Natus Vincere kicked off their IEM Rio Major with matches against Vitality and Cloud9. So far the team's results can be called mixed: the game with Vitality ended with NAVI's victory after a long fight in overtime (25 – 21), and then «born to win» lost to Cloud9 with a minimal advantage (14 – 16).
The match against Vitality was essentially a confrontation between Alexander «s1mple» Kostylev and European team leader Matthew «ZywOo» Erbo. Throughout the entire match on Mirage, neither team managed to achieve a decisive advantage, and as a result, it took triple overtime to decide the winner.
Natus Vincere's second game of the tournament also took place on Mirage, but it was not as successful. Despite Vitality holding a significant lead in the first half (13 – 7), NAVI was unable to take the game to victory. Their opponents first gained back the difference and then achieved a decisive advantage (14 – 16). Commenting on the failure, s1mple mentioned in his tweet that the reason for the defeat was an unsuccessful game plan and its poor execution.
On the second day of the tournament Natus Vincere will face Liquid, and most analysts believe that the American team will be weaker. Whether this is the case will become clear very soon.