The opening round of BLAST Fall Finals in Copenhagen has been announced. Two matchups have caught the attention with Cloud9's match against NAVI as the most prominent. 

Three former Natus Vincere players will be on the server with Cloud9. Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy joined the roster this summer from NAVI, while Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov is the latest addition to the squad after the departure of Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov. All three were part of the 2021 Major winning lineup for NAVI.

In the other group, Team Vitality will face Heroic, who has Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen on the server. The 30-year-old Dane was kicked from the active roster of Vitality a month after having won the BLAST.tv Paris Major earlier this year. Now dupreeh is set to face his old teammates in the opening round in Group B, where Astralis and Complexity are also in the mix.

You can see the schedule from the event here:

Perfecto

electronic

Boombl4

dupreeh

Cloud9

Natus Vincere

Team Vitality

Heroic

The 2023 edition of IEM Cologne is shaping up to be a very exciting one. In the playoffs, we have a lot of the biggest teams and names in Counter-Strike, but oddly enough none of the teams have ever won the coveted trophy.

Vitality, Cloud9, Heroic, Astralis, G2, and ENCE are all looking to join these teams in the history books of CS:GO.

2014: NIP (f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, Xizt, Fifflaren, friberg)

2015: Fnatic (JW, flusha, pronax, olofmeister, KRIMZ)

2016: SK Gaming (FalleN, fer, coldzera, fnx, TACO)

2017: SK Gaming (FalleN, fer, coldzera, felps, TACO)

2018: Natus Vincere (Edward, flamie, s1mple, Zeus, electronic)

2019: Team Liquid (nitr0, EliGE, Twistzz, NAF, Stewie2K)

2021: Natus Vincere (s1mple, electronic, Boombl4, Perfecto, B1T)

2022: FaZe (rain, broky, Twistzz, karrigan, ropz)

It is only electronic (x2) and Perfecto that have tried to win the title in Cologne of all the players that are left in the playoffs in Cologne.

The playoffs will start tomorrow, where Team Vitality and Cloud9 will play the first quarter-final at 15.30 (CEST).

NAVI is out of IEM Katowice after a semi-final loss to Heroic. But with wins against Cloud9, Team Liquid, and Outsiders earlier in the tournament, there were also a lot of good things to carry forward for the team. 

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And while all eyes are on the new addition of the team, Andrij "npl" Kukharsjkyj, it was a couple of the more experienced players in Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov and Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy that heavily underperformed in the semi-final. After the match Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev commented on the performance in the match against Heroic, and the Ukrainian did not hold back.

- Overall (the tournament) was nice, but on stage, some of the players still shit in their pants. The way some players played and communicated today was just awful to watch and hear.

The NAVI captain also gave praise to Heroic, who outclassed NAVI on the day.

- Today we played a much better team 100%. Individually they played really, really good and hit some insane headshots, but as a team, they just rolled us. They snowballed us on their T-side.

NAVI's next tournament is ESL Pro League, where they will play in Group D.

s1mple

B1tGOD

Natus Vincere took down Outsiders 2-0 to secure themselves a spot in the Semi-Finals. The 25-year-old took things into his own hands as he delivered a stunning ace to close out the series against their rivals from Outsiders. With only 40 seconds left on the clock and three players below 50 health, electroNic turned into god mode.

Read more about the Quarter-Final match between Natus Vincere and Outsiders in the article below:

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Outsiders

It’s fair to say that the CIS titans from NAVI are nowhere near their top level from 2021. Going into the new season, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and company look like a squad with a lot of problems and a lot of things to repair to keep up with the very elite. 

If you ask the renowned CS:GO analyst and expert Jacob “Pimp” Winneche what NAVI’s biggest problem is, the Dane is very clear; the in-game leader position. Something he touched on in the latest [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJb_UvjFZR4","isNewTab":true,"text":"episode "}]of HLTV Confirmed.

