Natus Vincere have come out on top of Team Vitality, beating the French team 2-0 in the quarter finals of the PGL Major Stockholm. The long-anticipated battle between Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s Vitality and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s Na’Vi at the PGL Major Stockholm broke the record for peak viewers of a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match.
The two map brawl began on Vitality’s pick, Dust II (16-11), and came to an abrupt end on Nuke (16-13). It was a team effort, with every single Na’Vi player posting a positive plus/minus. But the standout performance came from Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy. Typically a role player known for supportive team play and, more recently, a reputation for clutching, Perfecto topped the match leaderboards with 5o kills and a 1.44 HLTV 2.0 rating. On Vitality’s side, ZywOo’s 44 kills weren’t enough for the French. Their rookie, Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van, struggled, only finding 16 kills on a 0.48 rating.
Earlier today, Gambit Esports also won 2-0 in their quarter finals against the Brazilian squad, FURIA Esports. They played the first map, Inferno, extremely close. Gambit were able to win in overtime, 19-17. They took their own map pick of Overpass in more convincing fashion, 16-10.
For FURIA and Vitality, their road through the PGL Major is over. FURIA achieved their first ever major playoffs for their organization and became the only one of the four Brazilian teams in attendance to reach the PGL Major New Champions stage. They had to battle their way through the Legends stage to set foot in the Avicii Arena for the playoffs. The French side of Vitality also joined the major with Legends status, bypassing the Challengers stage. They were almost eliminated, before barely qualifying for the playoffs with a 3-2 match record.
With Gambit and Na’Vi through, the stage is set for the semi finals on Saturday. Heroic play G2 Esports at 11:30 A.M. E.T. and Na’Vi take on Gambit at 3 P.M E.T. The grand finals, featuring the winners of both matches, will be played on Nov. 7.
