Natus Vincere rally from 5–11 to beat The MongolZ

Natus Vincere beat The MongolZ at the IEM Cologne Major after coming back from a 5–11 deficit on Ancient, winning that map in overtime and closing the series 13–6 on Mirage. The result moves Natus Vincere to 2-1 in their Stage 3 pool. NAVI lost the opening map, Nuke, and began Ancient trailing 5–11. Sodbayar “Techno” Munkhbold nearly secured match point for The MongolZ with an ace clutch attempt but missed the final shot. Natus Vincere completed several CT-side retakes, recorded a last-second defuse to force overtime and opened OT with a 3v5 recovery that swung momentum to NAVI. On Mirage, Natus Vincere won an early forcebuy, built a lead and maintained it through the map. Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov had notable impact with the AWP across the series. The decider finished 13–6 in favor of NAVI. Individual match statistics showed Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy leading Natus Vincere with 61 kills, 38 deaths and a 1.31 rating. Drin “makazze” Shaqiri posted 52-42 and a 1.23 rating, Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov went 59-41 with a 1.18 rating, Mihai “iM” Ivani recorded 44-42 for a 1.00 rating, and captain Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen finished 31-46 with a 0.75 rating. For The MongolZ, Techno ended 48-49 with a 1.13 rating, Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren went 42-50 (1.04), Anarbileg “cobrazera” Uuganbayar posted 46-46 (1.02), Usukhbayar “910” Banzragch finished 36-52 (0.84) and Ayush “mzinho” Batbold was 36-50 (0.81). Coach B1ad3 addressed the team on stage, telling players, “Don’t be afraid to lose, go do rounds.” The match took place during Stage 3 of the IEM Cologne Major in Cologne and the win keeps Natus Vincere in contention in the group phase.