- electroNic shouldn’t be in-game leading NAVI whatsoever. That’s the main issue they need to solve and to figure out a guy who can come in – I was even thinking of Jerry [forZe IGL] or someone like that to come in a be the IGL so you can free electroNic to do what he should be doing on the server.

- We were obviously blindsided by what happened at the beginning with the whole Boombl4 situation. electroNic did well at Lisbon [BLAST Spring Finals] where he was in-game leading and having a fantastic tournament buying him you know three or four months where no one would question that move whatsoever. But we’ve seen him struggle a lot from an individual point of view.

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- I think when you watch NAVI play from a strategic point of view as well, they’re not really coming up with a lot, and it’s not like they have a clear playstyle bringing in npl and sdy. It’s not easy in the NAVI camp. There are so many questions within NAVI right now, but I feel like the main thing they need to address is whether or not to bank on electroNic being your IGL for the entirety of 2023. I wouldn’t personally do that, Pimp concluded.

Full HLTV Confirmed episode [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJb_UvjFZR4","isNewTab":true,"text":"here"}]. 

We have spoken with NAVI’s head coach Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi on multiple occasions towards the end of 2023 both times confirming that they are not considering changing the IGL role going forward.

- We know everyone who’s on the market, and it’s not like there are talents who are hiding from us. This is obvious and should be obvious to everyone, and I don’t understand why everyone is asking this.

You can watch the entire interview with b1ad3 down below.

Denis “electronic” Sharipov has followed the footsteps of his NAVI teammate and Russian countryman Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy and decided not to play under the Russian flag going forward.

So when you’re visiting NAVI’s Liqiupedia page in the future you’ll be met with a neutral banner standing next to both Perfecto and electronic’s names. Something both players have formally requested to Liquipedia.

The decision not to represent the Russian flag comes after Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, which has had huge consequences in the Eastern European country. The war has also taken its toll on the otherwise super-successful NAVI squad which hasn't been near as powerful this year as in 2022. This was an aspect NAVI's star player Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev spoke with us about at BLAST World Final - You can read the article down below.

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With the 18th Major being in full swing at IEM Rio, we have taken a look at who has been the best player in Major in history.

On our list, you will have to have played at least 20 maps to be part of the ranking.

1. {cflag:BR} Marcelo "coldzera" David - 1.25 rating (72 maps)

Widely considered one of the best CS:GO players of all time. The Brazilian has been incredibly consistent at the nine Majors in his career winning two of them back in 2016. He is still most famous for his insane double no-scope shot at Mirage that saved Luminosity down 9-15 in the Semi-Final of the MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016.

Coldzera's play inspired his team to a fantastic comeback and was later rewarded with a graffiti from Valve. Coldzera is back in action this year for 00NATION, who was one of the 24 teams, who qualified for IEM Rio. The Brazilian is currently the best player at a Major.

2. {cflag:UA} Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev - 1.21 rating (92 maps)

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"Gamle billeder/S1mple_ukraine_1_dn8xxh","originalWidth":1279,"originalHeight":719,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

Probably the best CS:GO player to ever play the game. The Ukrainian finally won a Major last year in Stockholm but has shown some incredible consistency in his performances on the big stage. He has attended 11 Majors, and will always be remembered for his double no-scope kill on Cache.

3. {cflag:UA} Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi - 1.18 rating (22 maps)

From two veterans to a newcomer on the big stage. The headshot machine of NAVI was brought in before the PGL Stockholm Major. And what an impact he had! b1t gave NAVI the last push to elevate the team to become the best in 2021 without any doubt. He rocked a 1.21 rating in Stockholm in his Major debut!

4. {cflag:LV} Helvijs "broky" Saukants - 1.17 rating (21 maps)

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/broky_FaZe_jpl5dy","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

The Latvian could be looking into grabbing another Major in Rio in November. FaZe is one of the big favorites for the tournament, and luckily for them, they seem to be able to rely on broky as a difference-maker. At his first Major in Stockholm, broky was the best player for FaZe, who had a disappointing run. In Antwerp, he played a big part in FaZe winning the title. The AWP'er also has the ability to perform some sick clutches and is definitely a player to keep an eye on in the future.

