NaVi Race Towards DHM Spring Trophy With 3-0 Upset!

In the Grand Finals, Gambit Esports held all the cards. Most recently, they had won three separate Best-of-Threes against Natus Vincere, but the Russians surprisingly pulled through to victory. Not only that, they also managed to achieve this feat on three straight maps.

Before that, however, they had to pass a number of teams. They struggled mightily against mousesports and only narrowly escaped defeat on a 16-14 scoreline. Later, they mounted a decisive 2-0 over Virtus.pro, which put them in the Upper Bracket Finals already.

There, Gambit Esports were lying in wait. After all these losses, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kosytliev and his men were surely eager to take revenge on Gambit. However, they failed in this endeavor for a third time, as they traded maps, setting up an encounter on Mirage. There, Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov and his team secured victory on a 16-13 scoreline.

Once again, NaVi were stopped dead in their tracks. Their placement still meant that they advanced to the playoffs, at least. There, they were about to face off against FURIA, who looked more than dangerous after performing a fantastic run in the Lower Bracket.

The Brazilians used their newfound confidence to drag NaVi into overtime on the first map. After multiple attempts, they finally secured the victory on a 22-19 scoreline. So s1mple and the rest stood with their backs against the wall yet again. Only one map separated them from dropping out of DreamHack Masters entirely.

But finally, s1mple pulled through. Even tough the rest of his team barely managed to keep up, the Ukrainian recorded 30 kills each on both follow-up maps, securing quick 16-6 victories. So FURIA were eventually beaten in the ground and NaVi were heading towards a Semi Finals clash with Heroic, one of the clear favorites for the event.

NAVI VERSUS HEROIC

If s1mple wanted to reach the Grand Finals, he needed to get past the Danes who themselves had made the Grand Finals of their most recent events. Casper “cadiaN” Møller and his men were not to be underestimated, which they managed to underline on the first map already. A 16-11 win put them in the lead and once more, NaVi were under pressure. They finally managed to make something out of it, as s1mple took their Nuke game over. On a 1.61 rating, he put every other player on the server to shame and helped NaVi mount a 16-12 victory. So the match was tied again for the third and last map.

On Inferno, Heroic took the lead with a 9-6 score. Rene “TeSeS” Madsen delieved beautiful kills, but as so often, s1mple was unstoppable. His 32 kills made sure that NaVi scraped past on a 16-13 scoreline. Heroic narrowly missed the Grand Finals and made way for a strong and confident NaVi – one that was finally aiming for another tournament victory.

NAVI VERSUS GAMBIT

But it wasn’t enough to just beat one favorite. After all, Gambit Esports, the winners of the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown, were waiting in the Grand Finals. Even worse, NaVi hadn’t won a single Best-of-Three against this team ever since February. It was obvious from the start that mentality and teamplay would ultimately decide on the outcome of this match.

Fortunately, NaVi got off to a great start. On the first map, they outright trashed Gambit. Even Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov wasn’t able to keep up. Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov was the only one to attain a positive rating. This 16-7 announced NaVi as a force to be reckoned with for the Grand Finals and proved that s1mple and his men were finally in reach of a victory over their nemesis.

On Mirage, Gambit got the opportunity to tie the match up again. They quickly wasted this opportunity, though, allowing NaVi to ramp up another 12-3 half. While sh1ro and the rest mounted an impressive combat, it was ultimately not enough. A 12-16 loss sent Gambit to the third map, where they had to fight for their tournament lives.

Finally, they got back into the game. Collecting 9 terrorist rounds at half-time, Gambit were positioned perfectly to take Train for themselves and give an exciting twist to this otherwise one-sided Grand Finals. But Denis “electronic” Sharipov wouldn’t allow this to happen. This time, s1mple didn’t even need to get going, as electronic ramped up 31 kills and turned the match around by himself. Gambit only managed to win three more rounds before NaVi held a 16-12 scoreline and had won the Grand Finals of DreamHack Masters Spring.

WHAT DOES THIS VICTORY MEAN FOR NAVI?

Finally, s1mple is back with another trophy. Finally, there’s a new favorite. But even more important is that Natus Vincere have finally come back from their slump. After a fantastic conclusion to 2020, they had gradually descended in the ranks, a trend they have now managed to put to a stop. Valeriy “B1T” Vakhovskiy has proven himself worthy as their new fifth man. NaVi will feel confident in their decision to have benched Egor “flamie” Vasylev.

But for the other teams, this is bad news. A new challenger is stepping up to the scene. It was difficult enough for the likes of Astralis to keep up with Gambit and Heroic, but now, Natus Vincere are also competing at the highest level. We will see soon enough whether they can actually retain their level for once.