Natus Vincere advanced to the grand final at ESL One New York after securing a 2-1 victory against Liquid (7-16 on Cobblestone, 16-13 on Train, and 16-10 on Dust2).
The first semi-final at ESL One New York was between Natus Vincere and Liquid—two teams who met in the group stage match which was won by the Ukrainian side.
The CT-sided Liquid had a powerful start to the first map of the best-of-three series—Cobblestone—as they locked up the pistol round with a 2vs2 victory and secured the first weapon round to make it 4-0.
s1mple & company take the win against Liquid
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev clutched a 1vs1 against Spencer "Hiko" Martin to get his team their first round but Liquid answered swiftly with Hiko's double kill and extended their lead to 8-1. Natus Vincere managed to get three more rounds towards the end of the first half which they lost 4-11.
The B-site take turned out to be a success for Liquid in the second half pistol round and the American team went on to take the first map with a 16-7 final score.
Train—a very strong map for Natus Vincere—was the second map and the T-sided Natus Vincere kicked it off by winning the first three rounds. Liquid replied with four rounds in a row and back-to-back 1vs1 clutches extended their lead to 6-3 but The Ukrainian team came back to win the half 8-7.
flamie dominated Train
Natus Vincere took the first four rounds of the second half which was answered by Liquid's own four round streak (12-11). Egor "flamie" Vasilyev, who was on fire throughout the map, got a double kill to earn his team two map points and Na'Vi finished off the map 16-13.
s1mple's triple kill clinched the pistol round for his team on the T-side of Dust2—the third and last map of the series—and they also managed to resist Liquid's early third round buy, extending their lead to 3-0.
s1mple showed no mercy to his former team as he went 18:3 in the first half, leading his team to a 13-2 half victory. Natus Vincere closed out the map 16-10 after Liquid delayed the inevitable by denying match point after match point.
ESL One New York 2016Best of 3 
Natus Vincere
Matchpage 2 1 2nd October 2016 
Liquid 7Cobblestone 16 16Train 13 16Dust2 10
| Natus Vincere | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Egor 'flamie' Vasilyevflamie | 76 - 55 | +21 | 104.1 | 1.41 |
 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple | 68 - 47 | +21 | 87.5 | 1.33 |
| Denis 'seized' Kostinseized | 47 - 59 | -12 | 80.9 | 0.98 |
| Ioann 'Edward' SukharievEdward | 48 - 54 | -6 | 58.3 | 0.87 |
 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsGuardiaN | 40 - 56 | -16 | 60.1 | 0.84 |
| Liquid | K - D | +/- | ADR | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE | 63 - 53 | +10 | 92.7 | 1.21 |
 Jacob 'Pimp' WinnechePimp | 57 - 55 | +2 | 75.4 | 1.04 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0 | 51 - 55 | -4 | 71.6 | 1.03 |
| Spencer 'Hiko' MartinHiko | 53 - 59 | -6 | 76.4 | 0.99 |
| Josh 'jdm64' Marzanojdm64 | 47 - 57 | -10 | 61.8 | 0.95 |
The second semi-final is next in New York where SK and Virtus.pro will face off.
BenjaCS is a staff writer at HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.
Virtus.pro #2 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' Bieliński Liquid #13 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinJacob 'Pimp' WinnecheNick 'nitr0' CannellaJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoJonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Spencer 'Hiko' Martin 
Age: 26 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 521 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.61 
SK #1 Lincoln 'fnx' LauGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev 
Age: 19 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 642 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67 
Natus Vincere #10 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev 
Age: 19 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 468 KPR: 0.84 DPR: 0.70