ESL Pro League Season 15’s 4th and final group, Group D kicked off with a marathon match between NaVi and AGO. NaVi were playing without IGL Boombl4 as he was out due to COVID-19, and NaVi Junior member headtr1ck took his place.
NaVi started the series with a stomp, winning AGO’s map pick with ease as they posted 14 CT rounds to AGO’s 1. The map ended 16-1 and we looked set for a washout come NaVi’s pick of Mirage.
The second map was anything but a continuation of the first map as both teams went absolutely toe to toe on Mirage. NaVi won 7 T rounds as AGO got 8 CT ones and after the switch it was more of the same as regulation ended with the score at 15-15.
AGO cashed in on the fact that NaVi were playing with a stand-in and went ham on the A site, where headtr1ck was often the sole defender.
They kept it close in Overtime, as the map went to a second, third and then a fourth overtime. It seemed the map would never end as fans took to twitter to get the memes going.
S1mple was by far the best player on the server as he racked up kill after kill and clutch after clutch to keep the marathon going for NaVi.
The map finally ended, after 7 overtimes as AGO ran out of steam and NaVi closed out the map 37-34 to win their first series of ESL Pro League S15 2-0. NaVi and AGO played more rounds in Overtime (41) than they did in regulation (30) which is absolutely bonkers.
S1mple ended Mirage with 65 kills to his name, followed by b1t who had 56 frags to push NaVi through to victory. s1mple had a total of 86 frags in the series, and was the highest rated player on the server with a 1.49 rating.
NAVI vs AGO ended up being the 4th longest map in CSGO history with 71 rounds. The longest matchup ever was a UK Nation Championship map which ended 46-42 between TeamXENEX and EXCEL.
When it comes to Big events, this was the longest map ever in history with 71 rounds beating the record of 66 rounds which was set by NaVi also, at ESL One COlogne 2017 vs Cloud9.
It took 5 years to overtake the previous record. The latest entry in the top 5 longest maps at big events was at DreamHack Malmo 2019 between FURIA and fnatic with 66 rounds as well.
With the win, NaVi are now 1-0 up in Group D. They will play Evil Geniuses tomorrow and look to continue their streak to qualify for playoffs as quickly as possible.
