On Saturday it became known that Natus Vincere in-game leader Kirill “boombl4” Mikhailov will be able to continue participating in IEM Katowice, performing in the usual format. A player no longer needs to quarantine after testing negative for coronavirus twice.
He was previously expected to remain in quarantine throughout the group stage, as Polish law requires self-isolation to be seven days. However, after two negative PCR tests and consultations with local health authorities, the player was allowed to join his teammates.
Despite the fact that boombl4 was forced to participate online in NAVI's first match at the tournament, the CIS team was able to beat ENCE with a score of 2 – 1, despite the fact that the European team played aggressively and dynamically, forcing Natus Vincere to defend several times and regain their lost advantage. On the first map (Mirage), NAVI showed overwhelming superiority (16 - 8), but then they themselves lost to Nuke with an even larger gap (4 - 16). The outcome of the match was decided on Overpass, where the players from the CIS maintained their advantage with a minimal margin (16 - 14), largely thanks to the efforts of Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutsky.
