Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #5 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Zyppan Pontus Eek SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin ardiis Ardis Svarenieks have defeated KOI KOI Europe Rank #166 kamo Kamil Frąckowiak ShadoW Tobias Flodström grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko starxo Patryk Kopczynski sheydos Bogdan Naumov 3-0 in the lower bracket final of the VCT EMEA Last Chance Qualifier. NAVI will join Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin as one of two EMEA teams to qualify for Champions 2023 through the EMEA LCQ. Meanwhile, KOI have ended their season with a 4-10 overall record.

Split was a close affair going 14-12 in the favor of NAVI. NAVI proceeded to take Pearl 13-10 and Fracture 13-9. This marked the first time NAVI had won against KOI since the start of VCT EMEA.

“I think we have a lot of expectations of ourselves. Everyone has expectations for us. And it's been really hard to be in a slump, because we've been in a slump – we really have,” Erik said in his post-match interview. “After the FNATIC loss, we kind of went in a downswing for a really long time. I think some of us just needed a win to kind of break that and get out of it.”

Kyrylo “ANGE1” Karasov of Natus Vincere reacts while competing (Photo by Hara Amorós/Riot Games)

To start off the series, KOI won a flawless round one defense. On round four, sheydos won a 1v1 clutch against the clutch-god himself Shao . On round nine, trexx took down cNed in a 1v1 after the Jett player landed three consecutive kills in a heroic effort to win a 2v4 for his team.

KOI ended the half up 7-5 but lost their lead after halftime. NAVI took five rounds in a row to reach double digits. Round 17 highlighted NAVI's coordination: Shao threw a Seize, catching two KOI players outside of A Main. Zyppan on Raze obtained a quick 2K with a Paint Shells kill and a Showstopper kill off of Shao's Seize, leading to a Flawless round for NAVI.

koldamenta isolated the NAVI players in a 1v3 with spike dropped on site and the KOI players won two thrifties to bring the map to overtime. Despite their best efforts, they weren't able to take the momentum into overtime. NAVI steamrolled into B on the attack and Zyppan hit a cold 4k. Then, on their defense, NAVI cold-read KOI's fake to A and were ready for them on B, earning the kills and seizing the map

While cNed usually played Sage on Split, NAVI chose to put the star Turkish player on Jett for their third match-up against KOI. The effect was immediate. Across the board, his stats were improved, and he ended the series 21/13/6.

While KOI originally won round four of Pearl, the teams were required to redo the round after a lengthy technical pause. This time, NAVI took the round, and they snowballed into a 10-2 lead. cNed had a standout performance on attack, going 5-0 in first kills to first deaths and acing in the final round of the half.

KOI weren't about to go down with a fight. They took the first four rounds of their attack before NAVI reached map point. Afterwards, the individual players on KOI shined: trexx won a 1v2 to keep his team alive on a knife's edge, then starxo bought enough time for the spike to explode in another 1v2 scenario.

The KOI players were able to stay in the game for two more rounds before NAVI cleaned up the map 13-10.

NAVI entered Fracture with new roles and a new composition. ANGE1 had been taken off Yoru while Zyppan was moved onto Raze. Meanwhile, cNed made his debut on Killjoy.

“Mehmet [cNed] is like, ‘I can play anything, I can play anything, it's fine, put me on anything' so okay, you can play Killjoy. It's fine, it's gonna be a good match, you know?” d00mbr0s explained about the pick. “The good thing about him is that he kind of accepts that he won't be as good.”

NAVI got off to a rocky start with their new composition. Despite winning the pistol and subsequent anti-eco round, they struggled on the defense. cNed's discomfort with Killjoy was obvious, as he went 1/9/2 with the agent in the first half.

But the team turned it up on offense. SUYGETSU scored himself an ace in a 3v5 situation to win NAVI a seemingly impossible pistol round. NAVI carried their guns into round fifteen after a flawless round fourteen, winning their bonus round and securing round sixteen off the back of KOI's save.

They had turned their own two-round deficit into a two-round deficit for KOI. KOI seemed poised to tie up the series in round 18 after trades went in their favor and they were up 3v2, but the odds flipped when Zyppan landed a Showstopper and ANGE1 won his duel against sheydos.

KOI struggled with their economy after several consecutive losses to their numbers. They were forced to retreat and save twice, banking on their ability to win three rounds in a row to catch up to NAVI's map point and take the map to overtime.

Unfortunately for KOI, NAVI were done playing. After KOI's brief time out, ANGE1 and SUYGETSU overwhelmed starxo and koldamenta on the B site in a 2v2 situation. They killed the KOI players seconds before they were about to defuse and won the series for NAVI.

With this win, the NAVI core have qualified for their fifth international event. After defeating former teammate starxo, cNed has also secured himself a ticket back to Champions for the first time since Acend Acend Europe Rank #10 ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi Br0die Jack Emmott baddyG Kamil Graniczka chiwa Egor Stepanyuk Vuubit Roope Eilola 's inaugural season victory.