Natus Vincere emerges as the most dominant CS: GO team in 2021 

Natus Vincere dominates CS: GO in 2021 (Image via Sportskeeda)

Natus Vincere celebrates a prosperous 2021 campaign in CS: GO by adding a plethora of accolades to their name. NAVI has enjoyed success in 7 different S-tier tournaments in 2021, with additional victories in events of smaller scale.

NAVI claimed a win against Gambit Esports on 19 December 2021 to conclude the year as champions of Blast Premier: World Final 2021. However, the greatest feat the Ukrainian organization achieved in their history appeared in 2021, when a NAVI squad led by Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev lifted a historic CS: GO major title at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021.

Natus Vincere earned titles at two more Blast Premier events in 2021, namely Fall Finals 2021 and Global Finals 2020. The Spring Finals 2021 is the only Blast Premier event in 2021 where NAVI failed to secure a title, as Gambit managed to oust them in the grand finals.

While NAVI won 8 different tournaments throughout the year, s1mple claimed the MvP title in every single one of them.

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NAVI establish a new dynasty in CS: GO

A roster led by Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, Denis "electronic" Sharipov, Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov, Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy and Valerii "b1t" Vakhovsky, with Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi as the coach represent Natus Vincere in CS: GO.

After a dry stint the previous year, NAVI prepared for 2021 with their eyes set on the coveted PGL Major Stockholm 2021, the first majors hosted by Valve in over 2 years. In November 2021, Natus Vincere defeated G2 Esports in sensational fashion to earn a $1 million paycheck, the highest in CS: GO history.

NAVI secured a total of 8 trophies in 2021, earning $4,275,500 for their success in various tournaments throughout the year. In addition to the majors, NAVI managed to succeed in claiming the Intel Grand Slam Season 3, which provides a $1 million prize to the first CS: GO team that manages to win 3 Masters level tournaments along with a designated Masters tournament within a span of 10 consecutive events.

Within a single year, NAVI managed to accumulate more than what the organization had made from CS: GO tournament earnings in the last 8 years. With a total of $8.15 million, NAVI trail behind Astralis in tournament earnings of $9.232 million.

Throughout 2021, the spotlight was locked on s1mple in every tournament NAVI played. He is widely regarded as the best player in CS: GO, and has been working his way to becoming the greatest to play the game.

2021 was a phenomenal year for s1mple. The 24-year-old collected the tournament MVP (8) award for all the tournaments NAVI managed to win. In addition to proving his significance in the squad, s1mple broke dev1ce's record for the most MVPs (7) earned throughout a calendar year and matched his career MVP count (19).

s1mple is currently playing through his prime as one of the best AWPers CS: GO has ever seen, while displaying exceptional rifling skills as well.

Due to covid restrictions across all parts of the world, the entire esports community was forced to switch to online tournaments starting in April 2020. The immediate change made an impact on the performance of several teams across various esports, with existing dynasties dethroned and new ones created.

NAVI shied away from success at the beginning of the online era of CS: GO. After winning the last offline event in 2020, the team had a series of unsuccessful tournament runs.

However, with the promotion of 17-year-old Valerii "b1t" Vakhovsky from Natus Vincere Junior, NAVI found success in a 6-man roster.

Due to unfortunate restrictions imposed by Valve, CS: GO teams were forced to cut their rosters short to 5 members. b1t's exceptional performance for NAVI, despite being a rookie, prompted them to keep the youngster while releasing Egor "flamie" Vasilyev from the squad after a six-year stint.

b1t was awarded PC Rookie of the Year at the Esports Awards 2021 for playing a pivotal part in NAVI's CS: GO domination. He won the award over renowned esport athletes like Yatoro from Team Spirit in Dota 2 and 100 Thieves Asuna, Sentinels TenZ and Gambit nAts from Valorant.

The squad earned a title at the IEM XIV World Championship in March 2020, the last LAN tournament of 2020. After their recent victory at the Blast Premier World Final 2021, NAVI have won 4 consecutive offline tournaments.

The organization concluded the year on a positive note with its players in the best condition heading into the next campaign.