What to expect from paiN v. Natus Vincere

In the Opening Stage, FURIA was climbing back from an 0-2 start and ended up meeting SAW who had jumped out to the 2-0, just to fall to 2-2. In the end FURIA would defeat the Portuguese side and advance to the Elimination round. Now, paiN has the opportunity to do something similar. Starting 0-2, the squad has somehow climbed back up the ladder to make a stand with one final match against a European opponent who also started 2-0; Natus Vincere.

Also read: nqz: "No matter the result, I'm really proud of the boys"

paiN never say die

They fight tirelessly against TheMongolz, they dominated against HEROIC, now they have the shot at completing the reverse sweep and keeping the Americas spot alive in the Elimination Stage. The team continues to fire on all cylinders as Lucas "nqz" Soares finally is hitting his stride.

biguzera is back to his dominating form
nqz is still inconsistent, so let's hope he's on the upswing today
lux has to continue being a solid pillar for the team's T-side

NAVI's consistent problem

This is a team that is struggling in several areas, without a clear direction on how they will climb back to the top. Ivan "iM" Mihai has looked the worst he has all year. With a crucial match against an upbeat Brazilian squad, he needs to figure out how to get back into the server, and needs to figure that out now.

iM could be a crucial weak point
aleksiB's calling has to be strong against a strong CT-sided squad
Will jL have to carry the squad once again?

Also read: Jason Lake: "We will improve"

Previous Matchups

The two squads have never played one another.

Likely Vetoes

paiN will have a tough time in the veto against Natus Vincere as they don't play either Overpass nor Ancient, while the European squad doesn't play Vertigo. The two sides will cut out some crucial maps against one another.

paiN ban Ancient
NAVI ban Vertigo
paiN pick Nuke
NAVI pick Overpass
NAVI ban Inferno
paiN ban Anubis
Decider is Mirage

paiN will need to somehow learn how to play Overpass in the next few hours since their Mirage will not be enough to win this in three maps. The odds are stacked against the Brazilian side.

PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024

Bo3

Natus Vincere

2 - 0

paiN

All maps

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Justinas 'jL' Lekavicius	37 - 24	+13	87.3	77.8%	1.32
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy	37 - 28	+9	83.7	75.6%	1.31
Mihai 'iM' Ivan	29 - 28	+1	78.2	64.4%	1.10
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen	25 - 28	-3	67.1	68.9%	0.99
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov	27 - 31	-4	62.3	71.1%	0.92

paiN	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 2.0
Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt	32 - 31	+1	78.6	66.7%	1.07
Lucas 'lux' Meneghini	29 - 34	-5	74.4	73.3%	1.04
Lucas 'nqz' Soares	24 - 26	-2	69.2	71.1%	0.99
Vinicius 'n1ssim' Pereira	27 - 30	-3	58.3	64.4%	0.91
Kaue 'kauez' Kaschuk	25 - 34	-9	56.2	62.2%	0.74