NAVI eliminate FURIA from BLAST Premier Fall Finals; to face Astralis in lower bracket final

Following a blazing start on Inferno, NAVI had a strong performance on the defending side of Nuke to eliminate the Brazilian squad.

Natus Vincere overcame FURIA in the BLAST Premier Fall Finals lower bracket semi-finals, coming out ahead in two maps to secure a spot in the lower bracket final. This isn’t the last time these two squads will meet, however, as Natus Vincere and FURIA are set to face off in the opening match of the final event of the year, IEM Global Challenge.

Natus Vincere once again started with Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy, who had a much better showing with a 1.41 rating than in his debut against Astralis, as the CIS squad put an end to FURIA’s 12-map winning streak on Inferno with strong performances across the board. Moving on to Nuke, now with Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev in the server, NAVI took a minimal lead at the half before going on the secure the series on the defense.

Natus Vincere will now go on to face Astralis in the lower bracket final in a replay of their opening match in the tournament, which saw Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and company knock the Danes down to the lower bracket in a close three map series.

FURIA took the lead on the attacking side of Inferno, but three opening Desert Eagle kills by s1mple in the second round evened things out. The Brazilians kept it close early on, bringing a 1-3 deficit back to even, but were then put through the blender over and over again as NAVI took hold of the map on the defense winning five rounds in a row. FURIA were able to save the half, however, with three successful attacks in the last four rounds.

Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov and company then turned up the heat on the attack, winning four rounds off the bat before FURIA could put a stop to NAVI. Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov downed four players the following round to make it 14-6, and although the CIS squad weren’t able to close it out immediately it didn’t take long, as they bagged it 16-8 to get ahead in the series.

Natus Vincere took the lead on the attacking side of Nuke, although FURIA didn’t fall behind and equalized after the first gun round, bringing it to 3-3. The CIS squad once again put some distance on the scoreboard, with flamie leading the charge, but Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan and company didn’t let it happen, bringing it to 7-8 at the half.

The Brazilians tied it up on the second pistol round, but lost to the forcebuy as flamie and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy tallied doubles with Desert Eagles. After that, Natus Vincere increased their lead to 12-8 before the two teams then went back-and-forth, brawling for control, but NAVI traded punches all the way to victory, ending it 16-11.