Natus Vincere beat FaZe 2-0 at BLAST Rivals Fort Worth

Natus Vincere beat FaZe 2-0 in their opening match of the BLAST Rivals Fort Worth group stage, securing a place in the event playoffs. The series opened on FaZe’s pick of Anubis before moving to Ancient.

On Anubis Natus Vincere built an 11-1 lead at halftime. Coordinated team play and several multi-kills from Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy helped NAVI dominate the first half. FaZe improved after the break but could not erase the deficit and NAVI closed the map to take a 1-0 series lead.

Ancient became a battle for middle control. Drin “makazze” Shaqiri and Mihai “iM” Ivan produced key multi-kills in the first half, but FaZe led 7-5 at the break. FaZe then won the pistol and the following gun round. Once rifles returned, makazze won a high share of opening duels, finishing 8-3 in openers on Ancient. NAVI ran an 8-1 sequence late in the match to turn a trailing position into a 13-11 map win and the 2-0 series result.

Across the two maps makazze finished 42-31 with an average damage per round of 99.2 and a match rating of 1.46. iM recorded 33-24 and a 1.28 rating, while b1t posted 34-27 with a 1.21 rating. Captain Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen logged 23-29 and contributed in-game leadership and utility use. For FaZe, David “frozen” Čerňanský led with 29-32 and a 1.07 rating, and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, acting as captain, finished 29-31 with a 0.89 rating.

After the match Aleksi Virolainen laughed during a post-match interview and praised makazze, saying, “He’s playing tremendous, no matter if it’s the group stage or the playoffs.”

With the win Natus Vincere advance to the BLAST Rivals Fort Worth playoffs. FaZe leave the opening match with a 0-1 result in the group stage.