Ukrainian Esports Team NAVI Becomes First CS2 World Champions
The Ukrainian esports team Natus Vincere clinched the title of world champion in Counter Strike 2 at the Major tournament held in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. In the final match, they defeated the American team FaZe Clan with a score of 2:1, as reported on the NAVI website.
NAVI's journey to victory began in the Elimination Stage, where according to the tournament rules, teams played until one victory. In their tournament debut, the Ukrainian team defeated The Mongolz on the Mirage map with a score of 13:10 in rounds. They then went on to defeat the team G2, who led during the second half of the Nuke map, but NAVI managed to turn the game in their favour with a score of 13:11.
After two victories, NAVI faced a tough streak, losing matches to Spirit and Cloud9 in the best-of-two format. However, in the final Elimination Stage match, NAVI showed their full strength against paiN and defeated the Brazilian team unexpectedly (2:0).
Positive match statistics against the Turkish team Eternal Fire set the stage for positive expectations in the quarter-final match, and NAVI confirmed their strength by defeating the Turks 2:0. In the tournament semifinals against G2, the Born to Win team took Anubis (16:13), but the opponent prepared well for Nuke and levelled the score (7:13). On the decisive Ancient map, NAVI managed to win the match (13:11), ending the game with an overall score of 2:1 in their favour.
The final match took place on the Ancient, Mirage, and Inferno maps. NAVI won the first map with a score of 13:9, FaZe took the second with a score of 13:2, and the Ukrainian team won the third with a score of 13:3.
Thus, in addition to the title of champions, the Ukrainian team won $500,000. FaZe, taking second place, received $170,000, with the total prize pool of the Copenhagen tournament amounting to $1,250,000.
It's worth noting that besides Ukrainians Valeriy Vakhovsky (b1t) and Ihor Zhdanov (w0nderful), the team also included citizens of Finland Alexi Virolainen (Aleksib), Romania Ivan Mihai (iM), and Lithuania Justinas Lekavicius (jL).
Counter Strike 2 was released on the Steam platform on September 28, 2023. This was the first Major tournament for this game, with the previous ones held for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
NAVI's only other Major victory in CS:GO was in 2021 in Stockholm, Sweden, when the Ukrainian team defeated the European G2 Esports.