NaVi's Resurgence, G2's Promising Future - A Summary of the E-sports World Cup

 I.   The Resurgence of Natus Vincere

NaVi was the champion team of this year's Copenhagen Major, but historically, this might be the most underwhelming Major champion, with many voices of doubt still emerging in the community. However, NaVi's recent performances have given a resounding slap to such doubts. In simple terms, it's like saying, "If the tiger doesn't roar, do you think it's a sick cat?"

In fact, NaVi's good form has been maintained for a while. They showed signs of resurgence at the last event before the break, the BLAST Spring Finals, where this Ukrainian team reached the finals. In this E-sports World Cup, NaVi continued their form from over a month ago, battling through the competition, defeating the world's fourth-ranked FaZe, the third-ranked Mouz , and finally, the sixth-ranked G2 in the finals to claim the championship. It can be said that NaVi truly deserved this championship!

II. Aleksib Seven Slashes G2

Counting this encounter, Aleksib has now achieved seven consecutive victories over G2. Before this, Aleksib had faced G2 six times since joining NaVi, including last year's BLAST Fall Groups and World Finals, two encounters in this year's BLAST Spring Groups, and matches in the main stage and knockout stage of the PGL Copenhagen Major. But in the end, it was always NaVi who had the last laugh.

In fact, Aleksib has an exceptionally high win rate against his former team. According to statistics, since leaving ENCE , he has faced his old team 22 times, winning 20 of those matches, with a win rate exceeding 90%.

III.Inferno—NaVi's Secret Weapon in the Finals

The decisive match in the finals was on Inferno. If someone carefully examines the data, they would find that this map had not been touched by NaVi since they defeated FaZe on March 31st in the Major. Meanwhile, G2's win rate on this map in the past three months was a staggering 92%—the highest among the three maps in the finals.

But it seems that B1ad3 had anticipated this move. His team removed Dust2 at the last moment in the map selection, opting for Inferno instead. This seemingly risky choice left much suspense in the match. However, just when G2 thought they had the upper hand, B1ad3 's "empty city stratagem" worked. NaVi came fully prepared for this map, dominating G2 on both offense and defense, which became the turning point of the match. Seeing B1ad3 's smile after the match, it seemed he had been confident about this all along.

IV.G2's Promising Future

Although they did not have the last laugh in the finals, and despite their significant defeats on the last two maps of the finals, we still have reasons to be optimistic about this G2 team and their future.

Considering that G2 only trained for six days before the match, it was quite a feat for this newly formed team to perform so well and make it to the finals. If they can win the championship, it will be a memorable story in CS history. From their performance, G2 can leave the venue in Saudi Arabia with their heads held high. Both malbsMd and Snax delivered decent performances as newcomers. Given time, G2 will surely make significant waves in the events later this year.

Five. Donk falls from grace?

After discussing the two teams in the finals, let's shift our focus to other teams. Although they won the championship in the BLAST Spring Final, this CIS team also needed a championship to start the second half of the year on a good note. However, in this event, Spirit only secured a 5-8th place finish, which is unacceptable for the current world number one team.

The main reason for Spirit 's poor performance was their star player Donk 's low form. In this event, Donk only achieved a 1.04 Rating, the second-lowest offline event rating of his career. Additionally, he had a -8 K/D difference, marking the first time in his career he ended a match with a negative K/D difference.

We can't help but worry for Donk . Has this Russian prodigy used up all his form and luck? After being studied and targeted by opponents, Donk 's room for performance is rapidly shrinking. Can he, as he has in the past, come back stronger in the next event?

Six. Two-faced ropz

Besides Donk , last year's HLTV TOP3 player ropz also showed a significant decline in form. In this event, ropz only achieved a personal Rating of 0.95, a new low since 2024 , and the first time since 2021 that ropz finished a match with a rating below 1.0.

In fact, this is a clear indication of ropz 's decline in form, especially compared to his peak in 2023. This year's ropz is statistically at a disadvantage, which indirectly affected FaZe's performance.

Seven. Successful event organization in Saudi Arabia

From last year's Gamer8 to this year's esports World Cup, Saudi Arabia has demonstrated its capability to host top-tier events from an organizational and planning perspective. The efforts and investments of the Saudis have yielded significant results, successfully hosting these events and providing a memorable stage for global esports fans. Perhaps, in the near future, we will see more events held in the Middle East. Compared to the six to seven-hour time difference with Europe, the four-hour time difference with the Middle East seems more acceptable for Chinese audiences.