Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen's side are one of the only favorites to pick up a win after returning for the bracket stage.
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 | Monte 15:30  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 3Natus Vincere
Matchpage 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' Wodarz
Mateusz 'mantuu' WilczewskiDavid 'prosus' HesseKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaElias 's1n' Stein Fatih 'gob b' Dayik 
Liquid #14 
Keith 'NAF' Markovic
Josh 'oSee' Ohm
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov
Robert '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' Andersen
Håvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken
Robin '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' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanLotan 'Spinx' Giladi Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
farmskins
