NAVI vs NIP: S1mple and co. one match away from Champions Stage

The BLAST Paris Major is currently underway in full swing. With the Challenger stages over and Day 1 of the Legends stage already past us, teams are prepared and warmed up for the all-important Round 3. The first match of the day is NAVI vs NIP, a match that will send one team a step closer to qualification and the other to elimination. Here are the NAVI vs NIP live score, a short preview, and exciting clips. 

For many CS:GO fans, NAVI was one of the strongest teams coming into the final CS:GO Major. But the S1mple-led team has looked shaky. They won their first bo1 against GamerLegion - no surprises there. Their real test was against a resurgent Team Liquid and they fell short.

Failing to reach double digits, NAVI’s performance on Inferno can be attributed to a disastrous CT side. They did well to recover from a 1-14 start, yes you read that right, a 1-14 start. But it was always going to be next to impossible to win that map with almost no space for error. 

S1mple top fragged for his team, but there was one more player that stood out. Team Liquid’s YEKINDAR, with his 29 kills was miles above anyone else on the server. He had a 2.00 rating with a 91.7% KAST, which is to say something. 

The Ninjas in Pyjamas first match was against Fnatic. Even though Fnatic has gone international, for many of the Ninjas fans, this match was the most exciting start to the BLAST Paris Major. 

In terms of maps, NAVI has a clear advantage with a higher win-rate on Mirage, Inferno, Nuke as well as Ancient. Two of these four maps, Mirage and Ancient are NAVI’s playground, so they will go into the series with a significant veto advantage. For NIP, the only map where they have a clear advantage is Vertigo, although we expect this map to be NAVI’s veto. 

Overpass is also another map where NIP’s statistics are better than NAVI’s but there are very few people that will bet against NAVI on Overpass. NAVI comes into this series winning four of their last six matches. Their losses were against a much-stronger Heroic and Team Liquid at the Major. Most of their other matchups were clean victories and they didn’t even require S1mple to go into God-Mode.

NiP, they are a tier below NAVI in terms of skill. They have struggled against teams like OG. They lost to Fnatic in their opening match at the BLAST Paris Major. The team lacks any surprise advantage in terms of maps and has also lost their last three series against NAVI.

The last time these two teams met was at the IEM Rio 2023 where NIP lost 0-2 (10-16, 13-16) to S1mple and co.

It was clear right from the get-go that NIP came into this match with a disadvantage. NAVI had the superior firepower and they knew it. The ensuing confidence was quite often more then enough to help the NAVI boys to win crucial clutch situations. NIP seemed to be taking a slightly defensive approach, which played right into NAVI's hands.

NAVI started strong after they won the first six rounds to start the match. NIP clawed back three, but then it was followed by a few more rounds for NAVI. NAVI's defensive half started off meticulously but as they progressed through the match, it was clear they wanted to take the fight to the opponents. S1mple and b1t were the two best players on the server getting 23 and 22 kills apiece. Despite winning the pistol round, NIP simply did not have it in them to win the series.

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