Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's side are one of the only favorites to pick up a win after returning for the bracket stage.

s1mple and iM led the server for NAVI

Natus Vincere has brought an end to Eternal Fire's surprise run in ESL Pro League Season 18, brushing aside the Turkish team with controlled victories on Anubis (16-7) and Nuke (16-10).

The European combine were firing on all cylinders from the start of the series, while the excellence and individual prowess that helped Eternal Fire make it this far was rarely seen.

Ali "⁠Wicadia⁠" Haydar Yalçın slumped over in his chair and had clear disappointment on his face after the match concluded, but he and the Turkish squad as a whole should still walk away with their heads held high after picking up some impressive scalps in their Pro League journey, defeating 9INE, Cloud9, Liquid, Astralis, and BIG en route to their top-eight finish.

Natus Vincere, meanwhile, have positioned themselves as strong contenders to fight for the Pro League title, especially after Vitality were knocked out by Monte earlier in the day.

That result also means that Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy will face Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev in a bit of a grudge match for their semi-final, with Monte having sent the previous NAVI lineup to the 2-2 elimination pool in the BLAST.tv Paris Major Legends Stage where they were subsequently sent packing by FaZe.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
30/09/2023	Monte15:30 Natus Vincere	Match

Eternal Fire couldn't get anything going at the start of their Anubis pick, a masterclass T side called by Aleksib and individual plays from his team absolutely blowing the Turkish side out of the server.

NAVI were up 9-1 before Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli and company began to claw back, pushing up to five rounds at halftime, but the European squad didn't concede control at any point and closed things out shortly into their own defensive effort.

Pressure kept piling on for Eternal Fire as Natus Vincere had another stellar start on the T side of their own map pick of Nuke, garnering seven unanswered rounds thanks to multi-fragging from Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan and s1mple. Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker gave his team a fighting chance toward the latter portion of the half, helping to recover five rounds, but s1mple continued to shine after the side swap and ensured that Natus Vincere wouldn't let victory slip away.

ESL Pro League Season 18Best of 3 Natus VincereMatchpage 2 0 28th September 2023 Eternal Fire 16Anubis 7 16Nuke 10

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	43 - 29	+14	88.3	1.42
Mihai 'iM' IvaniM	38 - 26	+12	85.7	1.29
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t	36 - 23	+13	67.6	1.24
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusjL	30 - 26	+4	68.7	1.12
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenAleksib	28 - 28	0	68.7	1.03

Eternal Fire	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Özgür 'woxic' Ekerwoxic	30 - 32	-2	67.7	0.99
Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliMAJ3R	31 - 38	-7	77.3	0.98
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES	26 - 28	-2	69.5	0.94
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar YalçınWicadia	26 - 40	-14	63.1	0.78
Buğra 'Calyx' ArkınCalyx	18 - 37	-19	39.1	0.55

Natus Vincere #7 Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievMihai 'iM' IvanValeriy 'b1t' VakhovskiyJustinas 'jL' Lekavicius Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy BIG #20 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzMateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiDavid 'prosus' HesseKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Fatih 'gob b' Dayik Liquid #14 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisAleks 'Rainwaker' PetrovRobert 'Patsi' Isyanov Damian 'daps' Steele Mihai 'iM' Ivan Age: 24 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 971 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.69 FaZe #6 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Filip 'NEO' Kubski Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Age: 20 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 616 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.63 Astralis #5 Nicolai 'device' ReedtzJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupBenjamin 'blameF' BremerVictor 'Staehr' StaehrChristian 'Buzz' Andersen Peter 'casle' Ardenskjold Eternal Fire #25 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAli 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın Sezgin 'Fabre' Kalaycı 9INE #23 Wiktor 'mynio' KrukKrzysztof 'Goofy' GórskiOlek 'hades' MiskiewiczKamil 'KEi' PietkunKacper 'Kylar' Walukiewicz Piotr 'nawrot' Nawrocki Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli Age: 32 Team: Eternal Fire Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 1272 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.66 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen Age: 26 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 1189 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.65 Cloud9 #8 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovDenis 'electroNic' SharipovSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev Age: 26 Team: Monte Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1436 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.63 Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın Age: 18 Team: Eternal Fire Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 175 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.71 Özgür 'woxic' Eker Age: 25 Team: Eternal Fire Rating 1.0: 1.12 Maps played: 1332 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.61 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Age: 25 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 1719 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.63 Monte #13 Viktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAlexander 'br0' BroVolodymyr 'Woro2k' VeletniukSergiy 'DemQQ' DemchenkoSzymon 'kRaSnaL' Mrozek Sergey 'lmbt' Bezhanov Vitality #1 Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautShahar 'flameZ' ShushanLotan 'Spinx' Giladi Danny 'zonic' Sørensen