Aurora dominated Natus Vincere to begin their StarSeries Fall campaign, making up for a 0-4 start on Nuke by losing just 11 rounds across the rest of the series (13-8 Nuke, 13-7 Mirage).
It could have been an even more one-sided scoreline had Aurora closed out their 12-3 lead on Mirage sooner, but Ashley "ash" Battye's new squad will be more than happy to walk away with their biggest scalp yet.
Natus Vincere's dreary form in the Fall season continues to ring alarm bells, particularly with their only three wins since the break coming against other struggling teams (3DMAX, The MongolZ, and paiN). This loss leaves them ranked 15th on the live VRS, their lowest-ever placing since the ranking's introduction.
On top of the dismal showing in this series, MOUZ's earlier loss to NRG made this loss for NAVI hurt even more, with VRS analyst Finn "Mischief" Farrer reporting that NAVI's Singapore Major odds have taken a significant blow. With an elimination game against MOUZ looming in the lower bracket, Natus Vincere have precious little time to get back on the horse.
Drin "makazze" Shaqiri has struggled to find his form since Natus Vincere's Cologne Major exit, but looked renewed at the onset of Nuke. It was his multi-kills on A that led NAVI to an early charge on the defense, but that offered little solace as the wheels soon fell off the bus.
Aurora struck back with five straight, with Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo excelling from his lurk positions, before Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy picking up a secondary AWP allowed NAVI to retain a slim lead at the break. Jimpphat continued to be a menace from his difficult positions on the CT side, though, and combined with Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın and Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş to hold a meek NAVI offense to just one round.
Aurora's dominance carried onto Mirage, where they found themselves up 9-1 off the back of some excellent teamplay as NAVI floundered in the mid-rounds, leaving positions unchecked and looking uncoordinated.
Aurora added further misery with a pistol win to rapidly reach match point, and cemented the win with an insult-to-injury force-buy victory closed out by Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski's 1v3 with a Tec-9.
Aurora
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Özgür 'woxic' Eker
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşPast 3 months
Jimi 'Jimpphat' SaloPast 3 months
paiN
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt
Rafael 'saffee' Costa
João 'snow' Vinicius
Lucas 'Tatu' Santana
Rickson 'Rkzinho' Ribeiro Dias
Henrique 'rikz' Waku
Valeriy 'b1t' VakhovskiyPast 3 months
NRG
Nick 'nitr0' Cannella
Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek
Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli
Michael 'Grim' Wince
Jeorge 'Jeorge' Endicott
Damian 'daps' Steele
3DMAX
Bryan 'Maka' Canda
Lucas 'Lucky' Chastang
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier
Jeremy 'Kursy' Gast
Filip 'Graviti' Brankovic
Damien 'wasiNk' Dufour
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Natus Vincere
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy
Drin 'makazze' ShaqiriPast 3 months
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar YalçınPast 3 months
MOUZ
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Damjan 'kyxsan' StoilkovskiPast 3 months
The MongolZ
Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren
Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold
Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch
Erdenedalai 'maaRaa' Bayanbat