This was the sixth consecutive LAN final for Aleksib's squad, who had to work hard to win this series.

Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen's team reached the finals of IEM Rio 2024 thanks to a 2-1 win over HEROIC. They fought back from being down 9-3 on Dust2 after losing on their chosen Ancient map, and extended their streak of reaching LAN finals to six.

HEROIC must have felt like they were sure to win this series. However, they lost their advantage after losing a big advantage and were completely outmatched on the decisive map Mirage. However, this cannot overshadow their impressive performance against the world's No. 1 team.

After the match, Aleksib said he was confident in coming back after winning on Dust2. "I knew it was over," he shared with James "Banks" Banks on stage.

For the second time in the playoffs, NAVI played against a team with a bigger crowd. If FURIA defeats MOUZ in the other semi-final, the situation will be even more difficult on Sunday, but Aleksib remains undeterred. "I want to play against FURIA in the final," he said. "That would be great."

HEROIC started off strong on Ancient as they jumped out to a 7-1 lead on the CT side. NAVI had difficulty finding their offensive rhythm, and had to rely on triple kills from Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy and Justinas "jL" Lekavicius to keep the score at 8-4. end of first half.

NAVI's star duo continued to score points in the second half as their team tried to close the gap from 10-4. But with only two excellent players, NAVI cannot deal with HEROIC. Lacking the presence of a strong AWP — Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov was largely absent from the match —, NAVI was unable to prevent its opponents from dominating.

Dust2 started off almost identically to the previous map as HEROIC continued to take control from the start. Even though they had fewer opening kills than NAVI in the first half (5-7), they still easily overcame their opponents and held a 9-3 advantage.

And then there was NAVI's comeback. After a lackluster performance on Ancient, w0nderful shined with AWP and kept his team in the game with key opening shots and multi-kills. He almost made NAVI pay with a missed shot in round 23, but the team kept their composure in the final round to drag the match into overtime, where they defeated HEROIC.

Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski gave HEROIC an early advantage on Mirage, but that didn't last long. Natus Vincere controlled the match once they had enough money, and only lost one gun round throughout the half, with jL leading with a score of 15-7 and an ADR of 117.

NAVI did not give HEROIC a chance to counterattack and continued to increase the gap after winning the next pistol round. HEROIC tried to respond, but NAVI regained momentum and quickly ended the series.