NAVI fend off FURIA; set up quarter-final fixture against Vitality

Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev were on fire to help their side close out Ancient in dominant fashion.

Natus Vincere are through to the quarter-finals of Gamers8 after coming out on top of a 2-1 series against FURIA (11-16 Nuke, 16-13 Mirage, 16-4 Ancient).

Shaky form on the first two maps of the series leaves NAVI with a lot to work on ahead of their quarter-final series against Vitality, especially given Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's side ban Ancient — the only map that NAVI comfortably secured.

Date	Matches
Gamers8 2023
17/08/2023	Vitality 22:30 Natus Vincere	Match

The Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen-led side started FURIA's pick of Nuke in stellar form, but garnered just one round in a very flat-looking T side to lose the map 11-16. Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan stepped up after a relatively quiet map one to will his team through Mirage, a map that ended up contentious despite NAVI drumming up a 14-6 lead.

That was in part thanks to a phenomenal map from Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, who ended with a 31-17 K-D, as well as a pair of clutches from Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato and Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes. Those rounds still weren't enough, however, and NAVI ended up narrowly edging out their pick 16-13 to force an Ancient decider.

There, b1t was completely unstoppable, absolutely tearing apart FURIA's A site attacks round after round. iM's consistent ability to shut down the Brazilian team in middle and additional strong fragging from s1mple added to what was a lopsided scoreline for Natus Vincere and a disappointing end to the series for FURIA, who mustered just four rounds before being sent packing from Gamers8.