NAVI Rally From 2:10 Down to Eliminate paiN in Porto
NAVI defeated paiN 2:0 in Group A Lower Round 1 at BLAST Open Porto 2026, eliminating the Brazilian side and keeping their own tournament run alive by closing out a 13:9 Nuke win before recovering from a 2:10 halftime deficit to take Mirage 13:11.
Both teams entered the series with zero margin for error. NAVI had dropped to the lower bracket after a 1:2 loss to M80 in their opening match, while paiN were sent down after a 0:2 defeat to FURIA. The loser of this Bo3 was locked into a 13th–16th place finish.
From a Tight Nuke to NAVI’s Mirage Comeback
Nuke, paiN’s map pick, was even through the first half at 6:6 before NAVI took over on the CT side, winning seven of the next ten rounds to close it out 13:9. Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov led the map with a 20–10 scoreline, 86.2 ADR and a 1.50 Rating 3.0, with Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri adding a 1.27 rating. João ‘snow’ Vinicius was paiN’s best performer at 1.29.
Mirage, NAVI’s own pick, looked like it was heading to a decider after paiN built a 10:2 lead heading into the second half. NAVI then won 11 of the remaining 12 rounds, conceding only a single T-side round to paiN, and closed the map 13:11 to finish the series 2:0.
makazze Leads the Series
Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri was named Player of the Match, finishing the series 34–31 with 87.7 ADR and a 1.28 Rating 3.0 – the highest mark on NAVI’s roster across both maps. His individual numbers were strongest during the Mirage turnaround, where he posted an 18–15 scoreline, 77.7 ADR and a 1.41 Rating 3.0.
w0nderful backed him up with a 1.18 Rating 3.0 and a 32–25 K–D across the series, while Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy finished at 1.02. paiN still had two players finish above a 1.00 rating despite the loss – snow at 1.21 with a 39–32 scoreline and Vinicius ‘vsm’ Moreira at 1.12 – though Rafael ‘saffee’ Costa struggled to a 0.63 Rating 3.0.
NAVI Move On, paiN Bow Out
The result eliminates paiN from BLAST Open Porto 2026 and sends NAVI into the Group A lower-bracket semifinal against G2 on August 30. G2 dropped into the same bracket after a 0:2 loss to Spirit in their upper semifinal.
Whoever wins that series advances to the Group A lower-bracket final and moves one series away from a playoff place, with the loser eliminated outright. The win also moved NAVI up the VRS rankings, gaining 34 points to reach 1,664 and climbing from #11 to #10, while paiN dropped five points to 1,344 and remain 35th.
Source: Skin.Club Community News
