Natus Vincere walk away from the first International LAN of 2021 as champions, as the CIS squad swept G2 esports.
Navi have long competed at the highest level in CS:GO, and today they were able to take home the first trophy of the post-online era. Though facing some performance issues, largely off of health issues from Oleksandr “S1mple” Kostyliev. Navi have recovered incredibly well though, enough to sweep the surging G2 roster in the 2021 IEM Cologne finals.
Navi dominates G2 in a three-game series
Navi’s dominant series started off on Dust2, where they ultimately took the map 11-16. On T-side Navi edged out a slight, one round advantage but quickly pulled away on CT-side. Mirage was a much closer affair despite the result. Nikola “NiKo” Kovac had an incredible performance, showing that there wasn’t only one superstar fragger in the server. Though Niko found 31 frags off of 106 ADR, Navi’s team effort brought the series to 2-0.
The final map, Nuke, brought the series home for Navi. Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy and Denis “electronic” Sharipov had a strong finish for the series both finding a 75% KAST and 21 total frags. Navi have rarely looked this strong all-around and have shown their potential when they fire on all cylinders.
CIS dominance continue
Three out of the four qualifying CIS teams advanced onto the 2021 IEM Cologne playoffs, with the longest standing squad eventually taking home the trophy. The CIS region has produced some of the most competitive teams of 2021, as Gambit and Virtus.pro have shown brilliant play across countless tournaments. Navi’s victory in 2021 IEM Cologne cement the CIS’ excellent 2021.
Also read:
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- NA CS:GO fails at IEM Cologne – what went wrong?
- Is the PGL Stockholm CS:GO Major moving away from Stockholm?
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Image Credit: Natus Vincere