Na`Vi beat Astralis; to Major final

Natus Vincere are the first MLG Columbus grand finalists as they have just came out on top of their semi-final versus Astralis 2-0 (de_inferno 16-14, de_dust2 16-5).

Day five at MLG Columbus continued with the first semi-final between Astralis and Natus Vincere, starting on the former's pick, de_inferno. It was the latter who kicked it off the better however, as they got up to 5-0 after the pistol and the first gunround, where they conserved grenades to force the Danes on a low timer.

Two perfect A executes worked out well for the Astralis squad, who picked up their third and fourth round once they delivered a fake based on the previous strategy. A triple by Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz pushed it to an even 5-5 before Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev and Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev regained the lead after winning a 3-on-5 situation.

Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács kept getting shut down by the opposing AWPer however, which helped the Danish lineup push it to 8-6 in their favor before a strong defence on the B bombsite gave Na`Vi the last round.

The beginning of the second half saw a similar start play out, as Natus Vincere got five out of six rounds much thanks to GuardiaN's clutch triple. A clean defence on A and a 3-on-3 retake on B helped Astralis claw it back to 12-11, but more great play from Edward meant his team would go on to take the 14th round.

Edward put in a monstrous performance on Inferno

Three rounds in a row for Astralis made it seem like they'd be able to take match point first, but a buy worth of only a single rifle somehow worked out for the CIS-based squad, who pushed on to take map one for 16-14.

Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin kicked off Dust2 with a triple in a rush on short for 3-0 in his team's favor. Natus Vincere put on an unexpected tempo as they started with a few quick executes, surprising Astralis and taking it to 6-0. 

GuardiaN and Edward denied Astralis the first real chance at a round win with a couple of doubles, and not even a timeout seemed to have worked as the last major's runner-ups made it 8-0. 

Finally three rounds in a row went the Danes' way, but a crucial mistake by René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg, who peeked in the last second, threw away a round, setting off another streak by Natus Vincere.

This time it wasn't stopped, even despite close situations, and the score soon showed 12-3 at halftime, at which point Astralis were staring down the barrel. Losing the pistol round didn't help things, but losing to a forcebuy after just winning one added insult to injury, as Natus Vincere took it 16-5 in the end to make it to the grand final.

MLG Columbus 2016Best of 3 Natus VincereMatchpage 2 0 2nd April 2016 Astralis 16Inferno 14 16Dust2 5

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	50 - 28	+22	97.1	1.44
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	46 - 29	+17	94.5	1.43
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	28 - 30	-2	75.8	1.06
Denis 'seized' Kostinseized	28 - 29	-1	57.7	0.95
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN	24 - 30	-6	59.3	0.93

Astralis	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x	32 - 33	-1	71.2	0.89
René 'cajunb' Borgcajunb	28 - 34	-6	70.3	0.88
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	28 - 36	-8	66.3	0.88
Nicolai 'device' Reedtzdevice	31 - 39	-8	65.0	0.85
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	27 - 34	-7	60.5	0.81

Only one best-of-three remains on day five at MLG Columbus, as Liquid and Luminosity are getting ready for the second semi-final of the eighth major.

Denis 'seized' Kostin Age: 21 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 746 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.66 Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev Age: 28 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 750 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.67 Natus Vincere #2 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' Vasilyev René 'cajunb' Borg Age: 26 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 654 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.64 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács Age: 24 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 739 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.62 Luminosity #4 Lincoln 'fnx' LauGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Liquid #18 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinEric 'adreN' HoagNick 'nitr0' CannellaOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievJonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 652 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.64 Astralis #3 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenRené 'cajunb' BorgAndreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenNicolai 'device' Reedtz Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev Age: 18 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 560 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67