Natus Vincere came out swinging on Inferno at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, taking the opening map convincingly against Team Spirit in their Stage 3 debut on June 11. For about 45 minutes, it looked like NAVI was going to bulldoze one of the best teams in Counter-Strike 2.
Then Spirit remembered they were pretty good at this game too. NAVI lost the best-of-three series 0-2, which, yes, means they won the first map and then dropped the next two.
The Inferno that wasn’t enough
Spirit regrouped between maps and systematically dismantled NAVI across the remaining two games. The match kicked off at 18:30 CEST in what was supposed to be NAVI’s statement game entering Stage 3.
What the IEM Cologne Major looks like in 2026
