Here you have the article of Arkeiro about the semifinals matches:
Semifinals are over and next weekend we have the finals.
I will give my own opinion with some constructive feedback about the game IG vs NAC only due to SEVN not showing up and forfeiting (if you want to watch it just follow this: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/386129289).
For those who read my predictions about the semifinals, you know how I totally failed doing them. I wasn't expecting NAC winning.
Looking at the matches:
1st one was at Shadowstep - I would say a map that IG feels very comfortable. However after watching that game it seemed they were afraid of doing their own game. I saw a fragile IG not playing smart nor playing as a team.
On the other hand I saw a very passive, but wise NAC - waiting for the right moment to push and strike.
Some rounds were decided by individual skill of some players, although most of the match was decided by which team had the better strategy.
I also saw more synergy from NAC when looking at the aspect of how to push as a unit. Didn't see that from IG, most of the time. Instead I saw them pushing one by one. An example would be IG on assault, where they would keep dying one by one trying to push south.
A side note from me: A map big as shadowstep - with so many advantage spots for the defence side - requires us (while on Assault preview) to know how to avoid those advantage points and how to make the map smaller - something I didn't see IG do or try to do.
To reinforce my previous point, maybe IG lack of team play is due to how well NAC played. It is possible IG wasn't expecting or neither were used to play against a team with NACs playstyle. NAC didn't make many mistakes and were always using the time wisely - this means - they never tried to rush things out.
Due to all of that, and the lack of competition experience, it surprises me how well NAC did, specially against a clan that is quite experienced in competition.
Of course there were some rounds that both teams made some mistakes, some individual mistakes, bad decisions, etc - those are the details that will distinguish a good clan from a very good clan.
Now on the 2nd match - checkout - which was chosen by NAC I suppose. Like shadowstep its a map played often in pub servers, maybe it was a strong factor for them to pick it up. However when I first saw they were going to play this map against IG I had a prediction that IG would come on top - since IG plays it alot also and are good on it.
Nevertheless we didn't see IG winning it either. It was a balanced map, the round were zig-zaging - one round for NAC another for IG. However IG was still fragile, at least from what I used to know them.
From NAC I could just copypaste what I wrote above. A more solid team, better 2v1s, better communication - perhaps -better trade kills. In the end its all it matters to win.
In conclusion, I am surprised NAC won against an experienced clan like IG. The team that made less mistakes, that worked better has a team came on top. Sometimes there are close matches and we could say X team won by luck, in this case it was a balanced match as well, however NAC was superior the entire semifinal. Congrats to them and lets see how well they do in the finals.
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