Vitality advanced to the playoffs of PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 with a 3-1 record after beating Natus Vincere 2-0. They took NAVI's Inferno pick 13-2 and then won Dust2 13-9 after trailing 3-9.
On Inferno, Vitality dominated across the board. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut made strong early opening duels, while William "mezii" Merriman got a kill in 11 straight rounds on defense. Together with Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and jL, he shut down NAVI's attacks on Banana. Mihai "iM" Ivan had a map to forget: he died in every round of the first half without a kill and finished with 5.1 ADR.
On Dust2, NAVI held a commanding lead at the break, and two of Vitality's three first-half rounds came through clutches. After the side swap, Vitality built a solid CT-side defense and left NAVI with no way in, as they planted the bomb only twice. In the final round, mezii won a 1v2 clutch to complete a run of ten straight rounds.
It was jL's first match against NAVI since he left the organization in July. By the numbers, mezii was the best player of the match with a Rating 3.0 of 1.58, ahead of ZywOo on 1.42. For NAVI, Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov was the top performer with 1.03.
NAVI still have another chance to reach the playoffs after losing to BETBOOM on Monday, but will need to play far better than they did today.