The stage reveals all.

When the lights are brightest, some crumble and some level up. Things got hairy for both teams in NAVI vs Eternal Fire, but the experience of NAVI overcame.

Lots of credit will go the way of w0nderful, and rightfully so. The man who replaced s1mple embodied and incarnated the Undertaker, as he swanned around Mirage and Inferno collecting multikills like Ash Ketchum collects small animals.

NAVI’s rifle core started out quiet, but jL and b1t both won some massive clutches down the stretch - and that’s what made the difference. NAVI won seven clutches to Eternal Fire’s one, and had significantly fewer opening kills, but just held their nerve on stage.

It was a genuinely heartbreaking moment for Eternal Fire, and not least MAJ3R, who had an exceptional series in front of his family in the front row, but just fell short.

Counter-Strike is a game of millimetres, and split seconds, and Eternal Fire fell agonisingly short.

But for NAVI, it’s a proof of concept. This team can win, it can go deep in tournaments, and in w0nderful they have a genuine star who can carry games. He is quickly becoming one of the hottest properties in world Counter-Strike, and this was his biggest showing yet.

Watch out.