The defending Major champion is just one victory away from the playoff round.

Natus Vincere qualified for group 2-2 of the Qualifiers at the Shanghai Major after a 2-0 victory over GamerLegion. It wasn't the Major champions' best performance, but they regained form after yesterday's heavy loss to Spirit, thus winning a series in which their T-side proved outstanding.

Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan, NAVI's best player in Shanghai, played a key role in the victory on map Nuke, while Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy shined on Mirage. However, Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius continued to have an unexpected performance, with an average score of 0.83 at the Major, making fans wonder if this Lithuanian player can find his form again. best form ahead of the decisive match on Sunday.

Natus Vincere started the series wanting to assert themselves and quickly took control of the Nuke map, leading 7-2 on the CT-side. However, some gunfights were very close, and when GamerLegion won a 2v4 situation thanks to three excellent AWP shots from Henrich "⁠sl3nd⁠" Hevesi, they put NAVI in a difficult position.

GamerLegion maintained the pressure after the break and won the pistol round to close the gap to just one round. However, NAVI quickly responded with a force-buy win, and iM ensured their team took control with a decisive 1v1 in the next round. The remainder of the match turned into a dominant performance as NAVI broke through GamerLegion's defense for a quick 13-6 victory.

Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson's squad seemed unaffected by the defeat as they raced to a 6-1 lead on the Mirage's T-side, with sl3nd once again impressing by pulling off a 1v2 clutch important at B-site. As the match began to lose control, Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy called a timeout to reorganize, and the decision immediately paid off as NAVI controlled the remainder of the match.

Switching to the CT-side, GamerLegion regained the advantage with a solid pistol round, but it didn't last long. NAVI regained control with enough weapons and overwhelmed their opponents with stifling offensive tactics, creating a 7-1 winning streak to secure their place in the fifth round of the Swiss stage.