5. {cflag:SE} Andreas "znajder" Lindberg - 1.17 rating (21 maps)

29-year-old znajder has had a long career in CS:GO. He won a Major in 2013 with Fnatic, but was also taking part in ELEAGUE Major in 2017 for GODSENT. The Swedish rifler was also skilled with the AWP, and performed at the highest level in all three Majors that he played. At the start of 2021 he was announced on the Lemondogs roster, but has not played any competitive games since the summer of 2021.

6. {cflag:FR} Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut - 1.16 rating (46 maps)

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/ZywOo_Vitality_dhr4lu","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

It was always meant to be for ZywOo. He was born on the same day as Counter-Strike's commercial release on November 9, 2000. Dubbed the "Chosen One", ZywOo has also delivered on the big stage. In his four Majors so far, ZywOo has been outstanding on an otherwise mediocre team. Team Vitality has not made it past the Quarter-Final stage despite ZywOo's individual brilliance. Will Rio be the tournament, where ZywOo and Team Vitality breaks through?

7. {cflag:DK} Nicolai "device" Reedtz - 1.15 rating (123 maps)

When is device coming back? Is device coming back? Where is device now? The questions surrounding the Danish AWP god are many, which all seem fair looking at device's Major results. As part of the legendary Astralis roster, device won four Majors and earned two MVP's along the way. His best individual Major was IEM Katowice 2019, where device scored a rating of 1.32.

8. {cflag:US} Timothy "autimatic" Ta - 1.15 rating (29 maps)

The North American player earned himself a reputation from 2017-19 on Cloud9, where the rifler performed consistently in four Majors in a row. The highlight was undoubtedly the Boston ELEAGUE Major in 2018, where Cloud9 on home turf shocked the world and won the Major. Now the American rifler is back and will play his fifth Major at IEM Rio, where he and Evil Geniuses will look to build on their rising form.

9. {cflag:PL} Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski - 1.14 rating (83 maps)

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Snax_2_obqqd7","originalWidth":1000,"originalHeight":563,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Virtus.pro - DreamHack"}]

As part of one of the most legendary rosters in Counter-Strike history, Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski has made his mark on the game, which we all love. The Virtus.pro rifler has attended 13 Majors in total and finished among the four best in seven of them. On home turf in Katowice in 2014, Snax and Virtus.pro cemented their names in history with a win. His best individual performance was in 2014 at the DreamHack Winther 2014 event.

10. {cflag:RU} Denis "electroNic" Sharipov - 1.14 rating (69 maps)

The now NAVI in-game leader has played eight Majors in his career mostly for NAVI. He made his debut at a Major for the team FlipSid3 together with Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy, who is the coach of NAVI now. At the FACEIT Major in London 2018, electroNic was the highest-rated player at the event with a 1.36 rating! The Russian star has won one Major and been in three Grand Finals in total.

(The list is made without the statistics from IEM Rio)

coldzera

broky

device

znajder

ZywOo

autimatic

Snax

Here are the best players at Majors

Virtus.pro

Astralis

We are now less than one week away from the start of the much-awaited IEM Rio Major in Brazil. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 17 Majors. Today we have reached the second-most recent Major: PGL Major Stockholm where NAVI secured their first-ever Major title with a flawless run.

The PGL Major Stockholm 2021 was the 16th CS:GO Major Championship and the most anticipated event of all time because the Covid-19 pandemic made it impossible for organizers to arrange a championship with an audience for two years. Other than that, the PGL Major Stockholm was the first Counter-Strike Major broadcasted in 4k, while the event also had the biggest prize pool in the history of the franchise: a whopping $2 million! 

 Natus Vincere (s1mple – electronic – B1T – Boombl4 – Perfecto) 

 Ancient, Dust2, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, Vertigo. 

