NAVI pull off monumental comeback from 4–11 on Dust2 to defeat Aurora and advance to TWC playoffs

NAVI pull off monumental comeback from 4–11 on Dust2 to defeat Aurora and advance to TWC playoffs

Natus Vincere secured their spot in the Thunderpick World Championship 2025 playoffs by edging out Aurora in a gritty 2–1 series. The final scores read 4–13 on Nuke, 13–6 on Mirage, 13–11 on Dust2. 

After dropping Nuke, NAVI bounced back in domination on their own Mirage pick. But it was the Dust2 decider that would go down to the wire. Aurora stormed ahead to a commanding 11–4 lead, only for NAVI to mount an impressive nine-round comeback and clinch the match. 

Aurora — despite early momentum — faltered late, especially in their offense and post-plant situations. 

On Nuke, Aurora’s defense looked locked in. Natus Vincere struggled to find footing; players like Drin “makazze” Shaqiri (1:7) and Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy (0:6) were largely neutralized in opening duels. Meanwhile, Özgür “woxic” Eker shone, posting a 1.84 rating, 4:1 first-kill differential, and delivering a key 1v3 clutch to secure map point. 

With this victory, NAVI moves on while Aurora still has a pathway via the Group B decider, where they’ll meet the winner of Imperial vs Venom later Friday. 

Notably, this isn’t the first time these two squads clashed recently — earlier in October 2025, NAVI swept Aurora 2–0 to begin their ESL Pro League campaign, taking Nuke 13–9 and Dust2 13–10.