M80 shock NAVI at BLAST Open London
M80 faced NAVI in the lower bracket semi-final of Group A at BLAST London. NAVI came in as the favorites, but they fell short against the NA side.
The match went all the way to map three, and it was M80 who came out the winners, sending NAVI packing and putting themselves one step closer to qualifying for LAN in London.
M80 picked Ancient to start the series, and they pulled ahead early on the attack. The North Americans racked up a 9-1 lead before NAVI won the final two rounds to cut their deficit to six. NAVI started the second half with five rounds straight to bring the score to 9-8. M80 stabilized at that point, winning four of the final five rounds to take the first map 13-9.
NAVI picked Train, with M80 electing to start on the CT side. NAVI showed much better form in this map, holding a solid 8-4 lead at halftime. M80 never really threatened the Europeans in the second half, as NAVI forced a decisive third map via a 13-7 victory.
As is tradition, the final map was Inferno. Both teams jockeyed for control in the first half, with neither side ever having an advantage greater than three rounds. M80 closed their CT side with a flurry to take a 7-5 lead into the second period. From there, the NA side looked like they would run away with the game, as they held an 11-6 lead early on in the second half. NAVI didn't back down, though, winning the next five rounds to level the match at 11-11. It was M80 who came up clutch, however, taking the final two rounds and winning the game and match in regulation, 13-11.
M80's newest member, Jadan "HexT" Postma, and AWPer Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich showed out, leading the way with a combined 101 frags over the series.
M80Natus Vincere| M80 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jadan 'HexT' Postma |
48 - 43 | +5 | 76.8 | 74.2% | 1.18 |
 Mason 'Lake' Sanderson |
52 - 51 | +1 | 89.3 | 84.8% | 1.17 |
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
53 - 42 | +11 | 79.9 | 80.3% | 1.16 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
36 - 41 | -5 | 64.1 | 74.2% | 0.90 |
| Elias 's1n' Stein |
34 - 40 | -6 | 58.6 | 74.2% | 0.87 |
| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
53 - 50 | +3 | 86.1 | 71.2% | 1.22 |
 Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
46 - 37 | +9 | 66.6 | 80.3% | 1.13 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
42 - 43 | -1 | 78.2 | 74.2% | 1.12 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
40 - 46 | -6 | 67.1 | 69.7% | 0.87 |
 Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri |
34 - 48 | -14 | 68.3 | 69.7% | 0.86 |
M80's win sets up a showdown with fnatic for a spot at the BLAST London Finals.
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