npl leads the way as NAVI qualify for Paris Major

The 17-year-old is the joint second highest-rated player of the qualifier so far after topping the charts in Natus Vincere's journey to the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

Natus Vincere have become the first team to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major, taking place from May 8-21, after traversing the first European RMR tournament.

The Ukrainian-majority team earned a spot in the Legends Stage with a flawless 3-0 record in the Swiss group despite looking shaky to start, requiring double overtime to beat the second lowest-ranked team at the tournament, Into the Breach, in the opening round.

After that, however, it was smooth sailing as they passed Falcons in the second round 16-6 on Ancient and Intel Grand Slam Season 4 winners FaZe in a clean 2-0 series in the third round (16-7 on Inferno and 16-11 on Ancient).

Throughout the qualifier Natus Vincere had an unlikely star lead the way with superb performances in Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi. The 17-year-old averaged a 1.34 rating across the four maps NAVI played and topped the charts for his team in a great showing from the team all-around, as everyone finished the tournament above the 1.15 mark.

That is a massive improvement on npl's record prior to this tournament since he joined the main squad from the academy team at the end of 2022. Before the European RMR, the youngster's average rating with Natus Vincere was 0.90.

"Maybe because I can understand what we are doing now," npl said on the official BLAST broadcast when asked about how he has turned his form around. "I'm not as scared as I was, for example, and a lot of ideas electroNic and B1ad3 want to do, I understand them more easily than before."

npl will be making his first Major appearance in Paris, while the organization as a whole has ensured that their flawless record of attending all CS:GO Majors will remain intact.

Another team will qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major Legends Stage later on Friday as fnatic and B8 fight in the other match of the 2-0 pool. Over the following two days six more teams will qualify from the first European group, two of which will go straight to the Legends Stage and four to the Challengers Stage.