Ukrainian esports organization Natus Vincere were clearly the fan-favourites to win the highly anticipated PGL Major Stockholm 2021, the first major that CSGO had seen in over two years. And needless to say, the team delivered.
On 7th November, Na’Vi secured a flawless 2-0 victory over G2 Esports in the grand finals of the PGL Major, making them the first team to win a CSGO major without dropping a single map throughout the event.
While each member of the Na’Vi roster put up great performances, the star of the show was none other than the legendary AWPer Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. The 24-year-old led his team to victory with a K/D of 32-17 on the first map and 40-24 on the second.
The first map, Ancient, went relatively smoothly for Na’Vi as they managed to secure a 16-11 victory over their rivals. However, Nuke was a completely different story.
Going into the second map, G2 retaliated hard, and swiftly managed to put up 15 rounds on the board while Na’Vi were still at 10. However, a few stellar performances from s1mple paved the way for Na’Vi to take the match into overtime. Another overtime followed once the score tied at 18-18.
The match ended with a score of 22-19, and the Na’Vi squad jumped out of their seats in unison after taking the final frag of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, celebrating their victory.
“A lot of people didn’t believe in me and made jokes, but I f*cking did it,” S1mple said, exhilarated in the post-match interview. “The Major is ours, the major is NaVi’s. I told, we just needed to believe in ourselves, and we were going to win… We just kept fighting. I am so proud of my team, the f*cking champions! Just look at them, the champions!”
This is the first CSGO major trophy s1mple has won, and it comes after five years with the Na’Vi squad. The CSGO world is delighted at s1mple’s major victory, as no one deserved the crown more than he did. The official CSGO Twitter handle referred to s1mple as “The king of Counter-Strike” in their congratulatory Tweet to Na’Vi.