StarSeries S5: Recap

NAVI.GG.BET crowned StarSeries S5 champions!

We finish our StarSeries S5 journey on a high note, as we claim our first title of 2018! Our boys defeated the North-American lineup  NRG 2-0 in the grand final (16-8 – Overpass; 16-7 – Mirage), taking home the trophy and $125,000.

Looking at the milestones we reached en route to the victory, we certainly had quite a slow start into the group stage, opening the tournament campaign with a 0-2 loss to   Tyloo in Round 1. The second round matched us against another Chinese representative,  VG.Flash, and we quickly bounced back, securing a confident 2-0 win.

We were matched against our long-time opponents  Virtus.pro for Round 3, but the battle turned out to be quite one-sided this time. We won 2-0 and found ourselves one step away from the playoffs, but  mousesports denied this win streak, becoming the first team to secure the spot in the playoffs. Notably, the revenge for this loss, as well as the defeat in the StarSeries S4 grand final was finally ours in the semis. After losing to mousesports, we had to win another game, against  AVANGAR (2-0), to proceed to the playoffs.

In quarterfinals, we witnessed one of the most exciting games of StarSeries S5 —  NAVI vs  SK Gaming, which was mostly due to  s1mple and  coldzera having an outstanding match on Map 1. S1mple, for one, produced another brilliant performance, finishing with a 1,55 rating, + 48, 94-46 K-D.

Oleksandr was awarded his third MVP medal this year, the previous ones being StarSeries S4 at DreamHack Masters Marseille. Aside from that, he topped the scoreboard in some other categories, scoring the biggest number of frags (462), headshots (216), and successful entry frags (67,8 %).

His teammates, too, tried their best this weekend.  Zeus, as a true captain, topped the assist scoreboard (77) followed by  Edward (72) and  electronic (72) who placed second and third. The latter also had the fewest deaths in the tournament (0,60 per round) and won as many clutches as  s1mple (8).

Natus Vincere

Player	Kill/Death	+/-	ADR	Rating
s1mple	462/301	+161	91,6	1,40
electronic	360/296	+64	82,3	1,19
flamie	341/328	+13	79,2	1,11
Edward	352/330	+22	77,9	1,09
Zeus	249/313	-64	59,9	0,90

Looking at the team stats, we can clearly see the results of the team's rigorous practice, especially on de_nuke (3/3). The most picked map was de_mirage, which we won 6 out of 8 times. Focusing on weaker maps, however, led to Inferno results getting worse – 1 win out of 3 games.

We'll see  NAVI again at CS:GO Asia Championship 2018 in China, which will take place on June 14-18. Despite the lack of some of the tier 1 teams, it will be a great chance to move up the HLTV ranking and have our last rehearsal before ESL One Cologne 2018. Hopefully, we'll carry our momentum into this event and be able to secure our second title of 2018! #gonavi

Prize pool distribution

1 place: NAVI.GG.BET — $ 125,000
2 place: NRG Esports — $ 50,000
3-4 place: mousesports, North — $ 25,000
5-8 place: SK Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, AGO Esports, Team Liquid — $ 10,000
9-11 place: AVANGAR, Renegades, GODSENT — $ 6,000
12-14 place: TyLoo, HellRaisers, Virtus.pro — $ 4,000
15-16 place: VG.FlashGaming, Gambit Esports — $ 2,500