NAVI blown away by Vitality
It was the first time in 2023 that s1mple and ZywOo faced each other on the stage, and being a knock-out game - the stage was set for fireworks as Vitality took on Natus Vincere (NAVI) in the Gamers8 quarter-final. What we got over the course of the following two maps was anything but a humdinger at the Gamers8 tournament.
NAVI's pick of Mirage was the opening map with the Major champions getting things underway on the CT side. Spinx denied s1mple a 1v2 to give Vitality the first round. It was a 4-0 start before NAVI got their first round thank to Aleksib and iM double opener with the upgraded pistols. It was a 7-1 start before a s1mple opener onto ZywOo saw NAVI pick up their second. Those two were the only two rounds NAVI could manage as Vitality just shut down NAVI all over the map, on both sites to take a 13-2 lead at the half.
Vitality's second pistol practically confirmed the map for them and the map was closed at 16-2 with flameZ on top of the Vitality scoreboard with 22 kills.
Vitality's pick was Nuke with NAVI starting on the defensive side. A Magisk triple saw Vitality take the pistol and like Mirage it was another 4-0 start from Vitality before NAVI got their first round thanks to a s1mple double on the CZ75-Auto. NAVI made it three in a row before Vitality go their fifth thanks to a flameZ double which helped them turn around a 4v5. Back-to-back openers from s1mple helped NAVI tie the game at 5-5 before the Ukrainian AWPer came in with yet another multi-kill round to see NAVI take the lead at 6-5. It was back and forth for the rest of the half as Vitality ended with a slender 8-7 lead.
NAVI took the second pistol on Nuke, picking up their first pistol of the series and tying up the score at 8-8. jL helped NAVI see off Vitality's force buy to take the lead at 9-8. A crucial ZywOo double on the A site helped Vitality get their first CT round once they brought out the gun and a flameZ triple saw them tie up the score at 10-10. An apEX solo B hold helped Vitality secure their 14th before iM denied Magisk a 1v3 to get NAVI's 11th. flameZ's triple mow-down from back-site on the top site helped Vitality get on match and series point and Nuke was closed by Vitality at 16-11.
VitalityNatus Vincere| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
48 - 19 | +29 | 96.0 | 88.9% | 1.62 |
 Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
36 - 24 | +12 | 91.7 | 77.8% | 1.35 |
| Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi |
34 - 27 | +7 | 83.8 | 75.6% | 1.24 |
 Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
29 - 24 | +5 | 67.7 | 77.8% | 1.11 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
26 - 30 | -4 | 72.9 | 66.7% | 0.89 |
| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev |
27 - 32 | -5 | 68.1 | 60.0% | 0.91 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
28 - 35 | -7 | 71.0 | 57.8% | 0.91 |
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
25 - 35 | -10 | 63.3 | 64.4% | 0.87 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
24 - 34 | -10 | 52.8 | 57.8% | 0.72 |
 Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius |
19 - 38 | -19 | 60.6 | 48.9% | 0.54 |
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