The Russian-Ukrainian squad was undoubtedly the best CS:GO team coming into the PGL Major in Stockholm and it seemed impossible to deny them this Major achievement. All of NAVI’s players were full of confidence as well as momentum, as they had just completed their Intel Grand Slam a month before the event. And with consistently high placements in the CIS Regional Major Rankings (RMR) events throughout the year, NAVI earned themselves a top-two seed at the PGL Stockholm Major. This meant that Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy’s troops got to start in the New Legends Stage as a part of the top 16 teams. 

However, their journey to glory wasn’t easy at all, as NAVI had to face multiple tough opponents on the way such as Heroic, NiP, Team Vitality, and Gambit before ultimately taking down G2 in the grand final. 

Kirill “Boombl4” and company started the event with a match against Casper “cadiaN” Møller’s men from Heroic who were sitting in 5th place in the HLTV world ranking at that time. In a very tough match, NAVI came out on top of Ancient with a 16-11 scoreline. Later, NAVI took upon Dzhami “Jame” Ali and the rest of Virtus.pro in a matchup where NAVI left no chance for their opponents, closing out the match in dominant fashion on Overpass, 16-4. 

A bo3 match against Ninjas in Pyjamas for a spot in the playoffs as an undefeated 3-0 team awaited for Born To Win. The match was expected to deliver some nail-biting action, but both maps turned out to be one-sided affairs, as NAVI booked themselves a ticket to the playoffs with back-to-back 16-9 wins against the Swedes. 

Their first opponent in the playoffs was Team Vitality. Many predicted that the Frenchmen were going to be the first team to steal a map away from NAVI, but s1mple and company made quick work of them. NAVI took Vitality’s map pick of Dust2 16-11 before returning to their home of Nuke to extend their map-win streak to 17 with a 16-13 scoreline. That victory led them to the semi-finals where their rivals from Gambit waited for an exciting CIS derby. On two maps, NAVI gave away only 11 rounds in total and locked in a spot in the grand final. 

The grand final was the most closely contested match for NAVI at the event and the closest they came to losing a map. Boombl4’s men registered a somewhat comfortable 16-11 victory on the newest map in the rotation, Ancient, a planned curveball from the French-Balkan squad which took fans by surprise. G2 hoped to catch NAVI off guard but failed. G2 would need to deliver some magical individual performances to keep the series alive, considering NAVI’s home of Nuke was up next, where the Russian-Ukrainian squad held a 17 map win streak. 

On Nuke, NAVI were tested to their very limit by G2 who looked dangerous with some strong showing from the Kovac’s and Audric “JaCkz” Jug who all three pushed their team to a 10-5 advantage. The roster of G2 continued their strong form and secured match point at 15-10. However, s1mple and company resurfaced from the depths of defeat to force not one but two overtimes. In double overtime, NAVI secured match point and eventually snatched Nuke away from G2’s grip right in front of their eyes. 

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With a 2-0 victory in the grand final, NAVI not only repeated Astralis’ flawless Major playoffs in the past but went a step further by not dropping a single map throughout the entire event, claiming the title with an incredible 10-0 map record. NAVI made history and completed the most dominant run ever seen at a CS:GO Major. 

Watch highlights from the Grand final right here: 

The Ukrainian beast, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev capped off a fantastic Major event with a powerful final performance as he inspired NAVI to a stellar 2-0 victory over G2 with a server-leading 1.51 rating and took home the MVP medal in the process. s1mple’s first-ever Major MVP and the 17th MVP medal of his career at the time. 

s1mple topped the charts in several categories across the event, most notably leading in rating (1.47), KD-diff (+106), and kills per round (0.95). The arguably best player of all time finally achieved his dream of winning a Major trophy and he showed up on every single map to become the only player in history to be both Major MVP and the highest-rated player. 

