Natus Vincere are into the semi-finals of IEM Beijing after beating PARIVISION 2-1 on November 6. NAVI lost Mirage 14-16, then answered with 13-9 on Inferno and 13-10 on Ancient to lock in a top-four finish in China.
The result adds another step to NAVI’s late-season rise. After repeated early exits, they have now put together back-to-back playoff runs, and Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov has been a major reason for the turnaround. The 21-year-old AWPer was the most consistent player in the series and finished comfortably ahead of anyone else on the server across all three maps.
Mirage starts badly, then turns chaotic
NAVI opened the veto by selecting Mirage, despite it being their weakest map in a seven-map pool. It was also a map PARIVISION were expected to handle well, and the opening half quickly turned against Natus Vincere. After a pistol-round win, NAVI reached a 3-0 start, but the gun rounds shifted the map sharply. Dzhami “Jame” Ali repeatedly found openings, while Ivan “zweih” Gogin added several high-impact rounds to help PARIVISION run away to a 9-3 lead at the break.
PARIVISION then won the second-half pistol on the CT side and looked set to finish the map without much trouble. w0nderful changed that momentum. The Ukrainian sniper answered with openings and multi-kill rounds of his own, matching the influence PARIVISION had built in the first half. Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen then made two late contributions that pushed the map to overtime.
In OT, PARIVISION regained control. Vladislav “xiELO” Lysov helped break open A with a crucial T-side round, and zweih took over at the end of the map with a late CT surge. That stretch denied NAVI the comeback and gave PARIVISION the first map of the series.
The sequence made NAVI’s opening gamble look costly, but it also set up the rest of the series. They had spent Mirage chasing PARIVISION’s tempo rather than dictating it, and the loss left them needing a much cleaner response on their own maps.
w0nderful steadies Inferno
Inferno followed a similar early script, with PARIVISION again starting quickly. Their T side opened with a 4-0 lead, and NAVI once again had to play catch-up. This time, though, w0nderful settled the map almost by himself. He produced multi-kill rounds in nearly every NAVI CT-round win, stopping PARIVISION from turning their early advantage into a decisive lead.
Once the teams switched sides, Aleksib found a far better plan. NAVI’s T side looked more organised, and Drin “makazze” Shaqiri supplied a series of entry kills that helped open rounds and keep PARIVISION on the back foot. NAVI levelled the series comfortably, and Inferno never really recovered for PARIVISION after NAVI found their rhythm on attack.
The difference from Mirage was clear. On Inferno, NAVI did not need a frantic comeback at the end of regulation. They used w0nderful’s impact to hold the map together early, then used cleaner mid-round calling and more direct entries to take control after the side switch. The map showed how much more stable they can look when the opening rounds go their way, even after another slow start.
HLTV’s account of the series treats Inferno as the point where NAVI stopped reacting and started forcing PARIVISION to answer them. That shift carried into the decider, where the match became much less about individual bursts and more about who could keep winning the small fights around map control.
Ancient comes down to the last swings
Ancient was the most back-and-forth map of the series. NAVI took a proactive CT approach early, pushing into Middle and through B to build a strong lead. PARIVISION were able to stop the scoreline from getting out of hand, though. Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev and Abay “HObbit” Khassenov each produced a solo-carry round to keep their side within reach.
The second half moved in short runs rather than long streaks. Each team collected a few rounds, then adjusted and answered back. PARIVISION leaned on FL1T to stay alive, while NAVI turned to Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy when they needed the final openings. In the end, b1t won the key round by finding two entries on a B rush, closing out the map and completing the reverse sweep.
That finish sent Natus Vincere into the semi-finals and kept their recent run alive in Beijing. The team’s turnaround has been built on cleaner playoff-level performances after a string of early exits, and this series fit that pattern again: they dropped the opener, recovered on the next two maps, and handled the pressure on Ancient when the series was still in doubt.
PARIVISION had enough impact to win a map and threaten on the others, but they could not turn their starts into a second victory. Jame controlled large parts of Mirage’s first half, zweih made his late rounds count, and FL1T remained dangerous on Ancient, yet NAVI found more from w0nderful, a steadier offense on Inferno, and the closing entries from b1t when it mattered most.
The series also showed how flexible NAVI have become during this late push. They were willing to risk Mirage in the opening veto, absorbed the loss when it failed, and adjusted enough to take the next two maps. That ability to recover without losing shape has been a feature of their recent results, and it was enough here to push them one step closer to the title match in Beijing.
w0nderful carrying three maps like that is the real story here. when your AWPer is this steady, a messy 14-16 on Mirage stops being fatal