The curse is over. Natus Vincere finally beat Team Vitality at IEM Atlanta 2026, ending a nine-series losing streak against the world’s No. 1 side with a 2-1 quarter-final win. Dust2 went 11-13 to Vitality, NAVI edged Anubis 13-11, then dropped a 13-3 Inferno demolition on Vitality to close it.
The veto was the plan
NAVI coach Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy told HLTV the team specifically targeted Inferno because Vitality had barely played the map since IEM Rio and avoided it entirely in Fort Worth. ‘Beating Vitality in any condition is benefiting us hugely,’ B1ad3 said. The 13-3 closeout is one of the worst playoff losses of Vitality’s season — and a clear signal that the prep paid off.
The streaks that ended
Vitality lost three records in a single Bo3: 21 consecutive top-four tournament finishes, 28 straight playoff map wins, and nine straight series wins over NAVI. ropz had already admitted publicly Vitality entered Atlanta without practice and that the event wasn’t a priority — and BetBoom’s earlier 2-1 upset over Vitality had already exposed cracks in the dominant structure.
The mentality piece
NAVI captain Aleksib pointed to mentality as the breakthrough: ‘It’s just the mentality.’ iM called it ‘the curse being lifted.’ b1t singled out iM’s late-round play on Anubis as the match-winning sequence. NAVI face BetBoom in the semi-final — another CIS-region rivalry — and B1ad3 confirmed the team will run a full bootcamp before IEM Cologne.
