w0nderful, makazze power NAVI to BLAST Rivals semifinals

Natus Vincere advanced to the BLAST Rivals Fort Worth semifinals after a 2-0 victory over GamerLegion in the Group B seeding match, winning Mirage 13-10 and Ancient 13-4 in Fort Worth.

Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov produced a standout performance on Mirage, recording seven multi-kills in the first half and posting the highest-rated map of the year for him. GamerLegion responded with individual moments, including a clutch from Milan “hypex” Polowiec and a 1v3 from Sebastian “Tauson” Tauson Lindelof, but Natus Vincere maintained the lead. w0nderful converted a 1v2 and later closed the map with an AWP quad-kill.

On Ancient, Drin “makazze” Shaqiri led Natus Vincere’s offense, finishing the first half with 15 frags. w0nderful recorded an AK ace early in the match and added a triple kill with the Dualies after the side swap. Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy produced multi-kills on force-buy rounds as Natus Vincere sealed the map 13-4.

Individual statistics highlighted the match. w0nderful finished 46-20 with a 106.8 ADR and a 1.97 rating. makazze posted a 40-26 line with a 101.7 ADR and a 1.48 rating. b1t went 25-25 with a 74.3 ADR and a 1.11 rating. For GamerLegion, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner was 30-30 with an 82.5 ADR and a 1.10 rating, and Tauson finished 29-30 with a 76.4 ADR and a 1.05 rating. Other GamerLegion players had lower ratings and negative kill-death differentials.

The win places Natus Vincere and Team Vitality on opposite sides of the semifinal bracket. Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen: “I don’t think any trophy without beating Vitality would be deserved.”

Natus Vincere will play in the BLAST Rivals Fort Worth semifinals. GamerLegion exits the group stage following the loss.