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Natus Vincere continued their recent dominance of G2 Esports as the European roster claimed another resounding victory in the grand final of the Esports World Cup Counter-Strike 2 event, rallying back from a 1-0 deficit to record a 2-1 (14-16, 13-6, 13-6) victory in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
NaVi’s in-game leader, Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen, continued his flawless run against the team that cut him in June of last year, with the grand final victory taking his record to 7-0 against the world number six.
Entering the Esports World Cup as the world number five in the CS2 world rankings, Natus Vincere was rated as a +600 chance and fifth favourite by esports betting sites to lift the trophy.
THEY'VE DONE IT!@natusvincere ARE YOUR #EsportsWorldCup #CS2 CHAMPIONS!
🏆 @AleksibCSGO
🏆 @iMeCSGO
🏆 @b1tcs
🏆 @jLcsgo_
🏆 @w0nderfulof pic.twitter.com/B3t7CGtC7k— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) July 21, 2024
However, it wasn’t the reigning Major champions that entered the grand final as the favourites, with G2’s form seemingly stacking up better than that of NaVi’s after they dismantled Virtus.pro in the semi-finals and defeated Team Spirit in the quarters.
The series started on Ancient, where G2 got off to a fast start and took an 8-4 halftime lead before NaVi responded with their own 8-4 half to take the game to overtime.
In overtime, it was Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač and Mario ‘malbsMd’ Samayoa that stood up for G2 and carried the team to a 16-14 win on their own map pick.
Aleksib and his squad would have been happy to move onto their comfort map pick of Nuke for the second map of the series.
Although they traded rounds with G2 and went into halftime with the score locked at 6-apiece, NaVi rattled off seven straight round wins to claim the map in dominant fashion and take the grand final to a third and final map.
Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy and Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius led the server in kills and rating after producing a near-flawless counter-terrorist side.
On Inferno, NaVi strung seven straight rounds together early in the first half and took a comfortable 9-3 halftime lead before the switch of sides, with b1t leading the way, recording a massive 1.84 rating on the terrorist side.
The two squads traded rounds in the second half, but with b1t still firing on all cylinders, G2 had no answer, and Natus Vincere wrapped up the series with another 13-6 scoreline to claim the Esports World Cup CS2 title.
👑 @G2NiKo is the offical #EsportsWorldCup #CS2 PlayStation MVP! He earned an extra $50,000 for his efforts!
What a performance! 💪 pic.twitter.com/1pG58Brpz1
— Esports World Cup (@EWC_EN) July 21, 2024
On a positive note for G2, NiKo was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the Esports World Cup event and collected the US$50,000 prize.
He finished the tournament with a 1.35 rating, +58 kill/death difference, and 94.2 average damage per round (ADR).
Both NaVi and G2 will return to Europe and prepare for the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Groups, which will begin on Monday, July 29, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
