Heroic send Na`Vi packing in Belek; FURIA see off 5POWER

Defending StarSeries champions Natus Vincere have been eliminated in 13th-16th place following a 0-2 loss to HEROIC, with FURIA beating 5POWER in the other lower bracket by the same scoreline.

The Danish team bounced back from a 0-2 defeat to AVANGAR on the opening day and stayed alive in the tournament with a convincing victory that intensified doubts about Natus Vincere's direction. The Russian team had impressed at DreamHack Masters Malmö - their first event since bringing Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács back - but looked woefully poor in Turkey, where they had their worst result at a StarSeries event since season 2.

Many will be quick to point fingers at GuardiaN, who once again finished at the bottom of the scoreboard and will leave Belek with a 0.76 tournament rating, but the truth is that Na`Vi looked out of ideas throughout the series. The CIS giants had Train under control until shockingly losing a 5v2 situation. HEROIC capitalised on that gift to win the map before running riot on Nuke, where they were the better side from the outset.

HEROIC had a slow start to the game on Train, Natus Vincere's map pick, and found themselves on the back foot early on after a botched defuse in the pistol round. Na`Vi used that momentum to carve out a 5-0 lead but looked lost and confused thereafter: their slow approach to the game was simply ineffective and they conceded numerous rounds after letting the clock run down, making it possible for HEROIC to end the half up 10-5.

Na`Vi came out of the break with the same intensity with which they had begun the game and put HEROIC against the ropes as they won eight of the opening nine rounds of the half. It looked like the Russian team had the game under control, but all of a sudden it all fell apart from them. Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer clutched a 2v5 situation and breathed new life into the Danish squad, who took control of proceedings and secured a 16-14 victory.

HEROIC kept the momentum going and jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the CT side of Nuke. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev brought that streak to an end with a 1v2 clutch, but Na`Vi could not build on that as the Danes replied immediately. The Russian team continued to struggle to break through the HEROIC defense for the rest of the half and were limited to just five rounds on the offense.

Now playing on the Terrorist side, HEROIC bounced back after losing the pistol round and dictated the tempo of the game, hitting map point at 15-8. Natus Vincere dug deep in search of overtime but faltered in the 27th round as the Danes laid the series to rest with an upper site push with little more than pistols.

Meanwhile, FURIA progressed to the second round of Group B's lower bracket after making light work of 5POWER. The Chinese side were completely overwhelmed on their own map pick, Inferno, picking up just one round (courtesy of an ace from Lifan "⁠Viva⁠" Ran) throughout the game as the Brazilians ran rampant, with Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles putting in a 2.11 rating, his highest-ever at a Big Event.

5POWER looked livelier on the second map, Mirage, but they were unable to seize control from FURIA, who secured an 11-4 lead after preventing the Chinese side from stringing rounds together on the CT side. The Brazilians dropped the pace a bit in the second half, handing 5POWER a lifeline, but they would not let their sizeable lead slip and wrapped things up in the 23rd round.

Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's troops will be fancying their chances to progress to the group's lower bracket final as they will taking on AVANGAR in their next match. The last time the two teams met was at the EMF CS:GO World Invitational, where the Brazilians ran out 3-1 winners to win the trophy, with Rinaldo "⁠ableJ⁠" Moda Junior still on the roster at the time.