The Year of Natus Vincere and the begging of the NAVI Era

There is only one roster in the discussion on the best team of 2021 . Na’Vi is the clear cut best team in the world. How can you argue against all of their accolades since June? In the last seven months, Na’Vi have come in first place in 9 tournaments they attended. The two that they lost? Second place in each.

This unstoppable force has jumped on top of an immovable object and are destroying the competition. Even a round 1 loss to Team Liquid in the Blast Premier World Final couldn’t stop them. After being sent to the losers bracket, and on the brink of elimination, they simply beat everyone who stood in their way. The list of teams Na’Vi beat in their recent lower bracket run: Heroic, G2, Liquid, Vitality and Gambit.

There is no question that we are entering the NAVI era in 2022, and IEM Katowice 2022 is where it all begins.

Natus Vincere through numbers

Electronic and S1mple are both sporting insane ratios coming into 2022. One may think Electronic’s 1.17 rating is something to boast about, yet he is “cursed” to play with the CSGO Goat on the same roster. Electronic’s numbers are dwarfed by S1mple, who holds an incredible 1.30 rating..

Here are S1mple’s stats over the last 3 months worth of tournaments:

• BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2021: 1.18
• IEM Fall 2021 CIS: 1.25
• PGL Major Stockholm 2021: 1.47
• BLAST Premier Fall Final 2021: 1.39
• BLAST Premier World Final 2021: 1.42

What is there left to say about the best player to have ever touched the game? Now that he has a team performing well behind him, he will not surrender the crown.

Another storyline to come out of their recent dominance is the man S1mple has taken under his wing: B1T. This guy is so clutch in the moments that matter. Though he had no LAN experience before joining Na’Vi, he pulled off incredible clutches against the best teams in the world at the PGL Stockholm Major. In addition to his in-game performance, he has set himself up by quickly becoming one of the highest earning CSGO professionals in a short period of time.

NaVi now sports a 91.3% win rate over the past three months, and 86% since early June. They secured the Intel Grand Slam back in September, finishing the longest season to date, lasting 756 days since IEM Chicago 2019. It took Natus Vincere more then 18 months to complete this fear, a testament to their long standing superior form.

We are 50 days away from IEM Katowice, and their era will be cemented if they reclaim the crown they lost to Gambit last February.

At the end of the day, Astralis achieved greater dominance during their own era. However, if NaVi can somehow maintain their current form, there is no telling what they can achieve. Other teams have a long way to go if they wish to achieve tournament victories in the upcoming year. Currently, there is nobody who could even dream of usurping the kings.

Comments are closed.