Fair play, NAVI.

Fair play to b1t, who rolled back to Stockholm to go supernova in the most important map of his life. Fair play to jL, who showed up in fits and spurts in Paris, but went absolutely crazy here in Denmark to be the MVP.

Fair play to w0nderful, who was the guy who replaced s1mple and was never expected to be as good, but now has as many Majors as he does - and deservedly so. Fair play to iM, who wasn’t as dominant as he was in Paris, but found impact as a huge voice in the team and as a player.

And finally, fair play to Aleksib. We’ve not always given him his flowers in this newsletter, but we think we’ve been fair - and if we are, we have to say: well f*cking done.

The Fin led his team to a victory over karrigan in Copenhagen, despite getting smacked in map two, and didn’t let the team who never die a chance to get up. When NAVI had FaZe by the throat on Inferno, they squeezed harder.

b1t and jL were exceptional in the final, with the latter fulfilling the potential he showed faster than anyone could have expected. The unassuming, puppy-like prodigy we saw in Paris became… well, even more puppy-like, but twice as deadly.

We could talk about the game, but in truth the last two maps were completely dominant each way - the game itself was more of a vehicle for narratives, and for NAVI to prove every single doubter, some of them inside tldr, in truth - wrong.

Photo: Adam Conway

Natus Vincere are your Major champions. Counter-Strike. Bloody hell.

Final standing at the first CS2 Major:

1st 🇪🇺 NAVI – $500.000
2nd 🇪🇺 FaZe Clan – $170.000
3-4th 🇪🇺 G2 Esports – $80.000
3-4th 🇪🇺 Vitality – $80.000
5-8th 🇪🇺 MOUZ – $45.000
5-8th 🇹🇷 Eternal Fire – $45.000
5-8th 🇷🇺 Spirit – $45.000
5-8th 🇷🇺 Cloud9 – $45.000