The Ukrainian team Natus Vincere (NAVI) continues to impress the world of esports. On Sunday, 13 October, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), they won another victory at the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 tournament. In the final, NAVI met the German team MOUZ and won with a score of 3:1. This is NAVI’s fourth victory at Tier-1 tournaments in 2024.

Confident start

The tournament started strongly for NAVI. In the first match, the Ukrainians defeated Imperial Esports with a score of 13:2. The next game against Team Liquid also ended in victory, although they had to fight on three maps. In the third round of Group A, NAVI suffered a defeat against the Brazilian team FURIA, ending the fight with a score of 2:0.

An easy path to the quarter-finals

The quarterfinals went smoothly for NAVI. They faced the Outsiders team, where they once again demonstrated their strength. Two maps – Inferno (13:4) and Ancient (13:11) – were confidently closed in favour of the NAVI. This led them to the semi-finals.

Fighting against HEROIC

The semi-final against HEROIC was a real challenge. NAVI lost the first map Ancient with a score of 9:13. Dust 2 also started poorly – the first half ended 9:3 in favour of HEROIC. Nevertheless, NAVI managed to pull themselves together and made an impressive comeback. They won Dust 2 with a score of 16:14 and finished the third map, Mirage, with a victorious 13:6.

The final battle with MOUZ

The final match between NAVI and MOUZ was the culmination of the tournament. The Ukrainians won the first map Inferno with a score of 13:10. On Dust 2, NAVI showed a great game, winning 13:2. Although MOUZ managed to win the third map Mirage (13:6), NAVI confidently consolidated their advantage on the fourth map Ancient, winning the tournament.

“This is the fourth trophy won at the highest level tournaments in a year and the first in the team’s history to be won in Rio. Despite an extremely busy competition schedule, NAVI has proven time and time again that they are No. 1 in the world. I am proud that our team glorifies the name of Ukraine with its high-profile victories! There are two more important tournaments ahead: BLAST World Final and Perfect World Shanghai Major, so it’s too early to relax. In the meantime, we are celebrating our victory at IEM Rio,” said Maksym Krippa, owner of the esports organization NAVI

Players and victories

The following players represented NAVI in the tournament:

• Igor w0nderful Zhdanov (Ukraine)
• Alexi Aleksib Virolainen (Finland)
• Mihai iM Ivan (Romania)
• Justinas jL Lekavicius (Lithuania)
• Valeriy b1t Vakhovsky (Ukraine)

For winning the IEM Rio 2024, NAVI received $100 thousand in prize money and a place in the IEM Katowice 2025 tournament. The next tournament where NAVI will participate is BLAST World Final 2024. It will be held in Singapore on 30 October.

This victory was part of an impressive year for NAVI. This was the team’s seventh final in 2024 and sixth in a row. Earlier, in March, NAVI became the world champions in Counter-Strike 2, and in July, they won the Esports World Cup tournament.