Falcons and Natus Vincere meet in IEM Beijing lower-bracket final

Falcons and Natus Vincere (NAVI) won their IEM Beijing lower-bracket semi-finals 2-0 against HEROIC and B8, respectively, and will face each other later in the day for a place in the playoffs.

Falcons beat HEROIC

Falcons were the first to secure their place, keeping HEROIC below double digits on both maps. They won 13-8 on Ancient and 13-6 on Dust2.

Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin was the standout player of the series, finishing with a 1.90 rating, a +7.08% swing, and 114.7 ADR. His 2.17 rating on Dust2 was his third-highest at a major LAN event. René 'TeSeS' Madsen, Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov and Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač also finished with positive swings, while Finn 'karrigan' Andersen had a difficult series with a 0.65 rating.

Natus Vincere edge B8

Natus Vincere eliminated B8 shortly after Falcons' win, but needed more time to do so. After taking the opening map on Ancient 13-8, they had to work harder on Dust2.

Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen and his teammates led 12-7 on the T side after a 6-6 half and appeared on course to close the map early. B8 mounted a late comeback, but Natus Vincere won the final round of regulation to take the map 13-11 and the series with it.

Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov was the top performer for Natus Vincere, with a 1.45 rating and 86.8 ADR. Aleksib followed with a 1.35 rating, and Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy added 1.27. For B8, Alexey 'alex666' Yarmoshchuk posted a 1.20 rating.

Playoff place on the line

Both teams have now reached the final lower-bracket match, where the winner will take the remaining playoff spot at IEM Beijing. The match is scheduled for later in the day, with the start listed at 10:30 on 4 November 2026.