Russian team Natus Vincere stepped up their game and laid waste to the IEM Cologne 2021 and won the title for the first time since 2020. The team has scored $400,000 prize money as they went on to beat the odds and close out the contest in the best way they can.
Na’Vi cruised past the Renegades, Team Vitality, and Astralis in the group stages. All of those big games were won 2-1, but it all saw the team win the third map at every turn. The playoffs were even a much better run for Na’Vi. The team beat some of the best teams in the game en route to the title.
FaZe Clan could not take a map off Na’Vi in the semis while G2 Esports was swept in the finals. This win at the LAN setup puts the team as the best CS:GO team in the world. It also adds a Cologne title to their list to go with their 2020 win at the IEM Katowice.
Bet On Live CS:GO Games
Na’Vi was the best pick for many fans in the grand finals and for good reason. The series played out first in Dust 2 and it was a 16-11 win for Na’Vi. They played well on Mirage and scored it 16-14 thanks to a big game by Valerii ‘b1t’ Vakhovskyi.Natus Vincere’s road to the IEM Cologne 2021 finals was a fairly smooth one. They scored 2:1 wins in all their games from the group stage. They topped Group B and went straight into the Semi-Finals. There, they stopped FaZe Clan’s momentum with dominant wins on Inferno and Mirage, scoring 16:7 on both maps. In the finals, they faced a G2 who also topped Group A. G2 went into the finals after a relatively close series with Astralis. They won with a 16:6 score on Nuke, 12:16 score on Dust II, and 16:14 on Inferno.
The Iem Cologne 2021 Grand Finals
The Grand Finals saw Na’Vi and G2 face-off once again. Theirs is a storied match-up since they also played the last LAN CS:GO final before the pandemic forced everything to go online. The IEM Cologne 2021 final almost seems like a replay of IEM Katowice 2020, with both teams even playing the same maps – albeit in a different order. G2 proved to be a tougher opponent this time around, however, with Nikola “NiKo” Kovač playing impressively in the latter two maps.
The first map, Dust II, was a remarkable showing by Na’Vi star Aleksandr ‘s1mple‘ Kostyliev. He scored 30 kills with only 15 deaths, including an impressive 1v3 clutch in the 8th round, and take a record-breaking ace in the 20th round. That ace marked the first time a single player scored four aces in the same CS:GO tournament. Denis ‘electronic‘ Sharipov also helped lead the way to victory, forging ahead to start the map 4:0 for his team. Na’Vi took the map win with a 16:11 score.
MVP Goes To S1mple, B1t Wins His First LAN
Aside from taking home the $400,000 grand prize, this win at IEM Cologne 2021 brings Na’Vi one win away from an Intel Grand Slam. This is thanks to their previous wins at IEM Katowice 2020 and DreamHack Masters Spring 2021. Thanks to an exceedingly impressive performance throughout the tournament, s1mple also took home the MVP award. This is his fourth MVP medal for 2021. Additionally, Na’Vi rookie Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi can chalk up his first LAN attendance and first championship win.
Natus Vincere’s road to the IEM Cologne 2021 finals was a fairly smooth one. They scored 2:1 wins in all their games from the group stage. They topped Group B and went straight into the Semi-Finals. There, they stopped FaZe Clan’s momentum with dominant wins on Inferno and Mirage, scoring 16:7 on both maps. In the finals, they faced a G2 who also topped Group A. G2 went into the finals after a relatively close series with Astralis. They won with a 16:6 score on Nuke, 12:16 score on Dust II, and 16:14 on Inferno.
The team was in full control in Nuke. G2 could not fight back and were helpless for most of that map. A grenade stack through the smoke pulled off the win at 16-14 for Na’Vi to close out the sweep in the contest.
Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev took the lead in this one for Na’Vis big win at the new era of CS:GO LAN. S1mple was clearly the best player for the team as he broke the charts with 93.1 damage and .96 kills per round to go with a 1.77 KD ratio in the whole event.
Those stat lines are the ones people look out for and it just proves how fierce of a fighter s1mple is when it comes to leading the way for his team. That is the best set record in IEM Cologne, which proves why Na’Vi is the best.
