Esport MeNAVI topple Falcons again to lock IEM Beijing playoff spot
Mihai "iM" Ivan says Natus Vincere's run to the IEM Beijing playoffs, sealed by a dominant Mirage T side against Falcons, proves their turnaround is no fluke.
Natus Vincere have confirmed their place in the IEM Beijing playoffs by beating Falcons for the second time in the event, closing out the series with a flawless T side on Mirage driven by Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy and Mihai "iM" Ivan.
Speaking to HLTV after the win, iM addressed the criticism he has faced during Natus Vincere's difficult Fall season, framing the back-to-back playoff appearances as proof the team is climbing out of a slump against genuine contenders rather than weaker opposition.
"It feels amazing only because we also faced, in both cases, very good teams," he said, adding that the squad had largely met top five or top seven opponents on the way to the result. "Every time we faced very good teams, very good opponents, and then we showed that we could be back."
The series had not started smoothly. iM admitted Natus Vincere lost the opening map to unlucky rounds rather than clear mistakes, saying he had been left shooting opponents down to low health without finishing them off. He called the comeback across the following two maps "unexpected even for me."
Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov's performance on Inferno was central to that turnaround. iM said the team felt like passengers to his teammate's performance: "On Inferno, we were like four kids in his backpack." He added that w0nderful barely missed a shot and was vocal throughout the map, a combination he described as rare to find in a confident AWPer.
On the Mirage T side sweep, iM explained that Natus Vincere benefited from not having faced Falcons' prepared rounds in the earlier meeting, instead executing their own game plan for the first time. He said the side kept "snowballing them" even when individual mistakes crept in, pointing to a missed smoke on Window as one example that the team still absorbed through clutches and multi-kills.
Asked about the sustained criticism directed at him during the rough start to the Fall season, iM said plainly, "I don't care about it." He went on to describe the mindset that has carried him through it: "I learned, like, even one year ago, that if I'm playing good, I'm still -iM. If I'm playing bad, I'm still -iM. What's the point of caring if, whatever you do — winning, losing — you are still -iM?"
On w0nderful's broader form over recent months, iM credited the AWPer's own development rather than any external change, joking that his teammate is playing "in his prime" and praising both his clutch play and his judgement on when to take fights.
Natus Vincere now carry that Mirage and Inferno form into the IEM Beijing playoffs, having beaten Falcons twice across the tournament to secure the spot.