By Lacity
The Ukrainian esports team Natus Vincere (“Born to Win”, NAVI) has won the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, the official world championship in Counter-Strike 2. According to the team’s announcement, they defeated the Americans from FaZe Clan 2-1 in the grand final of the record sixth major.
“Our team started their journey from the Elimination Stage: in their debut, Born to Win managed to beat The Mongolz at Mirage (13:10). The second best of 1 came from G2. The opponent was ahead during the second part of Nuke, but NAVI managed to turn the tide and close the map in their favor (13:11),” it says.
After two victories in Born to Win, the result went downhill: in the best of 3 matches against Spirit and Cloud9, the Ukrainian team competed competitively on the first two maps and even won their favorites, but lost to their rivals on the decisive map.
“For the last match of the Elimination Stage, NAVI had no room for error. The team performed at full strength against paiN and beat the Brazilian team, which unexpectedly reached this stage (2:0). The positive statistics of the meetings against Eternal Fire gave rise to positive expectations for the quarterfinal match, and NAVI confirmed their strength by beating the Turks (2:0),” NAVI said.
In the semifinals of the tournament against G2, Born to Win took Anubis (16:13), but the opponent successfully prepared for Nuke and leveled the score (7:13). On the decisive Ancient, NAVI managed to end the match in their favor (13:11).
In the final against FaZe, the Ukrainian team took Ancient (13:9), but the opponent read NAVI’s Mirage choice (13:2). Despite this result, NAVI gathered their strength and won the PGL Major Copenhagen trophy on Inferno (2:1).
According to the results of the first major tournament after signing three European players, CS2 NAVI took the highest place and earned $500 thousand. In turn, FaZe will receive $170 thousand, while Team Vitality and G2 Esports, which took third and fourth place, will receive $80 thousand each. The next tournament for NAVI will be ESL Pro League S19, which will take place from April 23 to May 12 in Malta.
Attention to the broadcast of the PGL Major Copenhagen final
According to Esports Charts, the final match of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was watched by over 1.84 million viewers at the peak of the broadcast. This is the third result in the history of Counter-Strike tournaments. The record belongs to PGL Major Stockholm 2021 – 2.74 million viewers at the peak. It is noteworthy that Natus Vincere also won that tournament.
During the grand finale of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, a new record for a Ukrainian-language broadcast in esports was set in terms of the number of viewers – more than 137 thousand people in total on Twitch and YouTube.
The previous best result was a little over 60 thousand viewers at the peak – it was during the Ukrainian derby between Natus Vincere and Monte at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. Both viewership records were set on the channels of the Ukrainian studio Maincast.
The Ukrainian-language broadcast of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was the second most watched among all the official broadcasts of the tournament (second only to the English-language broadcast).
Natus Vincere’s reaching the final and eventual victory in the tournament did not go unnoticed by popular Ukrainian bloggers. Lachen, Lebiga, well-known military commanders, and even some Ukrainian politicians drew attention to the club’s success. In particular, the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, briefly congratulated the team on the victory.
During the broadcast of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, Maincast commentators and analysts were raising funds for the needs of the Azov National Guard Brigade. The studio planned to raise 2.5 million hryvnias, but by the end of the series, the amount in the bank was more than 5.3 million. In honor of the victory, Natus Vincere owner Maxim Krippa promised to double the total amount raised.
It is worth noting that Natus Vincere is the only team in the world that has participated in all 20 official Counter-Strike majors. It has reached the finals six times and has already won twice. In total, Natus Vincere has won more than $10 million in Counter-Strike tournaments throughout its history.
