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The first professional tournament of the 2025 season is approaching its climax. We are talking about BLAST Bounty Season 1, where the playoffs are heating up.
In the second match of the semifinals, we will see a duel between NaVi and Spirit. Theoretically, this confrontation can be called “El Clasico” from the CS 2 world, because the champions of two major tournaments in CS2 are playing.
We are trying to figure out which of the NaVi – Spirit pair will be stronger and advance to the grand final of the first major Counter-Strike 2 tournament in the 2025 season.
Let's go.
Spirit Form
We open the analysis of the match Spirit – NaVi with an analysis of the game form of Spirit. In this match they play as favorites with a coefficient of victory in the region of 1.6.
The 2023 season was quite eventful for Spirit. The Serbian club played everywhere possible, but almost nowhere could they achieve significant results.
They started the previous season with a performance at IEM Master Katowice 2023, where they finished in the TOP-12. Then there was the local CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 2023, where they finished in the TOP-6.
One of the biggest tournaments of the 2023 season for Spirit was ESL Pro League Season 17, where the “dragons” took the TOP-28. They tried to get to the major in Paris, but again, all in vain.
From the middle to the end of the year, Spirit played at local events of small caliber. And they performed quite successfully, it is worth noting: TOP-1 at CCT North Europe Series #6, TOP-2 at CCT Online Finals #2, victory at Dunav Party LAN and Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2.
- Team Spirit: chopper, zont1x, sh1ro, donk, magixx
At the end of the year, they won BB Dacha. In 2024, the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 tournament became the first major event for the “dragons”. There, Spirit played, frankly speaking, so-so: they took the TOP-16 in their debut championship under the auspices of BLAST, advancing to the Spring Showdown.
At IEM Katowice 2024, Spirit started their performance from the Play-In stage. There, they rolled over Apeks with no chance with a score of 13-0, and then confidently (except for map 2) beat MongolZ with a score of 2-0, thereby advancing to the group stage. The group stage was also not a problem for Spirit: having lost only 1 map to NaVi, they easily reached the playoffs, having beaten CoL and FaZe Clan with a score of 2-0. The IEM Katowice 2024 playoffs themselves became a confirmation of Spirit's dominance, because they easily closed out Falcons (2-0) and it was even easier against FaZe in the grand final (3-0).
After their triumph at Katowice 2024, Spirit advanced to PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach the playoffs, but lost to FaZe Clan in the first round of the main stage. Thus, Spirit took the TOP-8.
Then Spirit had a seemingly successful performance at BB Dacha, but the loss in the grand final to MOUZ with a score of 0-3 spoiled the feeling a little.
At IEM Dallas 2024 itself, Team Spirit passed the group stage very easily, without losing a single map in Basket B. However, they were unable to deal with everyone in the playoffs: at the TOP-4 stage, Vitality intervened and knocked Spirit out of the tournament.
Later, Spirit won BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024. And then began a series of not very successful performances, including TOP-8 and TOP-16 at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Team Spirit started in Group B, where they lost to MIBR in the second round of the upper bracket and after falling lower, they won against The MongolZ and 3DMAX with some difficulty, which gave them a passage to the playoffs, where in their first match they beat FURIA with a score of 2-0. And later they ran into NaVi, after losing to whom they ended their performance in the pro league.
Spirit performed at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they also failed to achieve success. Only TOP-6.
At BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, Spirit started their journey in Group B, where they fought against G2 Esports, Team Spirit, Vitality, and Liquid. They tied 1-1, beating Vitality but losing to G2 in the playoff seeding match. In the playoffs, Spirit made it to the grand final, but lost to G2 Esports with a score of 0-3.
Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B started with a victory over B8. Then they lost to Passion UA, won against Aurora, lost to G2, but won the last match against Sashi Esports. At the Elimination Stage, Spirit started with a defeat to FURIA, but then destroyed Wildcard and NaVi. Then, in the match for a full bo3, they dealt with Heroic. Spirit opened the playoffs of PW Shanghai Major 2024 with a victory over Liquid. In the semi-finals of Shanghai Major 2024, they beat MOUZ. In the grand final, they defeated FaZe, thereby becoming world champions for the first time in the club's history.
BLAST Bounty Season 1 started with two confident victories against Fnatic and FlyQuest in the qualifying round. In the playoffs, they also easily beat Heroic.
Team Spirit Mappool
Team Spirit's best map remains Vertigo, where the Brazilians played 5 times and won 3 maps. Next comes Mirage, with 7 games and 4-3 statistics.
The neutral pick for Team Spirit will be Nuke and Ancient. The Brazilians have 6 maps there and the score is 3-3 on each.
The worst is on Overpass (2-3) and Inferno (1-2).
NaVi Form
We continue our analysis of the NaVi – Spirit match with an analysis of NaVi's game form. In this match, they are playing second with a win coefficient of around 2.3.
At the start of the season, while still in the previous lineup, they held a series of good tournaments. In almost every one of them they took high places.
