Year recap: NAVI.GG.BET in CS:GO

Going down the memory lane

The year has come to an end for the  NAVI.GG.BET CS:GO team, so it's time to take a look back. Let's recall how the guys performed at Major tournaments, which championships they won, talk about the change of generations and personal achievements of players.

NAVI at Major Tournaments

The first major of 2019 was held in Katowice, the organization of this tournament was carried out by the ESL. Katowice was preceded by London, and at FACEIT Major 2018, as you know, NAVI reached the final, which was the third finals in majors for our organization. This result provided the Born to Win the Legends status and the right to start IEM Katowice 2019 from the New Legends stage.

The first game day in Katowice NAVI spent soundly, defeating G2, Vitality and ensured a good chance to get to the playoffs - our guys were one victory away from achieving this goal. In the match with Liquid this goal was not accomplished, but the next attempt against  AVANGAR was successful and made it possible to complete the group stage with the 3-1 game statistics.

 Astralis turned out to be on the other side of the bracket, however, our team could have faced Liquid in the semifinals, which ended up not happening, because the Americans surprisingly lost to  ENCE. And our team, in the quarter-finals outclassed  FaZe Clan. Unfortunately, in a rather tense duel, the Born to Win could not defeat the Finnish five:  NAVI won their map without any trouble (16:3 - Dust2), but Train and Mirage ended with a score of 14:16.

As a result, NAVI took 3rd-4th places. The victory went to  Astralis, for whom it was the second consecutive championship victory at Valve tournaments, and now the Danes have a new goal - to break the record of  fnatic / SK Gaming by winning the third major in a row.

The second, and final, Major tournament in 2019 was StarLadder Berlin Major. If for Germany at large it was not a novelty to host a major, the championship of this scale was one of the first for Berlin. As in Katowice, NAVI started with the “New Legends” stage.

Unlike the IEM Katowice 2019, this time NAVI has encountered challenges in the group stage. First, our guys lost to  G2 in overtime (17:19), then they improved their position in the standings by defeating  DreamEaters (16:7). However, the result of the next round (loss to  mousesports with the score 17:19) again put our five in an unfavorable position. Luckily, the guys came out of a rather difficult situation with honor, defeating  MIBR and  CR4ZY, which allowed them to go to the playoffs.

Due to the uncertain performance in the group, the Born to Win received the lowest seeding in the final stage of the tournament. The opponent in the first round was the NRG, which spent the previous round without a single misstep. Although the Americans did not look daunting in the first round,  the  NAVI failed to win the match. The winners of StarLadder Berlin Major were  Astralis, who won the third victory in the tournament supported by Valve and thus broke the record of  fnatic / SK Gaming.

2019 Victories

Only a month after Katowice, our guys visited the next major championship - the seventh season of StarSeries. The tournament brought together almost all the best teams in the world, except for the first two teams in the HLTV ranking —  Astralis and Liquid. The rest of the top 10 were on the invite list.

The StarSeries group stage was held in the usual format for this tournament - the Swiss system, best of 3. The Born to Win made only one mistake in the first round, losing to  ViCi Gaming — 1:2. After a "cold shower" from the Chinese team, NAVI had a series of victories, three in a row to be precise. This allowed the guys to get into the playoffs with game statistics 3–1.

In the quarter-finals, the seeding brought  Natus Vincere to  ENCE — the team that knocked out our team from the competition in Katowice. Thus, the Born to Win had a great opportunity to take revenge. And this chance NAVI did not fail to take! As in the major, the match began with the loss on the opponent's map of choice(Train). But this time the guys managed to not only win their pick(Inferno) but also leave the Finns with nothing on the third map (Overpass).

In the semi-final,  NAVI met with another discovery of the last major tournament — Renegades. As in the previous round, the teams took all three maps to determine the winner. However, all maps were held without interest and, if we may say so, were one-sided. The last obstacle on the way to the StarSeries championship title was the team fnatic.

Everyone was in anticipation of another battle between the two great organizations, but the fight turned out to be one-sided — NAVI took three maps. As a result, the StarSeries title was the first and last for our team in 2019.

Change of generations

In addition to the battles for titles on the world stage, 2019 brought our CS division a change of generations. This year, the team left two legendary personalities who stood at the origins of Natus Vincere: Edward and Zeus.

Ioann’s story with NAVI ended after the second stage of ESL Pro League S9 Europe, where our players could not get into the final part of the tournament. Edward has completed a rich and successful career. He grew and progressed with the Born to Win, became a respectable man and a true professional. The only unconquerable pinnacle for our player was the CS:GO Major - Ioann was unable to claim the title of the Major championship winner in a yellow-black jersey.

Zeus also wanted to win a Major as part of Natus Vincere, but to no avail, although individually he achieved this goal and became the champion of the Valve supported tournament at the PGL Major Krakow.

Back at last year's BLAST tournament, Danylo announced his intention to finish the player's career in 2019. Relentless desire to bring the team to a victory in a Major wasn't giving Zeus peace of mind, but the poor performance at the StarLadder Berlin Major did its job and made it clear to our captain that it was time to leave. The last championship in a NAVI jersey for  Zeus was BLAST Pro Series Moscow. It is a shame that the last tournament ended with a loss.

We believe that both NAVI veterans will find something to their liking and continue to benefit the esports scene. Moreover, we hope that in the future the guys will return to their home organization and help Natus Vincere to work with young people in the Counter-Strike scene.

Individual performances

Like last year, the best players of the Born to Win were  s1mple and electronic, which finished 2019 with a rating of 1.30 and 1.22 respectively. However, this time the number of records for  s1mple has declined. If in 2018 Sasha won six MVPs, this year he limited himself to only one - within the StarSeries S7 championship.

Denis was again close to winning MVP several times but had to settle for the EVP title. We hope that next year electronic will finally be able to get his first MVP award. Unfortunately, the number of titles won leaves the guys little chance to compete for the title of the best player of 2019, but the top 10 of HLTV rankings, s1mple and electronic are likely to enter.

The three other players of Natus Vincere also did everything possible to create the most comfortable conditions in which s1mple and electronic could show their maximum.

We hope that in the new year our team will be able to conquer the top of the HLTV ranking and secure themselves there. Furthermore, let's hope that the guys will finally be able to replenish the  NAVI trophy corner with a cup from the Major tournament! #navination