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In another instant classic between Polish and Ukrainian giants, Natus Vincere have overcome ESC Gaming after overtime 19-17 to top the group at TECHLABS Cup Ukraine. ESC Gaming will still have a chance to join the Ukrainians in the grand final and the battle for the first place prize of $5,000 if they finish second in the group.

Na`Vi defeated Virtus.pro with ease in the opening match of TECHLABS Cup Ukraine, 16-5 on de_tuscan, and ESC Gaming followed with a 16-8 de_dust2 win against place2play.ru. That set up these two giants in a battle for the top spot of the group, which would bring one of them a place in the final of this $10,000 event.

The map selection came down to de_dust2, with Na`Vi winning the knife round thanks to Yegor "markeloff" Markelov's 1-on-3 and starting on the T side.

The very beginning already showed that this match will be filled with close rounds, since the pistol round came down to the wire, with Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas and Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski turning a 2-on-3 situation to their favor. After one eco round by Na`Vi, the first buy round also went down to a 1vs1, and this time Wojtas outplayed Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko at the A bombsite to put ESC up 3-0.

In the fifth round the Ukrainians finally put themselves on the scoreboard, but ESC's perfect defense in the next round allowed the Poles to establish a significant money advantage. The score quickly came to 7-1, after which Markelov and Arseniy "ceh9" Trynozheko won a 2-on-3 on the A bombite to get their team back in the game. However, ESC's reply was once again perfect which forced Na`Vi onto a save and the lead climbed to 9-2.

But Na`Vi wouldn't have become what they are if they didn't have a solution for these situations, so slowly and steadily they started getting their groove on, beginning with a nice 3-kill round by Markelov. In the last few rounds of the first half, it seemed that the Ukrainians completely figured out what their attack plan should be and that led to closing down the gap to 9-6.

After the sides changed Natus Vincere continued their streak by taking the pistol round, as well as stopping two partial buys by the Poles that followed. An eco round later, the Ukranian team was in the lead for the first time, but that didn't last long as ESC equalized straight away and then took the lead back 11-10.

Markelov's two AWP entry kills led to evening the score again at 11-11, but ESC took control at that point and with three convincing attacks went up 14-11. Na`Vi's mental strength was put to the test once more and they passed with flying colors, equalizing the score for the third time, now at 14-14. Yet ESC wouldn't give up either, and the Poles put themselves on match point in the next round, only to have Na`Vi reply for 15-15 and bring the match into overtime.

The match continued without a long break and ESC seemed to have finally broken the Ukrainians going up 17-15, but Markelov's AWP was the difference maker in the last round as his 3 kills helped them make the score 17-16.

The Ukrainians were finally on the attacking side now, and their gameplan still worked as they brought the result to 17-17 right away. The 35th round of the match turned out to be the breaking point, as when ESC was on the brink of taking the round, but Trynozhenko and Teslenko won a 2-on-3 situation against all odds, with their in-game leader's 1vs2 putting his team in the lead and negating Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski's 4 kills in that round.

There was still one more round left to play, but ESC Gaming were unable to recover and Natus Vincere won the match 19-17, which secured them a place in the final as the top team of the group stage.

TECHLABS Cup Ukraine 2012Best of 0 Natus VincereMatchpage 19 17 29th September 2012 ESC Gaming 19Dust2 17

Match statistics:

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

ESC Gaming	K - D	+/-	ADR	-

Considering the fact that ESC Gaming announced that they will be switching full time to CS:GO after this event, this match was most likely the penultimate or even the last clash between these two teams, depending on whether ESC reach the final.

The Poles will have a chance to do that if they defeat the winner of Virtus.pro and place2play.ru clash.