NAVI CS2 are IEM Atlanta 2026 champions
The NAVI CS2 team defeated GamerLegion 3 : 0 in the grand final of the IEM Atlanta 2026 LAN tournament and claimed their second championship trophy of 2026. For their performance, the Born to Win received $ 125 000, while Ihor «w0nderful» Zhdanov became the tournament MVP: for him, this was the first award of its kind in his career.
NAVI’s path at the tournament was one of the toughest. After a confident start in Group B, where our team sent Passion UA (2 : 0) and GamerLegion (2 : 1) to the lower bracket one after another, the Born to Win were unable to overcome Legacy (1 : 2) in the key match.
Because of this, the yellow-blacks’ opening opponent in the playoffs was the current best team in the world — Vitality, whom NAVI had not been able to beat for more than three years.
This match turned out to be incredibly spectacular, with the outcome decided on the third map. After a narrow defeat on Dust 2 (11 : 13), NAVI managed to come back on Anubis (13 : 11), and on Inferno they left Vitality no chance at all — 13 : 3.
In the semifinal, our team faced the winner of Group A, BB, and dealt with them without much trouble — 13 : 8 Ancient, 13 : 6 Nuke.
In the grand final, NAVI once again played against GamerLegion, who sensationally made it through the lower half of the playoff bracket thanks to victories over paiN (2 : 1) and Legacy (2 : 1).
Fortunately, today NAVI were in excellent form and closed out the match without any surprises, winning 3 : 0.
Congratulations to the team on successfully finishing the last major tournament before IEM Cologne Major 2026. There, NAVI will start their run directly from the third stage: the matches will take place from June 11 to 15.
Tournament results:
1st place:
NAVI — $ 125 000
2nd place:
GamerLegion — $ 50 000
3rd place:
Legacy — $ 30 000
4th place: BB — $ 20 000
