NAVI send Heroic packing from BLAST World Final

HEROIC, with Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke acting as a stand-in, exit the $1,000,000 spectacle in joint-last place.

Natus Vincere sent HEROIC home from the BLAST World Final in 7-8th place after sweeping the Danish roster, 2-0. The Ukrainian-majority side, who continued to field Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi as their sixth man, took home a to-and-fro win on Inferno 16-10, conceded Ancient 8-16, before answering back with a hard-fought 16-14 display on Nuke.

Natus Vincere live to fight another day in Abu Dhabi with this win, and will consequently begin their fight through the knockout stage through the quarter-finals. The side continued to make use of npl throughout the series, bringing the 17-year-old into the server in their win on Inferno, where the youngster showcased better, though still shaky, form with a 0.90 rating. Natus Vincere will go up against Liquid on Friday at 12:30 as they begin their run through the playoffs of the end-of-year event.

HEROIC's loss also marks the end of their run through the $1,000,000 event, one which saw the team use k0nfig as a stand-in. Regardless, the Danes will be disappointed that they didn't display championship form in the Emirati event, made worse by the fact that they travelled to the Middle East hot off of their win at BLAST Premier Fall Final in Copenhagen as well as being the new No. 1 team on the block.

The elimination series began on Natus Vincere's pick of Inferno, with npl once again being called up after making his debut against Vitality on Wednesday. Things were initially back-and-forth between the two top-five teams; Natus Vincere's fluid offensive campaign being counteracted by HEROIC's often stubbornly rigid defense, which kept things at four rounds apiece to start things. A 1vs2 clutch from beyond the grave by Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy stopped the slugfest and enabled his side to build up their finances, snowballing this advantage into a five-round spree to lead 11-4 at the break.

HEROIC launched their comeback attempt at the outset of their T-side, overturning a Natus Vincere pistol-round win with a six-round streak to reach double digits. Natus Vincere put a stop to this Danish onslaught thanks to Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov, who gunned down two with a Five-SeveN to gift his side a chance to get back on the board, 13-10. This completely flipped the map on its head, and Natus Vincere let HEROIC plant the bomb just one more time en route to a 16-10 victory, with b1t proving too much to handle with a server-leading 28 kills.

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev clutched a 1vs1 with less than a second left on the bomb timer to kick start Natus Vincere's time on the CT-side of Ancient. The Ukrainian superstar made his presence felt on both sides of the map with unrivalled precision and play-making ability, but HEROIC did well at containing the threat on the typically disadvantageous T-side to keep their foes subdued, 6-3. While Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy lined up two with his M4A1-S in the 12th round to get the Ukrainian-Russian outfit back to winning ways, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller called a masterful game with expertly drilled site takes and cunning map control ploys to gift the Danes a five-round cushion heading into the side swap.

HEROIC sought to capitalise on their lead once on the CT-side, using cadiaN and his highly-mobile AWP to pick off Natus Vincere players round after round and get to match point with few issues, 15-8. The Danes wasted no time forcing a trip to Nuke once within touching distance of tying the series up, again shutting their opponents down on the B site to pick up the lone round they needed to close things out, 16-8.

HEROIC took advantage of a slow and methodical offensive campaign once Nuke rolled around. The Danish ensemble, given a boost by Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard's decision to turn up and play, took an early two-round lead midway through the half. Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev, who is being used in Natus Vincere's six-man lineup experiment, had a profound impact in his anchoring of the upper bombsite from here on out and the roster ultimately sat in front 9-6 by the break.

Natus Vincere had their sights firmly set on earning a spot in the playoffs when play resumed. b1t pulled a 4k out of his hat on the second round to swing the momentum back in his team's favour, and the Ukrainian-majority camp converted the ensuing three rounds to put some distance between them and the Danes. Another quad kill, this time by Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck and a Nova, flipped things back into HEROIC's favour, however, and the difference was soon eroded away completely, 13-13. Alas, the Danes' hard-fought effort to eke out the win was in vain for Natus Vincere narrowly put the few remaining rounds they needed to send HEROIC home, 16-14.