NAVI will start the Gauntlet stage from the last seed in Group B after two consecutive losses. With back-to-back-to-back titles including the PGL Major Stockholm trophy in their back pocket, Natus Vincere entered the new season looking to continue establishing their era as one of the few teams not to make changes during the break. But while some of the new constellations such as G2 and OG have thrived in their debut matches in the new year, for the world's best team the first day of the new season in Group B at BLAST Premier Spring Groups was one to forget. In the opening best-of-one, NAVI suffered a shock loss on Dust2 at the hands of an MIBR team competing at the event with a stand-in, while the usually ever-present Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev went missing. Now, they have finished the first stage of the tournament in last place, faltering to Astralis after a chaotic affair on Mirage, which came down to the wire after Natus Vincere came back from 9-15 to force overtime. After placing last in Group B, NAVI are now on the verge of elimination from the tournament going into the new Gauntlet stage that BLAST has introduced for the spring season. On Thursday, s1mple and company will face Group C's third-placed team in a do-or-die series before they can breathe a little easier again, as they'll have a couple of chances to qualify for the Spring Final in case they come out victorious from the first best-of-three.Natus Vincere
Matchpage 17 19 29th January 2022
Astralis 17Mirage 19
Natus Vincere
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple
28 - 23 +5 76.9 1.13 Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t
25 - 23 +2 83.4 1.12 Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic
22 - 22 0 77.7 1.07 Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4
27 - 23 +4 73.4 1.06 Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto
22 - 24 -2 69.9 1.00 Astralis
K - D +/- ADR Rating 2.0 Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF
33 - 24 +9 96.2 1.25 Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig
28 - 28 0 87.4 1.10 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethXyp9x
18 - 22 -4 61.2 0.93 Philip 'Lucky' EwaldLucky
20 - 24 -4 58.6 0.84 Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossandergla1ve
16 - 27 -11 58.3 0.72 OG #16
Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså
Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen
Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
Astralis #8
Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth
Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke
Philip 'Lucky' Ewald
Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer
Natus Vincere #1
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy
G2 #4
Audric 'JACKZ' Jug
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev
Age: 24 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.25 Maps played: 1485 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.64
MIBR #56
Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes
Raphael 'exit' Lacerda
Adriano 'WOOD7' Cerato
Matheus 'Tuurtle' Anhaia
Jhonatan 'JOTA' Willian