MOUZ oust Natus Vincere in Barcelona, NAVI finish last

MOUZ defeated Natus Vincere 2-1 at the StarLadder StarSeries Fall event in Barcelona, eliminating NAVI from the $500,000 tournament and placing them last in the group.

The series opened on Cache, a surprise pick from Natus Vincere and their first match on the map since it returned to the pool. NAVI fell behind 9-3 on the T side but avoided a wider deficit thanks to 1v2 clutches by Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy and Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov. After switching sides, Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri produced a triple kill in the pistol round and NAVI ran a dominant stretch to take the map.

On Inferno, MOUZ established a 7-0 lead as terrorists. NAVI answered with four straight rounds to reduce the margin. The second half began with NAVI winning a 2v3 post-plant and a 1v2 clutch by b1t to convert, but MOUZ tightened their defense and closed out the map to force a decider.

MOUZ carried momentum into Mirage, building a 10-2 advantage. NAVI were unable to convert on the CT side and an A execute by MOUZ in round 21 ended NAVI’s comeback attempt, giving MOUZ the series win.

Individual statistics show mixed results. Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov led NAVI with 58 kills and a 1.41 rating. Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy recorded 48 kills and a 1.09 rating. For MOUZ, Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman posted 49 kills with a 1.13 rating and Oldřich ‘PR’ Nový had 47 kills with a 1.09 rating. Ádám ‘torzsi’ Torzsás finished with 39 kills and a 0.82 rating.

Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen reflected on the team’s situation after the match: “It’s pretty hard to add any more pressure. We all know where we are currently and how we are playing is not good. We’re in danger of not doing anything. But, to be fair, we don’t even deserve to play at the Major if this is the way we play. We just need to step up. We need to try to find something to get us rolling. But currently, it’s not looking good.”

The loss prevents NAVI from earning more than 70 Valve ranking points at the StarLadder StarSeries Fall. NAVI now face two remaining events before the Major cutoff, ESL Pro League Season 24 and PGL Masters Bucharest. MOUZ advance in the Barcelona event and remain in contention for a higher placement in the $500,000 tournament.

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