Na’Vi Wins ESL Pro League Season 14 and Intel Grand Slam Season 3
Natus Vincere go the distance against Vitality to win it all.
Cover-Credits:
Natus Vincere had a lot on stake in their grand final match against Team Vitality at ESL Pro League Season 14. The hard fought best-of-five series came to a dramatic end as Na'Vi won the decider on the 30th round, lifting the trophy high as the champions and winning their second consecutive CS:GO tournament.
With this victory, Na'Vi has also secured the Intel Grand Slam (IGS) Season 3, claiming an additional $1,000,000 USD cheque. It is only the third CS:GO team after Astralis and Team Liquid to have won this title, securing it more than a year after having its first tournament of IGS Season 3 - IEM Katowice 2020.
Na'Vi are the champions of ESL Pro League Season 14
The grand finals went down to the wire as both the CS:GO juggernauts, Na'Vi and Vitality traded maps, winning their own map picks while faltering on the ones that the other had chosen.
Na'Vi opened strong with a '16-10' win on Dust 2 but Vitality came right back into the series, winning Inferno '16-6' to equalize the series. This was followed by the two teams exchanging '16-11' and '16-7' blows on Nuke and Overpass, respectively.
Mirage was the deciding map with the score levelled on '2-2', as both teams slugged it out to come through as the champions. The game went down to the last round in regulation play where Na'Vi sealed the final victory for themselves with a tight '16-14' score.
All the players for Na'Vi rose up to the occasion, playing their roles perfectly with an important cameo every now and then. A high stakes grand finals that the CIS lineup finessed, putting everything into it, and toiling hard to come through as the winners.
Na'Vi becomes the third CS:GO team to win an Intel Grand Slam title
With this victory Na'Vi won a bonus of $1 Million USD as they secured the Intel Grand Slam Season 3, the third CS:GO team to attain this title after Astralis and Team Liquid.
Na'Vi won its first IGS Season 3 CS:GO tournament last year starting with IEM Katowice 2020, this was followed by victories at DreamHack Masters Spring 2021, IEM Cologne 2021, and ESL Pro League Season 14.
If in case, Na'Vi had not won this tournament, they would still have two more tournaments to claim the Intel Grand Slam.
The third season of IGS lasted for a total of 756 days, having started with IEM Chicago 2019, making it the longest season out of the three played out so far. The first season lasted 144 days which was won by Astralis, followed by Team Liquid, winning the second season in record 63 days.
With this victory, Na'Vi is touted as one of the favorites to win the upcoming PGL Major Stockholm as it truly solidify its name in the history of CS:GO, slowly building its era.
