NAVI go 8-0 over G2 to reach fourth consecutive Big Event final

Aleksib continues to play spoiler to his former teammates as NAVI take aim at another trophy.

Natus Vincere remain G2's kryptonite and have reached the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 20, bagging one-sided wins on Inferno (13-8) and Ancient (13-6) on either side of a narrow defeat on Nuke (11-13).

Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius was the leading candidate for MVP coming into the series and he extended that edge with potent performances on both of NAVI's map wins, dominating on Inferno (1.78 rating) and finding consistent multi-kills on Ancient (1.49 rating) to top the charts for his side.

It is the fourth consecutive Big Event grand final for Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's men, who have taken immense strides to disprove notions of a fluke trophy lift at PGL Major Copenhagen by winning Esports World Cup and finishing as runners-up at BLAST Spring Final and IEM Cologne.

Eternal Fire awaits Natus Vincere in the grand final, a team that Aleksib's side has a 4-0 series record (8-1 in maps) since NAVI went international in July 2023. However, Aleksib still has demons to conquer as he has a torrid record in best-of-five Big Event title deciders, losing all five he has played in with a miserable 2-15 record in maps.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
22/09/2024	Eternal Fire 17:00 Natus Vincere	Match

The victory over G2 extends Natus Vincere's unbeaten streak over G2 to 8-0 since the organization pivoted to an international roster, with Aleksib having played spoiler to three of his former teammates for over a year now.

"Aleksi has always been a good IGL, it's not that he was a problem for our team back then. There were different reasons why that lineup did not work out, so I always had huge respect for him," Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač said about facing the Finnish captain in a pre-match interview.

Questioned on G2's woeful record against NAVI and what had to change to turn it around, NiKo didn't come across as confident: "If I had an answer, we wouldn't be losing so many times (smiles). I don't know, I guess it's the playstyle, it suits them really well against our playstyle. Hopefully, today is a bit different, we have some things prepared."

The teams last met in the grand final of Esports World Cup, where Natus Vincere got the better of G2 2-1 to stop the team from getting a trophy on debut with Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa and Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski.

The map pool was identical in the rematch, with the sole change being G2 opting to pick Inferno instead of Ancient, which was left as the decider instead.

Last time out, Natus Vincere had lost the latter map in overtime but ran away with wins on Nuke and Inferno to reverse-sweep the series, but whatever G2 had prepared on their pick to start this series, it didn't work.

Early stages of the first half were in control of Natus Vincere courtesy of multi-fragging and a clutch from jL, but the Lithuanian rifler soon found himself repeatedly sidelined after falling victim to a handful of smoke spams and entries in Banana from NiKo.

Those kills helped G2 tie up the score by the break, but jL powered back up on the T side and, combined with a clutch from Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan, helped Natus Vincere seal a swift victory to steal G2's pick.

Nuke was far competitive as G2 put up a stalwart defense, with Natus Vincere unable to string together rounds and only tallying three by the break, including one from a clutch by Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov. G2's substantial lead soon dwindled with a woeful T side, however, with a stuck defuse by Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy piling on misery and allowing Natus Vincere momentum to tie up the match.

That comeback effort was put to bed at the eleventh hour thanks to a double entry from Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov and long rotate from Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač to win a 1v2, forcing an Ancient decider, but there G2 collapsed.

They turned a force-buy in the second round and went up 3-1 on the T side but struggled to crack past jL and Aleksib on B for much of the half, with Natus Vincere going up 7-5 at the break. jL and iM then steamrolled through G2's defenses to power NAVI to a quick series win, with another clutch by b1t adding a final pinch of pain at the end of the series.