It wasn’t meant to be for Natus Vincere as Vitality pulled off the reverse sweep to be crowned IEM Beijing-Haidian champions. Despite the heroics of Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev who finished the five map series with a monumental +48 kill-to-death differential and 96.2 average damage per round, a better team effort from Vitality saw them come away victorious.
It wasn’t without a herculean effort of their own, however, as Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut came up huge in the latter games to win some clutches that will surely be a part of many frag movies to come.
Taking Nuke and Dust2 in convincing fashion (16-5, 16-12), things looked grim for Vitality heading into Overpass. That image was wiped away quickly, however, as Vitality stormed off to a strong lead resulting in a dominant 16-6 victory.
Inferno would only fare slightly better for s1mple and company as they once again went into the second half with a large deficit at 11-4. From there they were able to match Vitality at 5 rounds a piece, but this meant victory for the Frenchmen who had now managed to tie things up at 2-2.
The champion would be decided on the fifth and final map of Mirage. Two early impressive clutches from ZywOo put Na’Vi in a tough situation in terms of both the economy and morale as they cruised to a 6-0 lead. Throughout the remaining rounds of the first half Na’Vi would attempt to bounce back and secure five rounds of their own resulting in a 10-5 scoreline with a move to the T side.
Three rounds to open things up closed the gap nicely and brought the game within two but that was all Na’Vi could manage. Once Vitality picked up rifles their defense did not give up another round as they closed things out 16-8.
| Natus Vincere | K – D | +/- | ADR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev | 118 – 70 | +48 | 96.2 |
| Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov | 89 – 82 | +7 | 80.8 |
| Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy | 70 – 74 | -4 | 62.0 |
| Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov | 56 – 82 | -26 | 61.4 |
| Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev | 56 – 90 | -34 | 56.7 |
| Vitality | K – D | +/- | ADR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nabil ‘Nivera’ Benrlitom | 45 – 31 | +14 | 87.1 |
| Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut | 88 – 71 | +17 | 78.8 |
| Richard ‘shox’ Papillon | 72 – 68 | +4 | 81.6 |
| Kévin ‘misutaaa’ Rabier | 54 – 59 | -5 | 62.6 |
| Cédric ‘RpK’ Guipouy | 76 – 80 | -4 | 67.6 |
| Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire | 60 – 81 | -21 | 64.3 |
IEM Beijing-Haidian final standings & prize distribution:
- Vitality – $60,000 + IEM Global Challenge spot
2. Natus Vincere – $30,000
3-4. Complexity – $12,000
3-4. G2 – $12,000
5-8. Heroic – $5,000
5-8. BIG – $5,000
5-8. Astralis – $5,000
5-8. FaZe – $5,000
9-12. NiP – $2,500
9-12. mousesports – $2,500
9-12. MAD Lions – $2,500
9-12. Spirit – $2,500
13-16. ENCE – $1,500
13-16. North – $1,500
13-16. fnatic – $1,500
13-16. OG – $1,500
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