Natus Vincere beat out AGAiN over three maps in a quarter-final series at BEAT IT Russia which was a rematch of the ESWC semi-final. The Ukrainians will face fnatic in the semi-finals.

AGAiN had early leads on both the first two maps but only managed to secure the second, and in close fashion, on nuke. The third map was a blowout win for Na`Vi on mirage, where the Poles looked completely ineffective. AGAiN finds themselves out of BEAT IT Russia in 5th-8th




Map one - tuscan

The series began with AGAiN taking a decent lead as terrorists on tuscan, up 5:2 at one point. Na`Vi fought their way back and the game was soon 6:6. The Ukrainians, one of the best CT teams on the map, kept going and took the half 9:6. In the second half AGAiN struggled to find a solid rhythm and Na`Vi were able to take the B bombsite a few times. There was also a key loss when a 2v1 for NEO and pasha turned into a round win for starix.


Map two - nuke

Despite losing the first map the map selection system, which saw teams each pick a map and then drop two maps, meant that the Poles could force Na`Vi to face them on nuke. Na`Vi's weakness on nuke has been overblown, with people practically acting as though they automatically lose on the map, when in reality they only tend to lose to top teams on the map. All the same AGAiN are known for being a good team on nuke and so the Ukrainians wouldn't get a two map sweep in the series without a push.

AGAiN are known to be one of the best nuke T side teams of all time and they continued that record as they took eight from the first half. In the second Na`Vi looked like they were on course to take back the game and end the series in two but AGAiN had a final push in them. With six rounds left Na`Vi needed three to win and two to tie the map up. AGAiN managed to hold on with some clutch round wins to take the game.

Na`Vi managed to lose a 2v2 in the lower bombsite despite having players on each blast door. kuben won a 1v1 with ceh9 at the upper bombsite where the Ukrainian chose to gamble and not plant, hoping kuben would peek before the time ran out. The deciding round of the game saw kuben 1v2 hiding in the squeeky door room and starix backed into him looking the other direction. kuben killed him and the other Na`Vi player to seal the map.


Map three - mirage

After the close nature of the second map one could be forgiven for hoping the third map would be an epic encounter to decide who moved on. Instead Na`Vi settled in and rolled over the Poles with lockdown defense and an easy completion on the second side. If this is the last meeting of the year for the two teams it is an uneventual one.



AGAiN vs. Na`Vi has been a staple of competition in 2011. The two teams met for the first time this year in the final of IEM V World Championship, where Na`Vi took the win after two maps to repeat as champions. They then met shortly thereafter in the final of ICSC7 where Na`Vi won a very tight three map series, with markeloff's 1v3 with 1 health getting the job done in the deciding inferno.

Each of the teams skipped events after that, with Na`Vi missing Xperia PLAY and ICSC8 while AGAiN did not attend Dreamhack Summer or GameGune. At ASUS Summer Na`Vi missed out on another finals rematch as they lost to DTS in the semi-final, so AGAiN won the event without getting revenge on the Ukrainians. At e-Stars the teams met on forge in the upper bracket, a game which proved to be less than thrilling as the Poles secured a win.

At SEC the teams met in another final and this time AGAiN took it to Na`Vi with a comeback win on train followed up with a surprising victory on dust2 to take the title on home soil. At ESWC last month the teams met in the semi-finals, AGAiN looking for a third ESWC final spot and Na`Vi hoping to repeat as champions. Na`Vi took that series in two maps and went on to a runnersup finish.