Dominant NAVI relegate BIG to BLAST Showdown

NAVI were able to repeat their opening-round victory.

Natus Vincere have defeated BIG at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024 with a 2-0 scoreline (Dust2 13-7, Mirage 13-3), eliminating the German team from the tournament.

The team led by Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen has now qualified for the group final, where they will face off against Liquid for qualification.

"We have nothing to prove, we will just play the game. It was a good game yesterday, and it will be the same tomorrow," Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy said about the upcoming rematch.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024
03/08/2024	Liquid 21:05 Natus Vincere	Match

Meanwhile, this is the end of BIG's road in Copenhagen. The German squad can look back at their victory against Virtus.pro in the lower bracket fondly, but Natus Vincere were a step too far for the new lineup on both occasions.

Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi's integration into the system remains a work in progress, but the Swiss rifler had his best map of the tournament on Mirage against Natus Vincere. He put up 16 kills, 112 ADR, and a 1.59 rating, 1.09 more than his nearest teammate.

Karim "⁠Krimbo⁠" Moussa spoke to James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks in a post-match interview and gave an honest assessment of their debut tournament with rigoN. "It's sad how we lost on Dust2, but you better smile about it than be fully in pain," the 21-year-old said.

"They just hit great headshots. If you don't win the duels, in the end, it's Counter-Strike, and you need to shoot people."

The series began with Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius' miraculous Revolver quad-kill in the second round that broke BIG's money early on, with Natus Vincere repeating the feat with a full-eco victory in the ninth. All of that meant that despite BIG coming alive late on, Aleksib and company secured a comfortable 13-7 win.

Natus Vincere then dominated Mirage from start to finish, as rigoN was the only BIG member able to put up any resistance. That didn't do much for the German side, however, as they found themselves relegated to the Showdown after a one-sided 3-13 loss.