Aurora finally get their result: they sweep NAVI and sink the defending champions

Three months of searching, and it arrived in Barcelona. Aurora beat Natus Vincere 2-0 in their StarSeries Fall opener, and not in any old fashion: Nuke 13-8 and Mirage 13-7, delivering what HLTV describes as the best win yet for ash's project.

The detail that best captures the match is how it started. Aurora opened Nuke 0-4 down. From that point until the end of the series, they conceded just 11 rounds in total. And it could have been even worse for the Ukrainians: on Mirage, Aurora went 12-3 up before easing off and letting the scoreline tidy itself.

The result the revolution needed

For anyone who followed Aurora's summer, this is the first genuine validation.

Let's retrace the road, because it's dizzying. In June, coach Fabre left after almost four years. ash arrived from GamerLegion and Jimpphat from MOUZ. MAJ3R stepped down, soulfly was benched, and as the final piece came kyxsan as in-game leader — the same man Falcons cast aside a month before winning the Major.

What followed was uneven bordering on disappointing: knocked out of BLAST Bounty by FOKUS without even reaching the Malta LAN, out in the Esports World Cup Round of 16 to FURIA, and failing to clear the BLAST Open Porto group stage. The question hanging over them was whether a revolution that size had achieved anything.

Beating the tournament's defending champions 2-0 doesn't fully answer that question, but it's the first solid argument in its favor.

The other side: NAVI hit rock bottom

Because this story has a far darker face. The defeat leaves Natus Vincere 15th in the live VRS ranking, their worst position since the ranking was introduced.

It isn't an isolated stumble but confirmation of a worrying trend. Since the summer break, their only three wins have come against 3DMAX, The MongolZ, and paiN — three teams navigating problems of their own. Against opponents in form, they don't win.

And the context rubs salt in the wound: NAVI arrived in Barcelona as StarSeries Fall's defending champions, and did so at the twentieth edition of the format, complete with a commemorative anniversary trophy. Losing 0-2 in their first match, in that setting, is among the worst possible ways to begin.

It's also worth recalling the starting point: this is a team that won the Copenhagen Major in 2024 and parted ways with jL, that tournament's MVP, on July 1.

What comes next

The format offers no respite. With double elimination and no group stage, NAVI drop to the lower bracket, where the next defeat sends them home. Aurora, meanwhile, advance to the upper bracket semi-final and need fewer wins to reach Sunday's final.

For the Turkish side, the opportunity is obvious: neither Spirit nor Falcons are in Barcelona, and MOUZ have already dropped to the lower bracket after losing to NRG. The path to a trophy that would justify the summer will never be this clear again.

And with November's Singapore Major approaching, every VRS point handed out here decides who will be there. For NAVI, sitting 15th, that conversation is no longer theoretical.

Source: HLTV, StarLadder.