Natus Vincere Is Too Good Right Now

BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 is over and the winner is the same team that dominated the entire year: Natus Vincere. This was their 8^th important title of the season, without counting the Intel Grand Slam. With it, the CIS team completed a cycle: they started 2021 with a victory at BLAST Premier: Global Final 2020 and ended it with a victory at the 2021 edition of the same event. No doubt, this will go down in CS:GO history as Na’Vi’s best year ever. It’s hard to have a more flawless run than this.

How Na’Vi Won the BLAST Premier: Global Final 2021

BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 featured 8 incredible teams. And as a result, Na’Vi was seriously tested at this event. The team started with a shocking defeat against Liquid, which nobody could have foreseen. And this was not a close defeat either. It was quite brutal. Liquid won on Overpass (16 – 11), then lost on Dust II (7 – 16) but then won again on Inferno (16 – 7). For Na’Vi to lose at these scores is a rarity. After this match, people began to wonder: is this the beginning of the end? Or is this just a fluke?

After losing in the first round of the Upper Bracket, Na’Vi’s mission looked impossible: 5 consecutive wins. Anything less and the title would be lost. Of course, to win 5 matches at an event like this, you’d have to truly be the best team in the world. And that’s exactly what Na’Vi proved to be.

Against Heroic

This match started well for s1mple and his crew, with an easy victory on Mirage: 16 – 5. Electronic’s stats were off-the-charts (+14 / 1.92) and s1mple was also in great shape (+8 / 1.53). But the second map was tough, needing overtime to finish. The final score here was 19 – 15 and once again, electronic was the MVP (+11 / 1.53) while s1mple did his part (+6 / 1.30).

Against G2

The match against G2 was a thriller. Na’Vi won on Nuke, their strongest map, with a score of 16 – 14. This map was probably painful to watch for any G2 fan. NiKo simply played alone against the entire Na’Vi lineup. His rating 2.0 was unbelievable: 2.02, by far the highest on the server. And his K-D difference was +17. NiKo had 35 kills in total and 16 assists. But he still lost, because Na’Vi knows how to play as a cohesive unit.

The second map, Inferno, needed double overtime to conclude. This time, G2 was the winner: 22 – 19. But Mirage came next and s1mple went completely insane: 30 kills, a K-D difference of 20, and a rating 2.0 of 2.21. This was his way of reminding NiKo who’s the best player in the world.

Against Liquid

This was the perfect opportunity to get revenge for what happened in the first round. Na’Vi easily won both maps: 16 – 10 on Dust II and 16 – 11 on Inferno. The main reason why the CIS team won so easily this time was s1mple. His performance was absolutely stellar: +26 / 1.65. He was followed by electronic, whose score was also decent: +15 / 1.28. The rest of the Na’Vi roster had negative scores.

Against Vitality

Vitality tried its best to stop Na’Vi and earn the right to replay Gambit in the Grand Final. But Na’Vi was too good. The match ended very quickly: 16 – 12 on Nuke and 16 – 5 on Dust II. The entire Na’Vi lineup was formidable.

Against Gambit

In the Grand Final, Na’Vi was once again tested by its regional rival. But after losing on Mirage (11 – 16), s1mple and his crew regained control of the match and did what they do best: win. As always, s1mple was the one to deliver the best performance when it really mattered. His stats were absolutely impressive: +37 / 1.62.

What’s Next?

This CS:GO season is finally over but based on what we saw, there’s a high chance that Na’Vi will continue to dominate in 2022 as well. Everything about their roster is perfect: superstars, cohesion, motivation, leadership, etc. You just cannot beat Na’Vi right now. The other competitors will need to either make some roster changes, step up their game, or settle for second place for a long time to come.

 

Photo credit: IEM|Adela-Sznajder