Image: ESL
NAVI's dominant 2024 season now includes four championships and three second place finishes.
Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) juggernauts Natus Vincere (NAVI) have claimed the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Rio 2024 championship, after a spirited run through the tournament that concluded with a 3-1 victory over MOUZ in the best-of-five grand finals on Monday (October 14).
Along with the lion's share of $100,000 out of the tournament's $250,000 prize pool, NAVI also racked up their fourth title in what has been a dominant season so far.
Both NAVI and MOUZ earned their place in IEM Rio 2024 as ESL partner teams, and were placed together in Group A for the Group Stage. While the two teams each won their opening matches against Imperial Esports and paiN Gaming, respectively, MOUZ were knocked down to the lower bracket by local team FURIA Esports while NAVI defeated Team Liquid to advance to the group's upper bracket finals.
NAVI were then upset by FURIA in the upper bracket finals, which gave the Brazilian squad a direct berth to the semifinals while NAVI had to settle for a quarterfinals start. Meanwhile, MOUZ clawed their way to the other quarterfinal match by going through Complexity and FaZe Clan in Group A's lower bracket.
NAVI bounced back from their previous loss by sweeping through Virtus.pro while MOUZ upset IEM Cologne 2024 champions Team Vitality in a hard-fought 2-1 series.
The semifinals then saw NAVI pull off a 2-1 reverse sweep over HEROIC to become the first team in the grand finals. On the other side of the bracket, MOUZ delivered heartbreak to the Brazilian crowd present by sweeping FURIA out of the tournament and earning the right to challenge NAVI for the IEM Rio 2024 title.
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Natus VincereMOUZ entered the championship round with guns blazing, taking the 7-5 lead as the T side on their map pick at Inferno. NAVI then struck back after the side switch by taking the lead on round 19 and going up 12-9 a couple rounds later. MOUZ then pulled off back-to-back defuse rounds to get within striking distance, only for NAVI to close out the map right after with a 13-11 score.
NAVI then found their rhythm in their map pick at Dust2, as they won the first three rounds as the T side before closing out the first half up 10-2. MOUZ could do little to stop their opponents in the second half from winning three-straight rounds to gain a commanding 2-0 series lead.
With their backs against the wall, MOUZ showed they wouldn't go down without a fight in their second map pick at Mirage. They won six of the first seven rounds as the CT side and ended the first half with a comfortable 8-4 lead. While NAVI managed to score a couple rounds after the side switch, a determined MOUZ squad claimed the 13-6 win at Mirage to bring us to a fourth game.
Even if game four at Ancient was NAVI's map pick, MOUZ looked right at home to start things out as they dominated the first half as the CT side to the tune of a 10-2 lead. NAVI showed signs of life by winning the first three rounds of the second half before MOUZ answered back in round 16.
Despite MOUZ's best effort to stabilise and force the grand finals to a decider, NAVI racked off an incredible eight-round streak to complete the 13-11 comeback in Ancient and secure the IEM Rio 2024 championship.
Justinas "jL" Lekavicius won the MVP award after notching 61 kills on 54 deaths throughout the grand finals, including a masterful 17-kill, five-death performance in Dust2.
Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov (64 kills, 52 deaths) and Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy (60 kills, 57 deaths) also showcased their marksmanship by being the two other players in the finals to reach the 60-kill mark. Meanwhile, Mihai “iM” Ivan (59 kills, 49 deaths) and Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen (47 kills, 44 deaths) proved their resilience by being the only two players in the series to have under 50 deaths.
NAVI now adds the IEM Rio 2024 title to its trophy rack this year that also includes the championships for the PGL Major Copenhagen in March, the Esports World Cup 2024's CS2 tournament in July, and ESL Pro League Season 20 in September. The team's dominant run this year also includes commendable second place finishes in the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024 in June, IEM Cologne 2024 in August, and the BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024 in September.
NAVI will be looking to claim their fifth title this year in the BLAST Premier World Final 2024, which will be hosted from October 30 to November 3 in Singapore. There, NAVI will face seven other CS2 powerhouses for the right to claim the lion's share of a $1 million prize pool and the title of BLAST Premier 2024 world champions.
