overtime and eventually a map win for Team Liquid 22-19.

Worried looks on the face of Zeus and electronic

The next map was Overpass with the victory for Natus Vincere 16-14. Had it not been for this mistake, Natus Vincere could have won this series 2-0. However, that “s1mple” mistake brought the series to game 3 on Mirage.

With flawless performance from nitr0 and EliGE, Team Liquid won the map 16-8 and the series 2-1.

The bright smile on the face of Team Liquid's IGL nitr0

Reactions from insiders

S1mple, later on, made a public Tweet to say sorry to fans in a playful manner.

He also talked in an interview about his moment:
s1mple still managed to keep his composure after the crucial mistake he made

NAF also talked about the situation with the map Dust2

That was one chance for Team Liquid to make a comeback after all

That was one crucial mistake to make, but he tried really hard to bring back the game. S1mple did the most part for Natus Vincere the whole series with 1.43 rating over the 3 maps. We can’t put all the blame on the best player in the world for 1 moment of recklessness.

What is coming up?

Team Liquid will go on to face NRG in the upper bracket to fight for the semi-final slot. Natus Vincere dropped to the lower bracket.The Ukrainian AWPer will have a harder job to fight against FURIA and eventually FaZe or mousesports for a playoff ticket.

FURIA will be another test for the "born to win" CIS squad

Let’s see how to Na`Vi AWPer compensate for his mistake in the upcoming match.