Highest rated players at PGL Major Stockholm 2021

1. Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (NAVI) – 1.47 Rating 

2. Nikola ”NiKo” Kovac (G2) – 1.36 Rating 

3. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (Vitality) – 1.30 Rating 

4. Dennis “electronic” Sharipov (NAVI) – 1.28 Rating 

5. Valeriy “B1T” Vakhovskiy (NAVI) – 1.27 Rating 

6. David “frozen” Cernanský (MOUZ) – 1.22 Rating 

7. Dmitry ”sh1ro” Sokolov (Gambit) – 1.21 Rating 

8. Helvijs ”broky” Saukants (FaZe) – 1.18 Rating 

9. Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi (CPH Flames) – 1.16 Rating 

10. Martin “stavn” Lund (Heroic) – 1.15 Rating

The Grand final between Natus Vincere and G2 reached a peak viewership number of 2,748,434 viewers, demolishing the previous CS:GO peak viewership record by over 1 million, according to [link:{"url":"https://escharts.com/tournaments/csgo/pgl-major-stockholm-2021","isNewTab":true,"text":"Esports Charts"}].

Earlier matchups in the event also consistently broke records from previous Majors and were watched on various streams across the world, setting a high new standard for CS:GO event viewership.

1. PGL Major Stockholm 2021 – 2,748,434

G2 Esports

IEM Rio will be the second CS:GO Major of 2022 and the first-ever Major tournament to be held in Brazil. The Challenger Stage of the Major will kick off on October 31, with the Grand final of the event set to be played on November 13. Once the Legends Stage kicks off, a total of 16 teams will be competing for the lion’s share of the $1.250.000 prize pool, with the winner walking away with a Major trophy and $500.000.

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{cflag:UA} Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev – 1.29 Rating in 2022

{cflag:RU} Denis “electronic” Sharipov – 1.11 Rating in 2022

{cflag:UA} Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev – 1.01 Rating in 2022

{cflag:RU} Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy – 1.04 Rating in 2022

{cflag:UA} Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy – 1.12 Rating in 2022

Is not that long ago since NAVI fell out of the Top 3 of HLTV’s World Ranking for the first time since they acquired Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy to the first team. Their last dip from the Top 3 dates all the way back to May 2021, so it’s not a secret that there have been some questions regarding the team who had a disappointing start to the second half of the season. This is the reason why the spotlight was sat on the new IGL, Denis “electronic” Sharipov, who many didn’t find as the right man for the job. However, after a rough 5th-8th finish at ESL Pro League Season 16, NAVI picked themselves up and made some clear changes in the way of approaching the game, which has helped them finish the rest of this year, until now, with podium finishes.

They succeeded in moving through the RMR Europe with ease, recording no losses at all to secure a 3-0 record. At the end of the event, electronic and s1mple were to be found on the top of the best-performing players with a 1.58 and 1.48 Rating, respectively.

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Many CS:GO fans would probably be pointing to Natus Vincere as one of the favorites alongside FaZe and Team Vitality to win the IEM Rio Major. They’re the second-most recent Major winner behind FaZe, and their coolness and individual experience on the big stage could get them a long way, even if they aren’t hitting their best day as a team. Our prediction is that s1mple and company from Natus Vincere will reach the semi-final of the Major. But, the only way to know for sure is to tune in to the Major when it kicks off on October 31, 2022.

 2nd at PGL Major Antwerp 2022, 1st at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022, 1st-3rd at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022, 1st at Intel Extreme Masters Road to Rio 2022: European RMR B.

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3.07 Rating / 41-10 K-D / 179.4 ADR / 4.30 Impact rating

One would think that the above-mentioned numbers are a made-up stat line. However, that’s not the case.

That were the exact numbers NAVI’s Denis “electronic” Sharipov presented yesterday against Illuminar in the opening round at IEM Road to Rio RMR. These numbers are completely insane in themselves, but to think about he did it in no less than 21 rounds is out of this world.

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We have found the best plays and highlights from electronic’s highest-rated map in his career. You can watch it right here.

