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NAVI vs Heroic: IEM Rio Playoffs Preview and Prediction
Natus Vincere breezed past Virtus.Pro to secure a spot in the semifinals of IEM Rio where they’ll meet a tenacious Heroic.
The quarterfinals started with a spectacular show on Inferno where NAVI had Virtus.Pro on the palm of their hand. From a strong CT side highlighted by Mihai "iM" Ivan and Valerij "b1t" Vakhovsjkyj’s impact, to an impressive T side that quickly ended Inferno on 13-4.
The second map, Ancient, carried a different story as the Russian squad put an effort into getting back to the game with a proactive defense often catching NAVI off guard. Despite the first half being a tug of war, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen’s team ran with the map on the second half to reach 12-8 and escaped a trippy overtime at the last round, ending the map at 13-11.
As expected, NAVI had a significant improvement in their first playoffs series compared to the group stage which might be enough to give them the edge over Heroic.
Heroic under the radar
Coming into IEM Rio, expectations were low for Heroic considering their shaky results throughout the year. Yet, they showed their prowess in the group stage by taking down two title contenders: G2 Esports and Team Vitality.
Without a shred of pressure behind them, the individual players thrived by taking over the stats leaderboard with four players sitting within the top ten performers in this event. Notably, René "TeSeS" Madsen who’s going neck to neck against Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato in average damage dealt, kills per round, and impact rating.
This in addition to their diverse map pool allowed them to deliver good Counter-Strike, on top of being the best rated team with 60.7% round win percentage, 83.9% in 5v4s, 35.3% win rate after giving the opening death and effective team trading with 24.3%.
All of these stats are indications of how much can Heroic achieve in this event, but will it be enough to win against NAVI?
Prediction: NAVI to reach the grand final
The black and yellow beast had a powerful surge on their first stage appearance. Compared to their group stage run, NAVI played with conviction, making a statement in Rio as the best team in the world.
Yes, one might argue that Virtus.Pro isn’t the toughest opponent, but it’s important to note the sharp shooting and mid-round calls from Aleksib as it was a step up from BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024. Additionally, the individual players finding their footing again will be crucial as witnessed in the quarterfinals with Justinas “jL” Lekavicius finding multi kills per round.
On paper, Heroic are better but as NAVI proved, there are more elements that go into a win than stats and numbers. For that, we expect the Ukrainian organization to reach its seventh grand final this year.
Be sure to catch the action as it unfolds on the official ESL Twitch channel and keep a tab on Strafe for the latest news regarding IEM Rio.
Featured Image source: ESL, edited by Strafe Esports
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