NAVI beat 9INE 2-1 to close StarSeries Fall day one

18-9-2025 23:23

StarLadder's first event since 2019 began with no big upsets on day one.

iM had a series to forget versus 9INE

A twelve-hour-long day one has concluded at StarSeries Fall after Natus Vincere came back from a map one defeat to beat 9INE 2-1.

Elsewhere in the openers, PARIVISION survived a Artem "⁠kensizor⁠" Kapran 1v5 ninja defuse to beat B8 2-0 before Ninjas in Pyjamas won over OG and Passion UA overcame Gentle Mates.

Date	Matches
StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2025
18/09/2025	B8 Finished 0:2 PARIVISION	Match
18/09/2025	Ninjas in Pyjamas Finished 2:0 OG	Match
18/09/2025	Passion UA Finished 2:0 Gentle Mates	Match

But the big story was saved for last, with Natus Vincere handed a humbling on 9INE's pick of Ancient as Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger's squad ran out 13-8 winners.

NAVI responded in kind on their pick of Nuke despite some technical issues at half-time, but were error-strewn on Inferno as the decider rumbled past 23:00 local time.

A loss to a full USP eco in round five was a memorable example of the team failing to click fully into gear, but Natus Vincere recovered to 6-6 after a nice Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov 1v2 clutch before an eventual 13-8 victory.

Clip: NAVI fumble against USPs early on Inferno

Natus Vincere, the only top 20 team in attendance, are in Budapest looking for a confidence boost (as well as to show support to fellow Ukrainian business StarLadder) after failing to win a trophy so far this year.

2024's team of the year added Drin "⁠makazze⁠" Shaqiri over the summer but the young blood has not been able to halt the squad's malaise with poor finishes at the Esports World Cup and online for BLAST Bounty and Open in their last three events.

B1ad3: "The Major will be our exam"

Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy told Natus Vincere's YouTube channel that "the Major will be our exam" and a top-four finish in Cologne was proof of the potential of the new lineup.

But in terms of exam preparation, scraping past world number 31 9INE — with Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan in particularly poor form, at a 0.67 rating — is less than ideal. Passion UA await in the next round, and would be forgiven for smelling blood in the water.

StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2025Best of 3

Natus Vincere

Matchpage

18th September 2025

9INE

Ancient

Nuke

Inferno

Tomorrow, four more best-of-threes will take place starting at 11:00 with two teams facing elimination.

Date	Matches
StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2025
19/09/2025	B8 11:00 OG	Match
19/09/2025	Gentle Mates 14:05 9INE	Match
19/09/2025	PARIVISION 16:15 Ninjas in Pyjamas	Match
19/09/2025	Passion UA 18:20 Natus Vincere	Match

0M so bad

2025-09-18 23:24

iM it's time to learn Chinese. Struggling against 9INE is crazy.

2025-09-18 23:25

Navi should -IM -wonderful, +device +frozen,

2025-09-18 23:27

10 replies

Dont think Astralis is letting go of Device any time soon

2025-09-19 01:18

wonderful is not bad rifle

2025-09-19 01:39

frozen b1t same team sounds questionable

2025-09-19 03:45

2 replies

kinda gives me 2024 faze vibes with frozen ropz all over again

2025-09-19 03:58

1 reply

hasnt b1t played essentially anchor and star roles too? i think hes pretty viable he could likely change 4 sure if frozen were to come in but doesnt seem like its happening either way lol

2025-09-19 09:48

why -w0nderful +dev1ce? ihor seems to be doing better currently even cause devve is missing hella shots too lol never mind that hes like 10 years older lmao

2025-09-19 09:47

4 replies

Cause devve would fit the system better i feel like

2025-09-19 11:12

3 replies

how??

