Prelude: Gambit vs Natus Vincere

It is number 2 in the world against number 15. But do not be surprised, if this match goes all three maps.

26/2 - 15.00: Gambit - Natus Vincere

NAVI has only lost to Team Liquid in 2021. They started the year by losing an opening match against the North Americans, and then on Sunday, they lost the Group B final. Between the two matches, they had gone ten matches in a row with straight wins including a Grand Final win at BLAST Global Finals against Astralis.

At IEM Katowice Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev started as usual by dominating the first two matches against Virtus.pro and Furia. But against Team Liquid the Ukrainian Superstar was struggling especially on the decider map Inferno, where he scored below a 1.00 rating. So where does this leave NAVI before their matchup against Gambit? Well, "s1mple" is usually not a player that delivers two subpar performances in a row, so most likely we will see a highly motivated Ukrainian on the server, which will make it difficult for Gambit to deliver the surprise.

Last match between the two teams was at IEM New York, where NAVI won 2-0. See highlights from the match here.

Gambit is the underdogs going in to the match. The CIS team has been dominating the tier 2 scene for a while now, but recently the performances have been translated into the top tier of CS:GO, which gives some promising hopes for the future of the team. Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov needs to bring his a-game once again, if Gambit should stand any chance against their big brothers from the CIS region. The Russian AWP'er has been on fire at IEM Katowice, where he is currently rated the second best player at the tournament only behind s1mple.

Map veto: Nuke and Vertigo are most likely to be banned from the get-go. NAVI will probably pick Dust2, while Gambit might try out Overpass. Both teams are strong on Mirage, which could be left as the decider.

Odds: Gambit 2.37 - NAVI 1.53