NAVI climbs in VRS, guarantees Major invite

Natus Vincere beat FURIA 2-0 at the PGL Masters tournament, gaining 85 points in the VRS rankings. The win was an important breather during a period of pressure for the team this season.

NAVI went to Romania while their Major invite was still uncertain. The team also signed up for the HyperX Retake S13 tournament in order to keep their Major participation record intact. That decision also carried a risk of clashing with IEM Beijing. Based on simulations, the team has a 99.9 percent chance of earning the Major invite, assuming they continue to take part in the Retake tournament.

The first map of the series was played on Ancient. Drin "makazze" Shaqiri recovered from a recent dip in form on Mirage. The team's T side took a 7-1 lead. Despite FURIA's strong comeback, Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy's consistent play secured NAVI's map win.

On Dust2, NAVI also started fast and again moved ahead 7-1. On Long, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen stood out. The Finnish player is drawing attention with a 1.25 rating average across the four maps of the tournament.