Ghost take down NRG; Na`Vi demolish Sharks

Ghost came back from a map down to beat NRG in Group B's lower bracket at the ESL Pro League S8 Finals, while Natus Vincere made light work of Sharks.

The North American derby began on Inferno, where NRG hopped out to a 6-1 lead on the CT side. A chaotic period ensued, with big individual plays from both sides. First it was Kenneth "koosta" Suen and Joshua "steel" Nissan overturning a 2v5 situation, followed by a 1v2 clutch from Matthew "WARDELL" Yu.

Then, it was Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov's time to shine as the Bulgarian pulled off a quad kill in an eco round, but his efforts were in vain as the round was traded back immediately, with koosta clutching a 1v4 situation in the next round. Ghost kept pressing on and restored parity at 7-7 before NRG grabbed the final round of the half to take a narrow lead into the break.

koosta opened up the action in the second half with four quick kills in banana, helping his team to equalize the score at 8-8. That was the start of a dominant run from NRG, who set up a very tight defense to bring the scoreline to 14-9.

NRG eventually picked up the pace and slowly began to shorten the gap between the two teams. Ghost then had two great opportunities to hit map point but lost the rounds to clutches from Damian "daps" Steele and Ethan "Ethan" Arnold, which left their economy in tatters. With the momentum now swinging in their favour, NRG secured the final three rounds of the half en route to a 16-13 finish.

Ghost entered Cache looking to extend their perfect run on the map, and they came out the livelier of the two sides, picking up the pistol round on the back of a quad kill from koosta.

After buying up, NRG immediately put together a string of rounds to take the lead in the game, but Ghost quickly regained control of proceedings, closing out the half with a 10-5 lead.

A quad-kill by Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte in the second-half pistol put NRG back in the game, with the cs_summit 3 champions following that up with the subsequent anti-ecos. However, the landscape of the game changed completely once Ghost had money to work with. NRG's round wins came down to individual plays, such as an ace by Ethan in the 24th round, and they were instantly countered by the Canadian team, who swiftly put the game to bed.

It all came down to Mirage, a map Ghost had not played officially in over a month. The Canadian side came out strongly as they won the first three rounds of the game, but then they struggled to break through the stern NRG defence, a Jacob "FugLy" Medina defuse with three opponents still alive the perfect example of the state of disarray steel's men were in for the majority of the half, which ended with a lopsided 11-4 scoreline.

Ghost looked a completely different side in the second half, winning seven rounds right off the bat to restore parity at 11-11. A successful eco round by NRG then triggered a hectic period as rounds went back and forth, with Ghost prevailing in the end to seal passage to the next lower bracket round.

Meanwhile, Natus Vincere and Sharks faced off for survival in the tournament, with the Ukrainian side - desperate to bounce back from a 0-2 mauling at the hands of mousesports - jumping out to a 5-1 lead on the Terrorist side of Nuke despite losing the pistol round.

It was only then that Sharks put their foot down to hold back Na`Vi, keeping the Ukrainian side at bay for a large portion of the half to take a respectable seven rounds before the break.

Now playing on the CT side, Natus Vincere took control of proceedings from the get-go, confidently shutting down the Brazilian offense to lock down the map at 16-9.

On Dust2, Na`Vi came out of the gate looking scary, running all over the Sharks offense to take a whopping 14 rounds into the break. Renato "nak" Nakano's troops still attempted a response as they picked up their CT pistol, but their comeback was short-lived as Na`Vi had little difficulty closing out the map and the series.