Navi end the year with a victory at the BLAST Premier World Finals. The Major winners defeated Gambit in the CIS derby.
The BLAST Premier World Finals saw a Navi vs Gambit CIS derby. Navi won this series and with it the million dollar tournament. It marks the end of a very successful year for the esports organisation.
NAVI has just won the PGL Stockholm Major and they lost their opening match at the BLAST Premier World Finals to Liquid. But the Major winners had a fantastic run through the lower bracket to challenge Gambit in the Grand finals. Here’s how the Grand finals went down.
Navi defeat Gambit 2-1 to win BLAST Premier World Finals
The first map, Mirage started with Gambit securing a 9-6 lead on the CT side. Navi tried to bring back the game, but Gambit’s first-half lead was just enough for the team to win Mirage with a 16-14 lead.
S1mple, no surprises here, topped Navi’s scoreboard and on the Gambit squad, Ax1le was the best player with 26 kills.
Mirage was Navi’s pick and we now moved on to Ancient, which was Gambit’s map of choice.
"We didn't expect them to pick Ancient. We haven't practiced Ancient but we knew what they were going to do"
But Navi were not a team to be knocked out in two maps. They bounced back on Ancient with S1mple and electronic both pulling their weight. S1mple had 26 kills against electronic’s 24. WIth a 111.4 ADR, S1mple was in prime form and some
As is the case with tournament grand finals, Inferno was the final map. Navi took the momentum from the second map and continued into the final map. Navi rushed to an 8-3 start on Inferno, slowly building on its lead. S1mple was in particularly dominant form; he was 10-1 at one point in time. Navi finished the first half with a 11-4 score, just a few rounds away from victory.
Navi won the second pistol round and after that it was a mere formality for them to close out the game. Natus Vincere won Inferno with a 16-6 score.
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2021: The Year of Navi
The CIS derby was an exciting one but this win also marks the end of a dream run for Natus Vincere. Despite being an organisation that has dominated the CS:GO scene for years, Navi only managed to win its first Major this year.
The win came on the back of some exceptional performances by S1mple, electronic and b1t.
BLAST Premier World Finals Placements
Here are the final placements for the BLAST Premier World Finals:
- 1st: Natus Vincere ($500,000).
- 2nd: Gambit esports ($250,000).
- 3rd: Team Vitality $120,000).
- 4th: Team Liquid ($50,000).
- 5-6th: G2, Astralis ($25,000).
- 7-8th: Heroic, NiP ($15,000).
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS:GO news and updates.
