M80 opened BLAST Open Porto on August 26 with a 2-1 upset over Natus Vincere, HLTV reports, handing the North American side their biggest scalp in months and extending what HLTV calls NAVI's early-season woes.
The series did not start that way. Natus Vincere took the Anubis opener, controlling the tempo with a dominant Terrorist side, before M80 answered with convincing wins on Mirage and Inferno.
Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich carried much of that turnaround. The German AWPer was central to the eight rounds M80 took on the Mirage defence, and closed the defensive half of Inferno with a quad-kill. Josh "JBa" Barutt then rounded out a perfect Terrorist half on the map with a 1v3 clutch for match point.
M80's first top-10 win since March
M80 went into the match as heavy underdogs. The team around Elias "s1n" Stein had slipped out of the top 30 after two early exits, at BLAST Bounty and at the Esports World Cup, to open the second season of 2026.
The win is their first over a top-10 opponent since March 31, when they beat Aurora at Digital Crusade DraculaN Season 6.
For Natus Vincere, the loss extended a poor start to the season. They had already exited the Esports World Cup in 9th-16th place following a landslide defeat to Legacy, and the opening loss in Porto left them needing three straight wins in the Group A lower bracket to reach the playoffs.