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Illuminar

Questions were asked before NAVI embarked on its qualification journey towards IEM Rio. A disappointing start to the second half of the season has set the spotlight on the new in-game leader Denis "electroNic" Sharipov. Is the Russian IGL good enough to lead NAVI to success?

A best-of-one match against Illuminar would not give any final answers, but the NAVI roster came up looking motivated to set the bar high for the opening match at the EU RMR tournament in Malta. On Dust2 they left no doubt about the skill difference between the two teams. In-game leader Denis "electroNic" Sharipov went completely nuts in the first half clocking in 27 kills during the initial 15 rounds. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev followed through by not dying at all in the first half to underline the dominance of NAVI.

A 12-3 lead was improved after another stellar round from electroNic who was getting near 200 ADR! at the start of the second half. The only interesting stat during the match was to keep track of the kills of electroNic. The IGL finished with 41 kills, in what has got to be his career best map!  

NAVI - Illuminar 1-0 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group B)

(Dust2) 16-5 | {cflag:RU} Denis "electroNic" Sharipov – 3.07 Rating / 41-10 K-D / 179.4 ADR

When NAVI decided to cut Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov back in May due to “high reputational risks”, the CIS titans named Denis “electronic” Sharipov as their new in-game leader and captain, despite having no experience in the role.

Switching captains have not ruined NAVI and their status as a world-class CS:GO team – and it has definitely not ruined electronic. Quite the contrary in fact.

Because one would think that when electronic took over as IGL and got the calling duties on the server, his individual stats would decrease significantly due to all the extra responsibility. However, by looking at his statistics, it’s clear that electronic’s numbers are actually better than ever before.  

electronic's stats before and after taking over as IGL:

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*Time frames = Before: 1st Jan - 31th May / After: 1st June - 15th Sep (Against Top 20 teams)

Earlier this year at BLAST Premier Spring Final in Lisbon, we spoke with NAVI’s head coach, Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi, where the Ukrainian mastermind said that electronic could be “one of the greatest IGL’s” in CS:GO. You can watch the entire interview in the article below.

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You can also watch our "Deep Dive feat NaTosaphiX" episode about electronic, where Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen analyzes the Russian star player before and after the role change. 

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The first group at ESL Pro League Season 16 came to an end yesterday, presenting its first three playoff teams. At top of the table, we saw Vitality grab the 1st seed, with the Dan “apEX” Madesclaire-led squad going unbeaten throughout the group stage only giving up two maps in the process.

Joining Vitality in the playoff stage are Fnatic and NAVI despite the Ukrainian super team playing some mediocre Counter-Strike, losing three consecutive matches against Endpoint, Vitality and NIP. 

ESL Pro League Season 16 | Group A standings

Spirit

Fnatic

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Endpoint

When speaking about the greats of Counter-Strike you have to mention "s1mple" as well as the entire Natus Vincere roster that has impressed the entire CS:GO community for years now. At this current moment of time, it seems as if only FaZe can rival the CIS giants that are NaVi. Tasked with taking down "s1mple" and his troops was Vitality. Ultimately it proved to be too tough of a task for the Vitality roster as they were outmatched by a confident-looking NaVi side. In just two maps NaVi managed to secure the victory against Vitality and earn their qualification to the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Finals event. 

The first map was picked by Vitality, which meant that the brawl between the two giants was set to kick off on Inferno. Being one of the most-played maps of all time in CS:GO, Both teams, with experienced players within the rosters, are more than familiar with Inferno as a map, which showed once the map got underway. Going back and forth there wasn't much separating the two teams, however, the rock-solid NaVi defense proved slightly more potent as they secured a 9-6 lead going into the second half of Inferno. The second half continued as the first had concluded, with NaVi in the driving seat. Despite a rare quiet performance from "s1mple", a cohesive T-side secured the victory for NaVi at the scoreline of 16-10. 

