Natus Vincere Win PGL Major Stockholm With A Flawless Record

Natus Vincere won the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and carved their names in the history book as the only team to date to win a Major without losing a single game. NaVi completed their flawless run with a 2-0 sweep of G2 Esports on Sunday, November 7.

The Favourites Make It Happen

Natus Vincere entered the PGL Major Stockholm as the esports bookmakers’ favorites to go all the way. However, not many expected NaVi to be as dominant as they were.

As the top-seeded team from CIS, Natus VIncere started their quest for the Major title in the New Legends Stage. And they did not need long to get their wheels spinning.

NaVi cruised through the New Legends Stage easily, picking apart Heroic, Virtus.pro, and Ninjas in Pyjamas. NaVi emerged as one of the two teams – besides G2 Esports – to qualify for the playoffs with a perfect 3-0 record.

However, unlike G2, NaVi have dropped only 33 rounds across four maps, once again proving why they are billed as the top dogs. But the impressive performance of the CIS CS:GO esports team did not stop there.

Natus Vincere kept their wheels spinning in the playoffs. In the quarter-finals, NaVi eliminated Team Vitality with 2-0, to which they another clean sweep against Gambit in the semi-finals.

By this point, it has become clear that Natus Vincere mean business, having reached the grand finals without dropping a single game. Even more impressive was that NaVi have dropped more than 11 rounds in only two of eight maps played to that point.

The Incredible Comeback

In the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 grand finals, Natus Vincere met with G2 Esports, who, like NaVi, entered the playoffs with a 3-0 record from the Legends Stage. However, even in the tournament’s final stage, G2 did not disappoint, beating Ninjas in Pyjamas and Heroic, establishing themselves as a worthy opponent for the Ukrainian-Russian lineup.

The match between G2 and NaVi marked the rematch from the IEM Cologne 2021 finals, in which NaVi won 3-0. And while G2 felt confident they could take down the seemingly unbeatable team, their plans fell flat.

The series started on Ancient, where the teams went back and forth for the first half, with NaVi edging out an 8-7 lead. G2 tried to fight their way back into the game on CT-Side, but they couldn’t make it happen.

After retaking the lead (9-7), G2 started to struggle and eventually had to admit defeat to Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and co. who won the series opener with 16-11.

The grand finals moved to Nuke, NaVi’s map pick, where it was G2 who had a much better start. The French-Balkan roster took a commanding 10-5 lead on CT-Side and kept on pushing.

G2 found themselves in a promising spot, leading 14-7, eventually reaching a map point at 15-10. After that, however, NaVi shifted into a higher gear and picked up five rounds to force overtime.

The teams seemed evenly matched for most of the overtime. But again, NaVi proved why they’re the number 1 team in the world, as they completed the comeback after 41 rounds to seal the deal at 22-19.

NaVi Write History

NaVi completed their run to the organization’s first Major title with a perfect 10-0 record, winning all of their Legends Stage and playoffs matches without dropping a map. It marks the first time in the history of the CS:GO esports that a team managed to achieve that feat, further cementing NaVi as the undisputed best team in the world.

Meanwhile, the team’s star player, s1mple, got awarded the MVP award for his performances over the tournament. The Ukrainian CS:GO superstar posted an excellent 1.51 rating in the grand finals and a tournament average of 1.47.

With that, the 24-year-old collected the 17th MVP medal of his career and is now only two shy of Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz’s record of 19.