2025-09-19 12:54

his playstyle would fit better into blades system. devve is like the perfect example awper. reliable. consistent. not too flashy. W0nderful should be a star awper hitting wild flicks but not forced into a system where this isnt needed

2025-09-19 13:20

he isnt really all of that anymore tho nevermind the question if hed want that lol

2025-09-19 14:13

-iM this time?

yh, after every game, hltv be like - anyone who played bad that day. :D

2025-09-19 10:08

lol bro no, it's time.. Navi dont need second caller. its enough

2025-09-19 13:03

Navi dont really have much to gain from playing this tournament do they. They just risk embarassment if they even were to drop one game against this much lower opposition. Every single other team here was outside of the major invite zone before the tournament started and they will all be fighting tooth and neck over the lan wins they can get here. This feels like a super risky tournament for them to play in, high risk, low reward.

2025-09-18 23:29

5 replies

they will get a ton of vrs from this tournament

2025-09-18 23:41

But why do they care. It's not like they're at the risk of not getting invites unless they were to bomb out last place of multiple tournaments which I think is unlikely.

2025-09-18 23:44

blade answers this in the big 1-hour interview. makazze needs more time to get used to the team, and makazze also needs some officials to work on his stamina and pacing himself. so blade signed the team up on some chill evens (starladder, thunderpick) for kind-of free vrs and to practice. basically, he sees major as the first "real" event for this roster.

2025-09-19 00:20

they have been bombing out the past 3 events essentially and theres no real way of telling if that would have continued a trophy is also just still a trophy this should be kinda free and pretty big likely too at the same time unless they somehow fumble ungodly lol also the one hour interview mentioned was also summarized in a recent article here (like 2 days ago lmao)

2025-09-19 13:06

Dont know if they care about ”embarrasment” Hltv nicknames clling them out propably wont affect them onw bit, no matter what happens

2025-09-19 00:35

navi will dab on all the haters

2025-09-18 23:32

The tech pauses in this first day were crazy.

2025-09-18 23:43

iM masterclass

2025-09-18 23:52

Yeah, he was mainly doing the info plays, leaving the fragging to his colleagues.

2025-09-19 00:36

Yup he called stuff like hey guys i found a nade... under me, oh i also found a bullet... inside me..

2025-09-19 04:27

He honestly played like idiot, did some stupid peeks or lurks and died without teammates able to trade. Im not even im hater but he was trash

2025-09-19 06:47

sign frozen already

2025-09-19 00:08

Please dont, everything touched by ukrainians lately goes to shit

2025-09-19 04:23

bench frozen

2025-09-19 01:59

they lost ancient? Ahahahahahahah tier2

2025-09-19 02:39

both Fissure and Starladder on Kick, this is crazy

2025-09-19 03:59

Not really. Kick likely offered money, YouTube and Twitch dont really care about a tier 2 CS tournament.

2025-09-19 05:48

you don't think the Budapest major is also gonna be streamed only on Kick since it's by Starladder as well?

2025-09-19 06:39

It might, but it may not. Major is big enough to warrant multiplatform stream.

2025-09-19 09:27

Wooooooooooooooow legacy team barely made it past noname team LETS MAKE A HEADLINE ABOUT IT,

2025-09-19 04:22

tier 2 boyz

2025-09-19 06:51

Seems like majority of tournaments are streamed in Kick. Anyone know Why? Dont need the "I assume" answers... Kick is not ready yet. The app is autoswitching between A and B stream and so on. Money sure one reason, but does not seem logic to switch to lower quality platform. Say what you want about Twitch, but it's a solid Streaming platform with very little issues. ANyone else having the same issues? As there is also the possibility that the problem exists between my chair and keyboard also =)

2025-09-19 08:54

For me Kick is better than Twitch but worse than YouTube. It is just my opinion, off course and I am curious why do you believe Twitch would be better.

2025-09-19 09:52

they pay the organizer that why, use a little of your brain buddy. they might tell fissure something like we will pay whether DotA or CS prize pool for you for the next 3 or 4 years, all you have to do is give us streaming deal (pretty sure they got whole better money) you think fissure gonna deny it?