The long journey of CSGO, the story of Na`Vi

With a runner-up at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 4, Na`Vi finally made it to the final round of a top-flight tournament since ESL New York, which had taken place almost a year and a half earlier. . This is a shocking fact as Na`Vi was always considered one of the best teams in the world before the ownership of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. s1mple is one of the top players in the world, so this move is seen as making Na`Vi a heavyweight contender. Unfortunately, that did not happen when the team constantly had problems, could not find their silhouette. After much difficulty, Na`Vi finally found their way back to the finals of a top tournament.

To better understand why they have been so disappointing in the past year and a half, we have to go back in time. From the end of 2015 to the beginning of 2016, Na`Vi was one of the top 2 teams in the world. The only team that could stand in the way of Na`Vi was its heyday Fnatic with Dennis “dennis” Edman, a roster that won six consecutive LAN events. This version of Fnatic is mainly skill based and if they didn’t level up then Na`Vi could be considered the strongest team in the world. However, that never happened as Na`Vi always lost to her opponents. Luminosity, the forerunner of the Brazilian players who founded SK today, became the strongest team in the world last year.

Na`Vi are still a strong team and believe they can find their way back. But instead, the team gradually slipped. The pivotal moment occurred at the ESL Cologne Major 2016. It was one of the most important events in Na`Vi history. At this event, Na`Vi faced Liquid in the quarterfinals. In that match, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev performed brilliantly, sending Liquid into the final round of that Major. For Na`Vi, this is a moment to change their way of thinking. Na`Vi had been underperforming in the previous few months and the fact that s1mple was doing so well at Liquid made him an asset that he couldn’t help but own. After the Major, Na`Vi took an important step. The team eliminated Daniil “Zeus” Teslenko and brought in s1mple.

Na`Vi’s lineup is as follows:

S1mple
Ioaan “Edward” Sukhariev
Egor “flamie” Vasilyev
Denis “seized” Kostin
Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs
Sergey “starix” Ischuk

This is considered an all-star lineup. S1mple is already a superstar, flamie is the second brightest star that can carry the first game, and GuardiaN is considered one of the best AWPers in the world (however, his form dropped after injury). In addition, both Edward and seized are very influential and contribute a lot to the team when GuardiaN is injured. Starix was the one who brought the players back to the leadership role from the coach position, while the coach was still allowed to speak. This is considered the squad that will storm 2016.

Unfortunately, Valve issued a coach regulation that made Starix unable to fulfill his responsibilities. Seized forced to do IGL. Na`Vi seemed to create hope when she performed brilliantly to win ESL New York 2016. GuardiaN cried in the stands. It seemed like the turning point for Na`Vi, the moment when they finally became the best team in the world.

That never happened. Seized couldn’t adapt to the IGL role and he completely lost the ball in the game. Internal turmoil began, most notably between GuardiaN and s1mple. Worse, management believed that the team could function and let the lineup continue for months, knowing full well that it wasn’t working. Finally, on August 3, 2017, GuardiaN left the team and Zeus returned to Na`Vi.

The alternate lineup is still good. Flamie wasn’t as hot as before, but he still had potential. Seized performed poorly, but he once shone when he was under Zeus and hoped that Zeus could help Seized find himself. S1mple is still a superstar, and Edward has always been the cornerstone of the team through the tough times. And Zeus just helped Gambit win the PGL Krakow Major, so hope is still there.

However, they were soon extinguished. Seized gets worse, Edward loses himself, and the flamie plays more erratically than ever. Tactics and systems didn’t make the progress everyone had hoped for and seized gave up after the next three months of competition. This forced Na`Vi to find a replacement member, Denis “electronic” Sharipov.

At this point, people began to doubt Zeus’ leadership. From the outside, it looked like he had the recipe for success, but things turned out worse than he thought. It’s hard to tell what’s going on, but Zeus has reaffirmed over and over again that the process will take a long time. much effort. In addition to leadership, there are many other things. In Flipsid3, Electronic was the star of the team, but when he came to Na`Vi, he became a regular player. Edward’s form is getting worse and worse, but they have a bright spot that is Flamie has regained his senses.

We next saw Na`Vi at LAN at DreamHack Winter, where they won the championship and defeated Mouz. This is a small tournament, but it shows good signs. At the ELEAGUE Boston Major 2018, the team reached the semi-finals, but the team’s journey was less than impressive. The opponents Na`Vi defeated were: BIG, Liquid, Fnatic and QBF. BIG was one of the weakest teams in the Legend round, Liquid used Stand-in, Fnatic was acceptable, QBF was considered a fairy tale when it entered the playoffs and was obviously handled by Na`Vi.

If you look at the matches, it’s clear that s1mple has reached a higher level. He’s always been an active player who can turn the game around, but that way of playing also makes him sometimes lose his edge. That aspect of him has been corrected. Active play combined with melancholy skill and now he has done the unthinkable, with his skill and creativity, while making sure he doesn’t lose his advantage. When he returned to his team, s1mple played more as a team when it came to attacking the site. With this style, he became the best opening and closing round player of the whole match. Sadly, the only thing that is as stable as s1mple is Na`Vi’s Inferno map, which is the best map of the team. The rest are very erratic. The team’s shooting power made it difficult for everyone to understand, Edward was getting worse and worse and it seemed that the team was completely lost on T’s side. However, even though it was a small step, it was clearly in the right direction.

StarLadder Season 4 Kiev is the moment when we see Na`Vi transform. They passed the group stage with a record of 3-2, then entered the final round defeating Astralis, FaZe and then losing 2-1 to Mouz in the final round. In this tournament, s1mple had the best run of all CS:GO players in history. Flamie has recovered a bit, and these two pieces could go up against any team in the world. But everything else remains unrepaired. Electronic played erratically and achieved average stats. Edward has moments that make you believe he’s good again. In FaZe, Edward clutched very important rounds, other than that it was nothing to worry about. Zeus was particularly bad in the finals. While Na`Vi competed with good scores on the T side, the individual skills were not up to the mark.

It has been quite a long comeback journey for Na`Vi, almost a year and a half has passed since they attended the LAN finals of a Tier 1 tournament, but the journey is not over. They are not a team that is satisfied with the runner-up position, which is why Na`Vi brought s1mple to the front. The members have overcome a thorny road, from leadership issues, internal turmoil, and questions about the lineup. They could still be the best team, though. They have the leader in the match is s1mple. If Na`Vi can fix any problem through training or changing the lineup: stability, or playing well on the T side, coordination. If Na`Vi can fix these issues, we will finally see the team return to the top of the CS:GO world.

Source: VPEsports