NAVI.G2A against Team Empire: the retrospective

Today we'll see another round of this fight

According to the portal for the statistics of professional matches, today, the two teams will have their 70th game with the no-draw result (other sources might provide different stats). Furthermore, the winner of today's encounter will gain the slot at the Minor tournament ESL One Genting 2018. This will make the match even more interesting and exciting.

When did the two rivals confront for the first time? It's hard to imagine, but it was held 5 years ago, back in 2012 at The Defense Season 2, where Natus Vincere played against Team Empire in the group stage. The Born to Win gained a victory at the time. The team had the following players on its roster: Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, Alexander "XBOCT" Dashkevich, Dmitry "LighTofHeaveN" Kupriyanov, Sergey "ARS-ART" Revin and Clement "Puppey" Ivanov. It's notable that two players on that roster are still connected to NAVI brand.

Ever since their first encounter, the two teams have played numerous matches every year at the tournaments of various levels: from StarLadder series to the qualifiers organized by Valve. In 2014 Natus Vincere and Team Empire have played the most matches against each other: 19 games in total! The Empire was more successful that year: winning in 10 matches.

Despite unsuccessful 2014, our guys lead in this confrontation: winning 41 matches, while Team Empire won only 28 (there has also been a couple of draws). As concerns this year, the fans of Natus Vincere can be proud. Our team defeated the rival 10 times, losing only 3 matches. Furthermore, our team won 4 times in the first half of the year, when we had the old roster.

We're more interested in the gaming season 2017/2018. Over the past 4 months of the season, NAVI and Team Empire have encountered 8 times! Our team won 6 matches and lost only 2 of them. There are 2 victories of crucial importance: in the final of the qualifiers of PGL Open Bucharest and MDL Macau. As a result, Natus Vincere gained the seeds to the LAN-finals of the respective tournaments. The Empire lost three more qualifiers in the final matches, which made them a record-breaker in the season, though this is no pleasant achievement. And NAVI is their most inconvenient rival.

Today the Born to Win have the opportunity to prevent Team Empire from getting to the LAN-tournament for the third time. However, it will be hard to achieve. The Empire has most likely prepared well for this match and aspires to take revenge on NAVI. On the other hand, our players will make everything possible to gain the victory, especially after the invitation to The Bucharest Major. We hope that our team will gain the slot at ESL One Genting 2018! #gonavi

The final encounter of the ESL One Genting 2018 qualifiers between Natus Vincere and Team Empire will be held at 15:00 CET. The format of the match is best of 5. Watch the encounter of two principle rivals here.