Esports World Cup 2024NAVI and Vitality march on in Riyadh
FURIA and M80 have dropped down to the gruesome last-chance stage.
Natus Vincere and Vitality are through to the quarter-final stage of the Esports World Cup after beating FURIA and M80, respectively, in the $1 million tournament's opening round.
It was not the debut FURIA's fans were hoping for, but it's justifiable to excuse much of what went wrong to an adjustment period between the team and Felipe "skullz" Medeiros. The former Liquid anchor had a solid debut performance, but the team still felt disjointed and too reliant on Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato, almost getting blown out 13-0 on Mirage after a stinker of a CT performance.
Natus Vincere were in control for large portions of Nuke, though they left it late to secure the win, only putting the game to bed in the final round of regulation as FURIA staged a comeback after finding themselves down 11-5 on their own map pick.
Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy was the hero with 31 frags to his name, with Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov and Justinas "jL" Lekavicius also having the occasional impactful round, especially on the CT side.
The 21-year-old maintained that momentum on Mirage, pushing NAVI into an early lead with a stylish knife clutch in the pistol round. That was the start of a flawless half by the Major champions, who went 12-0 against the helpless Brazilians before sealing the deal six rounds into the second half after Yuri "yuurih" Santos denied the 13-0 blowout with a pistol clutch.
 Natus Vincere |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 - 25 | +5.85% | 107.6 | 90.5% | 1.71 | |
| 36 - 24 | +6.14% | 83.5 | 73.8% | 1.32 | |
| 31 - 31 | +0.02% | 76.8 | 76.2% | 1.11 | |
| 26 - 31 | +0.54% | 76.7 | 61.9% | 0.99 | |
| 19 - 26 | -1.91% | 52.9 | 64.3% | 0.82 |
 FURIA |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 - 30 | +2.13% | 91.3 | 71.4% | 1.24 | |
| 27 - 31 | -0.47% | 79.1 | 59.5% | 1.01 | |
| 28 - 31 | -1.79% | 71.4 | 69.0% | 1.00 | |
| 26 - 33 | -5.70% | 74.1 | 71.4% | 0.97 | |
| 18 - 33 | -4.82% | 51.1 | 52.4% | 0.62 |
Over on the B stage, it was business as usual for Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, who led Vitality to a 2-0 victory, with Vertigo going the full distance. Playing their first LAN event with Mason "Lake" Sanderson, M80 nearly secured their map pick, only to let the game slip away in the dying stages.
Dust2 was a much more one-sided affair as Vitality were in control from the opening exchanges, with ZywOo adding 19 frags to his tally to end the series with a 1.63 rating.
  Vitality |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43 - 21 | +5.57% | 100.0 | 78.6% | 1.63 | |
| 39 - 25 | -0.52% | 84.9 | 78.6% | 1.37 | |
| 31 - 23 | +1.80% | 84.6 | 76.2% | 1.37 | |
| 26 - 27 | +0.03% | 71.6 | 88.1% | 1.18 | |
| 21 - 25 | +0.57% | 70.3 | 81.0% | 1.06 |
 M80 |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 - 33 | -0.12% | 77.2 | 64.3% | 0.93 | |
| 26 - 30 | +0.85% | 73.4 | 59.5% | 0.92 | |
| 25 - 33 | -1.20% | 66.7 | 54.8% | 0.80 | |
| 25 - 33 | -1.30% | 66.7 | 54.8% | 0.79 | |
| 16 - 31 | -5.68% | 43.2 | 57.1% | 0.64 |
Justin 'jks' Savage
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak
Torbjørn 'mithR' Nyborg
| 
Tagan35
| 
BobDude65
| 
Psycho2k
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