Heroic 2-0 NAVI to make IEM Rio grand final

The Danes ended NAVI's eight-map winstreak on Ancient to close out the series.

HEROIC have advanced to the grand final of IEM Rio after securing a 2-0 victory over Natus Vincere, surviving a triple-overtime affair on Overpass (25-22) before dominating Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's side on Ancient (16-9 after a 14-1 first half) to close out the series.

The Danish team return to a grand final in the Jeunesse Arena for the second time in less than a year, and will be hoping that things will go differently this time around after showcasing an uptick in form in recent months and a much stronger mentality overall, as displayed in this matchup.

The series seemed set to go the distance and it surely delivered at the onset, a fantastic start on the T side for HEROIC and a plethora of highlights from both teams contributing to an action-packed affair on Overpass. The teams were deadlocked at the halfway point of the first map, but after the side swap, NAVI looked ready to run away with things as they reached map point first, 15-12.

Two rounds back from HEROIC still didn't worry NAVI and they recovered a 3vs5 situation into what looked to be a sure-fire round win on the B bombsite, but a squandered plant from Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and a failure to recover that situation by Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy allowed HEROIC to force overtime. There, Natus Vincere had two more chances to close out the map, but Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's men kept themselves in the fight and forced two more overtimes, converting upon their first map point to close out their pick.

The disastrous fashion in which NAVI let Overpass slip came back to bite them, their mentality seemingly shattered on the T side of their Ancient pick. HEROIC mustered a dominant 14-1 lead at halftime — with NAVI's only round win coming from a 1v3 clutch by s1mple — before putting a halt to a brief comeback effort from Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy's men, doing what their Ukrainian opposition could not by securing two rounds on the attack to secure victory, 16-9.

"We knew we had more energy than them," Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck said on the broadcast after the match. "We knew when they last ate, we ate right before the match and they haven't eaten for five hours or something, so mental-wise we knew we were stronger.

"We focus a lot on positive vibes, like body language, how do we help each other, showing positive body language," sjuush continued when asked about the team's mentality and inability to be upset by lower-ranked teams. "We get so much energy just by giving a knuckle [fist bump], a smile, eye contact. We think about sleep, what we eat, drink, everything."

He went on to discuss why HEROIC were so dominant on Ancient, stating that they focused on NAVI's mid control and knew setups based on what grenades were thrown. "We knew how many they were mid if they did specific nades, and how many were B if they did take mid. If we got mid control for free we knew it was most likely going to be B, or something towards A."

HEROIC will take on Vitality at 19:00 on Sunday in a fight to win their first trophy in 2023, with their last title victory dating back to the BLAST Premier Fall Final last year. The Danes previously dominated Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's men in the group stage of IEM Katowice 2023, a performance they will be hoping to repeat in the IEM Rio title decider.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
23/04/2023	Vitality 19:00 HEROIC	Match