Natus Vincere have scraped past AVANGAR 2-1 (Overpass 17-19, Dust2 16-8, Mirage 16-14) in the lower bracket final of GG.BET ICE Challenge.

The lower bracket final started on Na`Vi's pick, Overpass, where the favored side picked up an early 4-1 lead as Terrorists on the back of a pistol round win and triple kills from Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev in the first gunrounds.

The advantage soon dwindled away as AVANGAR capitalized on Na`Vi's mistake in the sixth round, where they let the time run out, with Bektiyar "⁠fitch⁠" Bahytov adding on with a triple and a 1v2 in the following rounds. Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko's men did not seem to have an answer to the defense, as the Kazakhstani side secured a 10-5 half thanks to a nine-round streak.

Na`Vi lowered the deficit to just one when s1mple and Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev combined for five in the second pistol round, but AVANGAR ran away with the following four rounds to get within touching distance from winning the opening map, managing to clinch a 3v5 turnaround en route to their 14th round.

However, with the best player in the world leading the way, Na`Vi clawed back into contention despite AVANGAR hitting match point, as they went on a five-round streak to take it to overtime.´That effort was all in vain, though, as Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali's team secured a 19-17 victory in the first overtime on the back of a flawless CT side.

Dust2 followed with AVANGAR taking point early with a 3-0 lead on the defense, but it was soon even at 3-3 thanks to triples from flamie and Edward. Na`Vi continued their reign in the gunrounds when Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov broke their opponents' economy with a 1v2 clutch, helping his team rack up five rounds in a row.

Although AVANGAR made it close after ending the half with three rounds going their way, when the sides switched, it was all about Natus Vincere. Securing the pistol round, they reached double digits and went on to push their opponents on multiple forcebuys, in large part thanks to another 1v2 clutch, this time from Zeus. That allowed s1mple & co. to close out Dust2 comfortably at 16-8.

Mirage was left as the decider and it looked firmly in the grasp of the favorites at the start. Kicking it off on the offense, Na`Vi grabbed a 4-0 lead and soon extended it to 7-1 after trading a couple of gunrounds, and even though AVANGAR strung two together afterward, they couldn't keep up with Zeus's team, who switched to the defense with a comfortable 11 rounds to their name.

The Kazakhstani squad brought it back with a clear-cut pistol round win and a 1v2 clutch from Jame in the first gunround. Na`Vi replied with two in a row, soon reaching 14 rounds, but it was far from over as AVANGAR put together four rounds late into the deciding map to make it 14-14. The nail-biting finish saw the favored side scrape past their opponents with the last two rounds, with s1mple putting up key entries to take the series 16-14, 2-1.

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	83 - 55	+28	89.8	1.34
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	60 - 53	+7	75.5	1.10
Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie	58 - 63	-5	76.7	1.04
Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward	61 - 62	-1	72.4	1.02
Danylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoZeus	47 - 53	-6	59.2	0.92

AVANGAR	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dzhami 'Jame' AliJame	62 - 55	+7	70.2	1.11
Timur 'buster' Tulepovbuster	59 - 60	-1	76.9	1.08
Bektiyar 'fitch' Bahytovfitch	65 - 65	0	78.3	1.04
Alexey 'Qikert' GolubevQikert	61 - 64	-3	66.2	0.91
Aidyn 'KrizzeN' TurlybekovKrizzeN	38 - 67	-29	57.9	0.76