Natus Vincere beat The MongolZ 2-1 to reach EWC Round of 16

Natus Vincere defeated The MongolZ 2-1 on Aug. 16, 2026, in a Group D upper-bracket match at the Esports World Cup, advancing to the tournament’s Round of 16 after wins on Inferno and Mirage and a loss on Ancient.

Inferno opened the series. The MongolZ led 3-0 early, but Natus Vincere tightened their defense once rifles were in play and took an 8-4 lead into halftime. Na’Vi won the second pistol and produced a 5-1 second-half run to close Inferno 13-5, finished by a quad-kill from Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri.

On Ancient, The MongolZ started on the CT side and held a four-round lead at half, aided by a 1v1 win from Zolbayar ‘tikuak’ Chimedtseren. Natus Vincere recovered to 8-8, but Dugarsuren ‘DarkMeister’ Ireedui delivered three multi-kills and a +7.58% impact swing in the second half as The MongolZ took Ancient 13-9.

Mirage decided the series. Natus Vincere opened 6-1 on the CT side and led at halftime. Na’Vi won the second-half pistol round and converted on the T side for a 13-8 map win and the 2-1 series victory.

Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy led Natus Vincere with a 47-36 K-D line, 79.0 ADR and a 1.34 rating. Makazze posted 49-38 with a tournament-high 94.6 ADR and a 1.28 rating. Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen, Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov and Mihai ‘iM’ Ivani posted ratings of 1.13, 1.08 and 1.05 respectively. For The MongolZ, DarkMeister finished 38-44 with a 65.9 ADR and a 0.97 rating; tikuak was 33-43 with a 59.9 ADR; Usukhbayar ‘910’ Banzragch ended 42-42 with a 74.0 ADR.

Natus Vincere advance from Group D’s upper bracket into the Esports World Cup Round of 16. The MongolZ move to the Group D lower-bracket semi-final and will face paiN for a second chance to reach the knockout stage.