The second map of the brawl between NaVi and Vitality was, of course, picked by Natus Vincere and meant a trip to their favorite map as of late, Mirage. Mirage is the most played map for the CIS giants in the past three months, and for good reason. When NaVi are feeling themselves, they can seem almost impossible to overcome on Mirage. With momentum carrying over from Inferno, NaVi proved the stronger roster in the first half of Mirage, with Vitality not far behind them. At the scoreline of 8-7, everything was still to be played for as the two rosters switched sides. Things continued to be close between the two sides, but with "s1mple" playing a bigger role this time on Mirage, Natus Vincere managed to outperform Vitality and take home the victory at the scoreline of 16-13. 

Natus Vincere - Vitality 2-0 | BLAST Premier Fall Groups

16-10 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} electroNic – 1.23 Rating / 19-14 K-D / 70.2 ADR

16-13 (Mirage) | {cflag:UA} s1mple – 1.37 Rating / 25-17 K-D / 80.3 ADR

MVP: Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev 1.19 Rating / 38-33 K-D / 75.3 ADR

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NAVI announced back in late June that Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov will be parting ways with NAVI. If you want to read more about that, check out the article below.

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Since the departure of Boombl4 the new in-game-leader for the NAVI active roster has been Denis "electroNic" Sharipov. The 23-year-old Russian has already had two successful tournaments under his belt with the win in Lisbon at BLAST Spring Finals and the second place finish at IEM Cologne.

But how have his positions changed at the team, and how well does the role fit electroNic? We asked Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen to take a look at the demos of NAVI from before and after the role change.

With the two first Bo3-series having already been played in Group A of IEM Cologne 2022, it was time to find out which final two teams would join the upper bracket and which final two teams would have to see themselves sent down to the lower bracket of Group A. Battling for the upper bracket spot, as well as a great start to the event in general, were Natus Vincere and MOUZ. Unsurprisingly, Natus Vincere were the heavy favorites going into the Bo3-series, and for good reason as well. Since parting ways with "Boombl4" and having "sdy" join the roster as a stand-in, Natus Vincere have looked like a completely different beast. The scarily high level of NaVi continued today as they managed to surpass the international MOUZ roster in a 2-1 victory to kick off their IEM Cologne 2022 campaign. 

The first map of the Bo3-series was picked by MOUZ and saw the battle begin on Nuke. Whilst it is the most-played map for the MOUZ side and simultaneously one of the least played maps in the past three months for NaVi, it is also a map where "s1mple" if unleashed, can cause you big problems. Starting on the arguably easier T-side of Nuke, it was MOUZ to gain the first wind of momentum. Managing to claw back a couple of rounds near the end of the half, NaVi made sure that the lead favoring MOUZ wasn't too big. At 6-9, favoring MOUZ, the two teams switched sides. Once Natus Vincere had found themselves comfortable on the CT-side of Nuke, the second half became all one-sided. Yet another solid performance from "s1mple" meant that it was Natus Vincere to claim victory on Nuke at the scoreline of 16-12. 

The second map of the brawl between MOUZ and NaVi was chosen by the CIS and giants and saw the battle continue on Mirage. If you have followed NaVi as of late, you will know just how scarily good they have been on Mirage. Finding success in 80% of the times they have played Mirage in the past three months (10 maps), NaVi looked to add to their win percentage and close out the Bo3-series in just two maps. A great start to their T-side meant that NaVi were able to gain momentum and secure a lead in the first half of Mirage. At the scoreline of 9-6, all NaVi had to do in the second half of Mirage was to post a strong CT-side and close out the game. This, however, wasn't as easy as it might sound. A cohesive and well-orchestrated offense from the MOUZ side saw the international roster close in on NaVi, slowly but surely. Failing to keep MOUZ away, "dexter" and his troops managed to close the gap and ultimately take home Mirage at the scoreline of 16-14. 