Started with TOP-6 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023. Then TOP-3 at IEM Katowice 2023 and a similar result at ESL Pro League Season 17.
NaVi easily won BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A and qualified for the major in Paris. Before the only major of the season, Natus Vincere took the TOP-4 at IEM Masters Rio 2023.
The Paris tournament turned out to be a failure for NaVi. TOP-11 can hardly be called a decent result for a team of Natus Vincere status.
- NaVi roster: w0nderful, b1t, Aleksib, jL, iM.
Before the start of IEM Cologne, NaVi held a global reshuffle by translating the roster into English. Instead of the departed electroNic, Perfecto and npl, the team was joined by jL from Apeks, iM from GamerLegion and Aleksib, who previously played for Ninjas in Pyjamas.
With the new roster, NaVi debuted at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023. “Born to Win” were able to earn a place in the fall finals, finishing in the TOP-4-6.
At IEM Cologne 2023 itself, Natus Vincere played two matches. First, they lost to MOUZ with a score of 0-2, and then beat OG in a bo3. As a result of the top championship, NaVi reached the TOP-8, which can be called a good result for the then updated roster.
Then there were a number of performances at major events with quite good results. NaVi entered the TOP-8 at Gamers8 and took the TOP-2 at ESL Pro Legue Season 18.
The key tournament of the season for the “yellow-blacks” can be called IEM Sydney 2023. There, NaVi played for the first time in a long time without their main headliner S1mple, whose place was temporarily taken by coach B1ad3. Andrey tried, but NaVi were unable to jump above the TOP-12.
After S1mple left the active roster, NaVi started playing with w0nderful. He debuted for the “yellow-blacks” at BLAST Premier: World Final 2023. Natus Vincere played him very well, reaching the TOP-4. In the match for reaching the grand final, they lost to the future champions of the tournament and the best team in the world, Vitality.
They started 2024 on a high note, finishing top at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European Qualifier A. However, their performance then dropped a bit and NaVi took the TOP-12 at ESL Pro League Season 19 and IEM Dallas 2024, as well as the TOP-2 at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024.
Esports World Cup 2024 NaVi started with a confident victory over FURIA with a score of 2-0. Having reached the playoffs, the “born to win” found themselves against FaZe Clan in the first round. NaVi were again stronger than FaZe, but this time they won with a score of 2-0. Then there was a rather difficult match against MOUZ, where NaVi lost on the first map with a score of 1-13, but then pulled themselves together and advanced to the grand final. In the final match, they played against G2 Esports, where they won with a score of 2-1, thereby winning the second prestigious tournament in a year.
At BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, NaVi started with a confident victory over BIG. But against Liquid, the “born to win” did not fare well, losing in a dramatic situation without defuse kits on map 3. In the return match with BIG, they were again stronger, confidently closing out the German club with a score of 2-0. However, they were unable to move beyond the TOP-6 at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024.
At ESL Pro League Season 20, NAVI won Group A, easily beating Lynn Vision, NiP, and Eternal Fire. NaVi started the ESL Pro League Season 20 playoffs with a win over their archrival, Team Spirit, and a confident 2-0 win. Then came a hard-fought 2-1 win over G2 Esports and a tough 3-2 win over Eternal Fire in the EPL S20 finals.
At IEM Rio 2024, NaVi came through Group A in second place, losing to Furia. In the playoffs, they beat Vp (2-0) and Heroic (2-1) one after another. And in the grand final, NaVi beat MOUZ (3-1), thus becoming the champion of a major tournament for the fourth time in a season.
However, NaVi failed to become the best everywhere and everywhere. For example, at BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, where “born to win” did not make it to the playoffs.
At PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, NaVi won two matches, beating Fnatic and Sinners, but then lost to MOUZ in the match for the Major. However, they managed to reach the Elimination Stage at Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 on their second try, beating sAw 2-0.
Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: Elimination Stage Natus Vincere started with a victory over Liquid, and then lost to MIBR and Spirit. Then they knocked GamerLegion out of the tournament, but failed to cope with Heroic, leaving the world championship one step away from the playoffs.
BLAST Bounty Season 1 started with a victory over Imperial Female, and then beat Astralis. In the playoffs they played against paiN and it was a very difficult match for the Ukrainian team, but still – they won.
Mappool NaVi
NaVi's best map for 3 months is Inferno. The team played there 5 times with a win rate of 60 percent.
On Mirage, Ancient. Nuker, Overpass and Anubis NaVi has 50% win rate. On Ancient and Nuke the team played 4 matches each, on the others – 2.
They don't play Vertigo.
History of personal meetings NaVi – Spirit
In the 2024 season, the teams played each other 5 times, of which NaVi managed to win only 1 series.
Predicted result of the match Spirit – NaVi at BLAST Bounty Season 1
This will be a very tough match for NaVi. BLAST Bounty Seeason 1 itself shows that the “born to win” are far from the form they had in the middle of last season, while Spirit, in turn, are still at their peak and have no problem dealing with their opponents.
Result: Spirit wins.
