Ukrainian esports team NaVi defeats Russia’s Virtus.pro to reach IEM Rio 2024 semifinals
The Ukrainian esports team Natus Vincere (Born to Win, or NaVi) (1) has defeated Russia’s Virtus.pro (9) in the Counter-Strike 2 quarter-finals at Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Rio 2024.
Source: Champion, a sports news platform within Ukrainska Pravda’s holding company
Details: The match ended with a 2-0 victory for NaVi.
The first round took place on the Inferno map, which was chosen by the Russian team. The Ukrainians defeated the Russians 13-4 in this round.
Having chosen the Ancient map next, the Born to Win team got off to a shaky start as Virtus.pro took a 4-0 lead, but NaVi managed to narrow the gap, losing the first half of the map with a score of 5-7.
In the second half, the Ukrainian team achieved a 6-0 blitzkrieg thanks to outstanding play by Lithuanian Justinas "jL" Lekavičius. Virtus.pro kept them on their toes, reducing the gap to 12-11, but the Ukrainian team triumphed in the decisive round.
The score was now 3-1 to NaVi.
NaVi’s victory secured them a place in the semifinals, where they will face the Norwegian team HEROIC (16).
IEM Rio 2024. Brazil
Prize pool: US$250,000
Quarter-finals, 11 October
Natus Vincere (Ukraine) – Virtus.pro 2-0 (13-4 Inferno, 13-11 Ancient)
IEM Rio 2024 is taking place from 7 to 13 October in Rio, Brazil. The winner of the tournament will receive US$100,000 and a ticket to IEM Katowice 2025.
Natus Vincere consists of two Ukrainians, a Lithuanian, a Romanian and a Finn:
- Valerii "b1t" Vakhovskyi (Ukraine);
- Justinas "jL" Lekavičius (Lithuania);
- Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen (Finland);
- Mihai "iM" Ivan (Romania);
- Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov (Ukraine);
- Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi (coach, Ukraine).
Earlier, NaVi lost in the final of the prestigious BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 tournament held in Denmark.
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