The third and final map of the series between MOUZ and Natus Vincere was to be played on Inferno. Being a map that both rosters should be fairly comfortable on, an exciting and intense third map between the two sides was definitely on the cards before going into Inferno. Whilst it seemed as if Inferno would be a close affair, it never really was. A brilliant CT-sided half from NaVi meant an 11-4 scoreline going into the second half of Inferno. Without too much difficulty the CIS giants of NaVi proved themselves the stronger roster as they took down MOUZ at 16-6 on Inferno and carried on with their scarily form as of late. 

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16-12 (Nuke) | {cflag:UA} s1mple - 1.38 Rating / 26-16 K-D / 87.3 ADR

14-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:UA} s1mple - 1.55 Rating / 29-20 K-D / 98.4 ADR

16-6 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} electroNic - 2.10 Rating / 28-11 K-D / 132.2 ADR

MVP: {cflag:UA} Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev - 1.36 Rating / 71-49 K-D / 88.9 ADR 

MOUZ

BLAST Premier Spring Lisbon saw the return of NAVI in prime form, which the leaderboards also reflected afterward. With s1mple taking home his 20th MVP award in his career most of the focus has naturally been on the #1 player in the World. But worth mentioning is also the new in-game leader Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, who by margins had his best event in 2022 despite taking over the reins as the caller on the team.

Highest rated at BLAST Premier Spring Finals:

KAST (Percentage of rounds in which the player either had a kill, assist, survived or was traded):

NiKo

It was almost over before it had really started, but there were still some memorable moments from yesterday's Grand Final at BLAST Premier Spring Finals in Lisbon.

NAVI was dominant throughout the match and ended up winning the trophy and the $200.000 without breaking too much sweat.

Whilst it is often the five players that are highlighted when a team is successful and wins events, a huge part of a great CS:GO team is, of course, also the Head Coach. Few have been as impactful as the current NaVi Head Coach Andrey "B1ade3" Gorodenskiy. Having already reached icon status within the CS:GO community, "B1ad3" is always calm, collected, and cool under pressured situations. 

We talked with him after Natus Vincere managed to eliminate OG in a thriller of a Semi-final. The victory means that Natus Vincere will be playing at the Grand Final of BLAST Premier Spring 2022 tomorrow. When asked about how he was feeling about the result, the Ukrainian Head Coach had the following to say: 

A player that stood out more than the others, when the two teams locked horns was, no not "s1mple", but "electroNic". The incredibly skilled rifler has been moved to an IGL role after the removal of "Boombl4" and is seemingly balancing being the in-game 'shot-caller' and a deadly rifler very well. When asked about "electroNic" and his future, "B1ad3" said the following: 

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To hear more about what "B1ad3" had to say after qualifying for the Grand Final you can watch the exclusive interview down below: 

The first quarter-final between NAVI and FaZe went the way of ⁠s1mple⁠'s squad, who made quick work of their American opposition, wrapping up the series in two maps with a 16-6 win on Dust2, followed by a dominant 16-1 on Inferno.

The action started with NAVI’s map pick on Dust 2, and the CIS giants started strong, quickly attaining a 6-1 lead. NAVI kept winning round after round, and it seemed like FaZe wasn’t ready for the match. The first half ended 13-2 in favor of NAVI, where electroNic performed on a very high level to help his team a big lead before halftime. Despite winning four rounds in a row, FaZe could not repair the damages from the first half and lost 16-6 in the opening map of the series.

The series moved on to FaZe's pick of Inferno and quickly devolved into another nightmare for the karrigan-led squad. NAVI secured the opening pistol and then proceeded to lock down both bomb sites and won seven consecutive rounds. The first half ended with only one round for the American team on their offense as ropz registered a regrettable 4-15 K-D. In the second half, NAVI's machine never faltered, and they took down the world's #1 in style at 16-1 and the series 2-0.

FaZe - NAVI 0-2 | BLAST Premier Spring Final

6-16 (Dust2) | {cflag:UA} electroNic - 1.69 Rating / 21-13 K-D / 110.1 ADR

	30 days	90 days
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Maps count	0	0

electronic

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