Natus Vincere eliminate Apeks in Katowice

Strong T sides bailed NAVI out in a tight 2-1 win.

Apeks are the first side to be eliminated from IEM Katowice's group stage after a narrow 2-1 loss to Natus Vincere on Ancient (11-13), Anubis (13-11), and Mirage (8-13).

NAVI had to dig deep after their rifling trio had a slow start to the series, and the firepower deficit was arguably in Apeks' favor throughout. That will need to change as they continue their lower bracket run at 19:30 on February 5.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2024
05/02/2024	Natus Vincere 19:45 Eternal Fire	Match

Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's squad also had to deal with continued struggles on their CT sides, where Natus Vincere have an event-low 36.1% win rate when including the Play-in even after the win over Apeks.

"We have a lot to work on," Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius said post-game. "I'm glad we're in the lower bracket so we can fix all these mistakes. I just think we're not there, no disrespect to Apeks. Our level is not what it was a few weeks ago."

This was evident even in the map one win on Ancient, where Apeks were bullying Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan in Middle, and only a 1.75 rating from Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov — in combination with two pistol rounds — gave NAVI a narrow 13-11 win.

On T side Natus Vincere looked a different team all series long, and the comeback from 5-7 down on Ancient was followed by another attempted offensive rebound when they were 4-8 down on Anubis.

At 9-9, however, Apeks' stars came alive. First, Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad chimed in with a 1vs2 clutch. Then, Aleksandar "⁠CacaNito⁠" Kjulukoski shot down four from the B cave. Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk had his turn next with another quad-kill, this time on the flank of NAVI's B hit, before Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson closed the game out with a triple on A.

These huge individual moments halted Natus Vincere's string of Anubis wins to five, and ensured they entered the decider of Mirage on the back foot.

Finally, though, Natus Vincere were the ones taking the initiative on defense, and iM and jL helped them to a 7-5 lead at the half. A pistol for Apeks brought the score to 7-7, before they crumbled against Deagles and Natus Vincere ran away on the T side for a 13-8 victory.

The result means Apeks' elimination, while Natus Vincere will hope jL's pre-game prophecy can come true: "Lower bracket is like a gift from the heavens. Imagine you go to a tournament, and you don't know your mistakes, and you go to the quarter-finals and lose. Now we have a second chance, lower bracket, and we'll win the tournament."