Natus Vincere has booked another grand final appearance following a hard-fought 2-1 victory over PARIVISION at the BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026. However, beneath the surface of their recent winning streak lies a puzzling statistic: NAVI has been consistently losing their own map picks.
After dropping Inferno against PARIVISION, NAVI has now lost three of their own map picks in this tournament alone. Expanding the scope to the rest of the 2026 season reveals that their win rate on their own map choices has dipped below 50%.
Following the semifinal win, NAVI’s in-game leader Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen shed some light on the team’s peculiar veto dynamic.
A two-way street
When asked about the concerning statistic, Aleksib was candid but quick to point out the silver lining regarding their overall performance.
The thing is that we obviously do a lot of thinking when we go into the official and into any map that we are playing. And on the other hand, I think it’s good that we also have a very high win rate on our opponent’s map pick. So, it kind of goes both ways.
This was perfectly illustrated in the PARIVISION series, where NAVI secured a tight 13-11 victory on their opponent’s Dust2 pick before closing the series out entirely on the Mirage decider. Still, the team is fully aware that their performance on their own picks requires attention.
Obviously, it can be better. I don’t have the correct answer. We’re always analyzing no matter if it’s our map pick or the opponents.
The overlapping map pool theory
Aleksib theorized that the current competitive meta and NAVI’s widespread proficiency are causing a blurring of lines between home and away picks.
Right now, we’re kind of sharing some maps in the map pool against our opponents. So, we’re kind of understanding that they might pick a map that’s also strong for us. So we try to play with that, and we’re pretty confident in our map pool right now.
The IGL also hinted that their current veto strategy is intentionally designed to prevent teams from counter-stratting them too easily.
Maybe that’s also the case that we are trying to change the veto, zo our opponents needs to be ready for surprises.
What this means for NAVI
While dropping over half of your own map picks in 2026 sounds like a recipe for disaster on paper, NAVI has managed to turn it into an unconventional winning formula. Their deep map pool and immense tactical resilience allow them to consistently steal their opponent’s comfort map and dominate the series decider.
As NAVI prepares to face Team Vitality in the BLAST Open Rotterdam grand final, all eyes will be on the veto phase to see if this quirky trend continues.
