Natus Vincere have dropped out of the playoffs. Once a team known for regularly winning CS:GO championships, they have now struggled to win a single championship since the BLAST Premier Spring Final in June.
NAVI were hailed as the best team in the world in 2021 and 2022, as HLTV's top player of 2021. In the span of six months, they won six tournaments, including the IEM Cologne, the BLAST Premier World Final, and the PGL Major Stockholm, while also winning the Intel Grand Slam season three.
NAVI brought in 17-year-old academy player Andrii "npl" Kukharskyi to replace Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev in the IEM Katowice 2023 semifinals on February 11, but the team appeared to be far from content.
G2's CS:GO star explains the team's journey to the IEM Katowice championship.
After the defeat, s1mple told Dot Esports that we need to focus on communication and [help] young players understand the game. They are still making so many mistakes in the playoffs.
According to HLTV, NAVI's youngest players, npl and Valeriy "b1t" Zalutskiy, were two of the worst players on the server in the defeat against Heroic (alongside IGL Denis "electroNic" Sharipov).
NAVI's communication seems to be sloppy, as they are making rash decisions in their matches. Mid was left unprotected and open for flanks in the opening round of Inferno against Heroic. Heroic's IGL Casper "cadiaN" Mller used this opportunity to backstab NAVI through Mid during their desperate rush on Banana and secured the opening round for his team.
NAVI's communication and lack of experience aren't the only issues. "We need to improve our map pool, because as you see, we only had a chance to pick Inferno all the time," s1mple said. On the other hand, it's the best map for Outsiders, Heroic, and G2, their opponents in IEM Katowice.
NAVI are aware of their map pool issues, but they just didn't have the time to do them. We had like two to three weeks of preparation. We had boot camp as well. We just couldn't practice all six maps,' says the author.
M0NESY, a CS:GO prodigy, has already spent a staggering amount of time developing the game.
NAVI's favorite map is Inferno, who have played 14 games on it in the last three months, but they have only recorded a 42.9-percent win rate, according to HLTV. They also played Mirage six times in that time, putting it in second place.
NAVI will have a few days to go back to the drawing board and correct some of their mistakes. The next ESL Pro League tournament starts on February 22.