NAVI CS:GO Profile: The Past, Present and Future of Natus Vincere

Counter-Strike
April 13, 2023
Daniel Morris

The NAVI CS:GO team are one of the most iconic esports teams of all time. For a time, they brought about one of the most dominant eras CS:GO had ever seen. Retaining a strong roster, there’s still a promising future for this NAVI CS:GO bunch.

NAVI CS:GO

s1mple has been NAVI’s talisman since his arrival. Credit: Stephanie Lindgren/ © PGL

Early Days

The early days of NAVI in CS:GO were filled with disappointment. It never really clicked for the team, who were competing against some of the best CS:GO players in the world without really having a star of their own.

There were definitely signs of bright things to come. A few smaller LAN wins inspired hope that NAVI could compete at the top of CS:GO, but on bigger stages the team crumbled. Between 2015 and 2018, the team were runners-up in three CS:GO Major finals, always second-best to rosters able to take the final step to greatness.

Building Brilliance

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was NAVI’s legendary CS:GO team. The acquisition of the pieces came over time, beginning all the way back in 2016. NAVI acquired promising AWPer s1mple from Liquid, where he was underutilised and underappreciated. His reputation for toxicity preceded him, but NAVI saw past that due to his generational ability with the Big Green. In hindsight, it’s one of the best moves any CS:GO team has ever made. For s1mple CS:GO comes naturally, and he’s widely regarded as the greatest of all time.

The rest of the pieces came in the following years. Rifler electroNic arrived in 2017, with IGL Boombl4 following in 2019. The puzzle was completed for this CS:GO NAVI team, with the 2020 signing of Perfecto and b1t.

The NAVI CS:GO Era

The 2021 season that followed was remarkable. Four S-Tier competition wins saw that NAVI CS:GO team etch their names into eternity, a roster that looked truly unbeatable.

To top it off, they got the one prize they wanted above all else. They finally became CS:GO Major winners at PGL Major Stockholm 2021. With s1mple CS:GO looked easy, but there were some strong teams competing alongside them.

Unfortunately, the CS:GO NAVI era was short-lived. The Russia-Ukraine conflict caused huge issues for the CIS team. In mid-2022, they lost Boombl4 due to personal reasons, and they just never looked the same, settling for a single competition win across 2022.

NAVI Now

The current NAVI CS:GO roster are a team in transition. The promotion of 17-year-old npl from NAVI Junior was a big risk, one that for a while looked set to backfire. Recently, something has changed for npl. Has he been watching demos? Did he just find his best Counter-Strike crosshair? It’s unclear, but this CS:GO NAVI team look far better for his maturing as a player.

The team still isn’t perfect. Concerns remain over electroNic in the IGL role, and s1mple’s CS:GO form isn’t up to his 2021 standard. But for the first time since then, there’s some real hope that for NAVI and s1mple CS:GO can become their hunting ground once more.

FAQs

How many CS:GO Majors have NAVI been to?

NAVI has the extremely unique distinction of being the only team to go to every single CS:GO Major ever. From the first one all the way back in 2013, to the final one in Paris, NAVI has been there for the entire ride, with all 19 under its belt. Despite the proficiency in reaching the Majors, the team has struggled somewhat at winning them, with just a single Major victory to speak of. It’s still a remarkable achievement that the team will hope to continue well into the CS2 era.

Who is NAVI's best-ever player?

NAVI’s best-ever player has to be s1mple, the legendary AWPer that most regard as the best to ever play the game. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev has played for NAVI since late-2016 when he moved across from Team Liquid. Ever since, he’s been NAVI’s talisman, bringing about the biggest period of success in the team’s history. At this point, NAVI and s1mple seem like a match made in heaven, and it’s hard to imagine him ever playing CS:GO for any other team. 

When was NAVI's best-ever era?

NAVI’s best-ever era came in 2021, when the team began a year of total dominance over the CS:GO scene. That NAVI CS:GO roster included electroNic, s1mple, b1t, Perfecto, and Boombl4, as they cemented themselves as one of the best teams to ever do it. It was during this period that NAVI won their only CS:GO Major, as well as completing the Intel Grand Slam.

Does NAVI compete in other esports?

Yes! NAVI is one of the biggest names in esports history, and it maintains a proud tradition of greatness across multiple games. Their other games include Dota 2, PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant. Interestingly, NAVI has tried its hand at League of Legends in the past, although it has never managed to fully break in, as it has in other games. Presumably, NAVI will look to keep up with the latest and greatest esports titles as they release, even if CS:GO remains the priority for the team at the moment.

ad

Comments are closed.