Natus Vincere entered European RMR A for PGL Copenhagen Major as one of the favorites. Despite failing to qualify for the playoffs of IEM Katowice, everyone knew that Na’Vi was a top-10 team and had a formidable roster.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that they couldn’t have lost. After all, Team Falcons ended the tournament after the 4th round with a record of 1 W – 3 L and will not compete in the Copenhagen Major. Ninjas in Pyjamas did even worse. After losing the first two matches, they were eliminated by SAW.
However, in Na’Vi’s case, it was clear that their odds of failing were quite low. There were simply too many tier-2 teams in the race, and even some of the supposed strong teams showed clear signs of weakness after the first round.
Natus Vincere’s Performance in the European RMRs
Na’Vi started the tournament with a match against KOI. This team, composed of players from Spain, Portugal, and Romania, did not look like a threat. But now, after they qualified for the Copenhagen Major with a record of 3 W – 1 L, we know that they were actually a very strong opponent for Na’Vi. The score was 13 – 8 on Ancient.
The man of the match was Mihai “iM” Ivan, who finished with a personal score of 22 – 12 and a rating 2.0 of 1.79. His ADR was incredible: 121.1.
In the second match, Na’Vi had fun against Enterprise, winning 13 – 6. The entire roster played well but Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov was particularly good. His score, 17 – 11 had a big impact on the end result.
The third match of European RMR A gave Na’Vi the opportunity to end the tournament with a perfect record. But Virtus.pro did not let them win. The battle was challenging for both teams but eventually, Na’Vi lost. The scores were 9 – 13 on Ancient and 9 – 13 on Anubis.
Once again, iM played well and had 30 kills, but he also died 32 times. Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, the team’s IGL, had the worst score on the server: 16 – 29. A slightly better performance from him or Justinas “jL” Lekavicius (20 – 29) would have allowed Na’Vi to win this match.
In round 4, the opponent was BetBoom Team. Who, let’s not forget, have Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov. Na’Vi lost the second map, Anubis (8 – 13), but easily won the other two maps: 13 – 4 on Overpass and 13 – 7 on Nuke.
With this victory, the team led by Aleksib qualified for the Copenhagen Major, which will take place between March 17 – 31.
Header image credit: Natus Vincere
