Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo starred as Luminosity Gaming beat Natus Vincere 2-0 to secure a spot in the grand final of IEM Katowice (22-19 on de_overpass and 16-12 on de_inferno).
The first semi-final match in Katowice pitted Natus Vincere against Luminosity, two teams who seem to be destined to face each other on LAN. The opening map of the tie was de_overpass, where Na`Vi had picked up a 16-10 victory against Tempo Storm a few hours earlier.
The Brazilian team took the pistol round on the CT side and the following anti-eco rounds to get out to a 3-0 start. But Na`Vi hit back in the first gun round, and they kept Luminosity's economy in check for a while, countering every round lost with a round of their own. Down 5-8, Luminosity caught their opponents off-guard with an aggressive eco push before winning the final round of the half to reduce the deficit to a minimum.
Egor "flamie" Vasilyev went huge in the pistol round as CT and picked up an ace in Toxic, with Na`Vi following it up with the corresponding anti-ecos. The first couple of gun rounds went back and forth, prompting Luminosity to call a timeout when they were down 9-13.
Despite having just a couple of guns to work with, Luminosity were happy with their force buy attempt, thanks to three crucial kills from Marcelo "coldzera" David in a 2vs4 situation. This round was, however, overshadowed by a phenomenal action from Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo just a few minutes later, winning a 1vs3 situation to tie the game at 13-13. Luminosity went on to make it 15-13, but Na`Vi held strong and brought the game to overtime.
FalleN's impressive clutch wowed everyone
The first overtime could not decide a winner, but in the second one Luminosity were far too hot for Na`Vi to handle, picking up two rounds in each half to seal a 22-19 victory.
Next up was de_inferno, which began with flamie picking up three kills in the pistol round as CT to deny Luminosity during a B split. The same tactic would prove to be successful in the opening gun round, and the win quickly turned into a string for the Brazilians. After a period in which neither side could stamp their authority on the game, Luminosity and dominated the proceedings to close out the half with a 9-6 lead.
The second half began with a very effective no-nonsense B push from Na`Vi, who followed it up by taking both anti-eco rounds. The first gun round also went Na`Vi's way, putting Luminosity in a very tough spot, but the Brazilians hit back on the force buy to level the game at 10-10.
Luminosity advance to the title decider
Luminosity then took control of the game and secured a two-round lead, with Na`Vi hitting back with a quad-kill from flamie to restore a one-round deficit. However, there was no stopping the Luminosity train here, and the Brazilian team have sealed passage to the grand final, in which they will face the winner of the Scandinavian duel between fnatic and Astralis.
IEM Katowice 2016Best of 3 Luminosity
Matchpage 2 0 4th March 2016
Natus Vincere 22Overpass 19 16Inferno 12
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