Less than a month after the overwhelming success of the Russian team Team Spirit at the main Dota 2 tournament (The International), the CIS esports fans have another reason to rejoice. The organization Natus Vincere (NaVi), which includes gamers from Russia and Ukraine, became the winner of the PGL Major in the CS: GO discipline for the first time in history. In the grand final, she beat G2 Esports with a score of 2: 0 and earned $ 1 million in prize money.

The tournament, which can be called the CS: GO World Championship, has been held since 2013. Once the representatives of the CIS managed to win the competition - in 2017 at PGL Major Krakow, the first place was taken by the Kazakh-Russian-Ukrainian roster of Gambit. Among the rest, NaVi was the closest to triumph. They were one of the strongest in the discipline in recent years, but at the Majors they lacked something every time. Prior to PGL Major Stockholm 2021, the team reached the final of the championship three times, but always lost. Moreover, in decisive confrontations, it was usually not possible to take even one card (as they call matches in Counter-Strike).

The last tournament was held in Stockholm and became the first after a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. The competition was attended by 24 teams from all over the world, and four of them represented the CIS. In addition to Born to Win, these were the aforementioned Gambit, as well as Virtus.pro, Team Spirit and Entropiq. Moreover, Natus Vincere and Gambit were considered the main favorites of the Major, according to the bookmaker's quotes. Some analysts even suggested that the 2017 champions are almost the only ones who can stop the three-time finalists.

However, NaVi stood out at least due to the presence of Alexander Kostylev (s1mple), whom experts and viewers consider one of the best, if not the best CS: GO player in history.

The Ukrainian justified this during the tournament, when he could almost single-handedly decide the outcome of the confrontations.

Moreover, for him the “Major” in Stockholm was doubly important, since he lacked this particular trophy in the list of achievements.

👑PGL MAJOR STOCKHOLM 2021 CHAMPIONS👑



🏅 @ natusvincere🏅



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COUNTER-STRIKE. # PGLMAJORpic.twitter.com / JPjWcDoP56

- PGL (@pglesports) November 7, 2021

In addition to him, his compatriot Valery Vakhovsky (B1t), as well as Russians Denis Sharipov (electronic), Kirill Mikhailov (Boombl4) and Ilya Zalutsky (Perfecto) played for the team. It was with this line-up that Born to Win achieved success during the season at Intel Grand Slam, IEM in Cologne and EPL Season 14. That is, the team's results justified its status as the main contender for the championship in Stockholm.

Natus Vincere began to demonstrate their high class already at the start of the Major. At the group stage, they dealt with each of the rivals rather casually. There were no problems at the start of the playoffs, where they won a victory over Team Vitality. In the semifinals, the fans were to see the long-awaited CIS derby between NaVi and Gambit. Moreover, the Russian organization, founded in 2016, also walked quite confidently through the tournament. She made the only misfire in the group against compatriots from Entropiq, but this did not prevent her from reaching the quarterfinals, where she managed to defeat FURIA Esports.

Nevertheless, in the battle for reaching the grand finals, NaVi proved that they are a much cooler team. Already on the first map, they literally defeated the opponent with a score of 16: 8, and the second rally turned out to be the easiest for Kostylev and company at the tournament - 16: 3. Thus, Gambit left the competition, sharing the third or fourth places with Heroic, who, in turn, lost to G2 Esports in a bitter struggle.  

The European team G2 was also one of the favorites of PGL Major Stockholm 2021. Moreover, like NaVi, it approached the decisive meeting without defeat. And although most expected to see the triumph of the Russian-Ukrainian team, G2 also could not be written off. Thus, “Born to Win” faced more obvious resistance than in the previous match, but still achieved success - 16:11 on the first map and 22:19 on the second. Moreover, the leader of the Simple team showed himself in all its glory, having committed 72 murders for the confrontation. He was recognized as the best player of the entire Major with an overall rating of 1.47.

Actually, “Born to Win” became the first in history who managed to win the main tournament of the planet without losing a single card in the course of it.

After the success, the cybersportsmen did not hide their joy, and Kostylev noted that the long way to the coveted prize was not in vain, and the team really deserved the trophy with their work.

“Once I promised myself that I would stay at NAVI and win a major.

We did it today.

Many didn’t believe in us, but we, damn it, did it, ”said Kostylev.

However, the most emotional was the appearance on the champion stage of the captain NaVi Mikhailov, who during the awarding ceremony asked for a microphone from the host and proposed to his girlfriend.

Of course, at that moment she was not next to her, but an affirmative answer in social networks was not long in coming.

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰



PLEASE SAY YES! # PGLMAJORpic.twitter.com / LRgCHpWsXC

- PGL (@pglesports) November 7, 2021