jL shines as NAVI outclass Spirit in EPL quarter-finals

20-9-2024 18:34

The Copenhagen Major champions have finally conquered their demons after losing all previous matches against Spirit in 2024.

jL is averaging a tournament-high 1.50 rating in Malta

Natus Vincere are through to the semi-finals of ESL Pro League Season 20 after a quick 2-0 victory over Spirit, beating the Russian team at last after losing the previous four matches.

"Finally we did it, took us quite a while," Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius said after the match. "We lost so many games against them and the games weren't even close, so feels good to get a win back."

The Lithuanian player was the star of the show as he produced some incredible moments in this one-sided match. His 1.80 series rating puts him at the top of the tournament's leaderboards ahead of Saturday's semi-final, against the winner of G2 vs Liquid.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
21/09/2024	Natus Vincere 19:30 G2	Match

Natus Vincere came out guns blazing and stormed to a 9-3 lead on Dust2, Spirit's map pick, after a one-sided first half. More misery was piled on the Russians after the side switch, with jL putting NAVI on map point with a spectacular 1v3 clutch.

Spirit still tried to respond, but they couldn't muster a comeback as Natus Vincere put the game to bed at 13-5 with a clean execute.

Mirage began with Spirit grabbing an early lead before Natus Vincere put together a string of rounds once they had money to work with. In the end, it would be Spirit taking a narrow lead to half-time after a masterclass of a CT showing from Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, who racked up 18 frags.

But the Russian AWPer (and the rest of his team) went missing in the second half as Natus Vincere took the reins of the game. The only exception was Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, who picked up nine frags (almost as many his teammates combined), but there was no stopping the NAVI juggernaut in this match, with jL leading the charge with a stunning 2.98 CT rating.

ESL Pro League Season 20Best of 3

Natus Vincere

Matchpage

20th September 2024

Spirit

Dust2

Mirage

Natus Vincere	K - D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius jL	47 - 21	+9.20%	110.1	85.0%	1.80
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy b1t	30 - 22	+4.07%	77.5	85.0%	1.37
Mihai 'iM' Ivan iM	32 - 23	-2.17%	92.0	72.5%	1.36
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov w0nderful	19 - 19	+0.77%	49.8	77.5%	1.08
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen Aleksib	20 - 20	-0.53%	62.1	80.0%	1.04

Spirit	K - D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov sh1ro	31 - 26	+0.06%	73.7	72.5%	1.08
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets donk	27 - 31	-2.79%	76.8	60.0%	0.95
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev magixx	20 - 28	+1.12%	63.8	72.5%	0.91
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia zont1x	15 - 32	-5.03%	58.4	62.5%	0.64
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov chopper	12 - 31	-4.69%	41.8	62.5%	0.56

jL big game player

2024-09-20 18:34

Well done outsmarting them zont1x!

1 reply

Rofl

2024-09-20 19:05

zont1x: "It's easier for us to play against better teams because we're used to outthinking people" xd

2024-09-20 18:35

broky started a trend......

donk exposed LMAO go farm mickey mouse cups boy

1.80 against Donk and his friends damn...

unnecessary "celebration" from jL, great performance regardless, this team is absolutely insane

Nice out thinking by "i feel no pressure" guy

2024-09-20 18:36

This is how you break the curse and silence the haters over and over again.

2024-09-20 18:37

Expected

navi just outthinked* Spirit

2024-09-20 18:46

outclass outthinked..... ty navi

2024-09-20 18:47

Man, almost no match goes the way I expect in those play offs...

De_stroyed.

2024-09-20 18:50

I understand what zont1x was saying, against lower tier teams they can just out aim and default to win generally. When you're the guy on the bubble potentially on the roster even if they aren't making changes until after next major, it's weird to say things that could come back to bite you. But then again we don't want players to give by the book standard answers in interviews, so it's hard to have it both ways.

2024-09-20 18:53

jLegend

2024-09-20 19:06

zont1x has more ego than donk, but less impact. Spirit find a better second star rifler, plz.

2024-09-20 19:12

I am always looking for pimp as I continue to see Navi succeed

2024-09-20 19:18

Vitality and Spirit both out within 1 day, what a time to be alive. P.S. zont1x: "It's easier for us to play against better teams because we're used to outthinking people"

2024-09-20 19:20

we knew this outcome as soon as zont1x interview dropped, no offense to zont1x but murphy's law had high probabilities here

2024-09-20 19:27

Well played Aleksi and the gang!

2024-09-20 19:28

2024-09-20 19:30

Not surprising really. Donk is an insane player but he can't perform at that crazy level in every match of every tournament. The second he's not carrying Spirit fall apart. Teams with GOAT contenders like Vitality, G2 or that 2021 NaVi squad had enough quality in the team to pick up the slack when the star is having a bad game. Sh1ro's good but he can't carry to that extent and Chopper isn't good enough of an IGL to outcall other top 10 teams.

2024-09-20 20:26