March 1 Natus vincere won the cup IEM Katowice 2023 by CS: GOreplaying in the finals G2 esports with a score of 3: 0. But the starting point in this NAVI IEM Katowice triumph is outside Poland – in the group stage BLAST Premier Spring Series 2023on the Inferno map in the match against Astralis. That comeback changed the mental attitude of the players and transformed their playlist. We decided to recall four more bright comebacks that resulted in something big – a won trophy, career take-off, or a large-scale scandal.
NAVI – Astralis. Rebooting the “new era”
A comeback against Astralis in the relegation match for BLAST Premier was not only one of the highlights of the tournament, but also a kind of “restart” of NAVI. If the “new era” of CS: GO roster really came in triumph at IEM Katowice 2023, then the comeback on Inferno laid the foundation for it.
The team from the CIS approached BLAST Premier in a bad shape. For several months, she unsuccessfully performed with Ladislav GuardiaN Kovacsthen replaced the Slovak with a young Ilya Perfecto Zalutsky, with whom she didn’t even have time to really train. At Alexandra s1mple Kostyleva at that moment, the transition period also began – for the second time in a season he had to change his position, returning to the role of a sniper. The day before the fight with Astralis, the NAVI team lost Team vitality with a score of 0: 2.
The CIS team started the series against Astralis horribly, giving its peak with a score of 6:16, but then unexpectedly for many it was able to pick up the strongest Astralis card – Nuke. Inferno became decisive, and there again NAVI had problems – they lost both pistol rounds, and Astralis reached a comfortable score for itself 13: 6. To play this with the best team in the world is an almost impossible task, but the team of Alexander Kostylev was able to turn the tide.
NAVI began to win completely crazy rounds. With a score of 13: 8, they were able to recapture point A, which the Astralis players held five of them. And in the very end, s1mple saved NAVI by issuing a flick shot on the Danish ranbust. Completed the meeting Denis electronic Sharipov – He alone killed three on A and stopped the Astralis attack.
After this victory, a full-fledged “return” of NAVI began – the team took first place in the group at BLAST Premier and won a total of eight out of nine subsequent matches. The s1mple team not only won the IEM Katowice, it was an order of magnitude superior to everyone else – Astralis took only ten rounds for two cards against NAVI, and G2 – 19 rounds for three.