Ukrainian esports powerhouse NaVi wins CS2 Major, claiming first championship

The Ukrainian team Natus Vincere became the world champion in the Counter Strike 2 game after winning the Major in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

NaVi defeated the American team FaZe Clan on two maps out of three.

The teams played on maps with bomb disposal: Ancient, Mirage and Inferno.

NaVi took the first map with a score of 13 to 9, on the second they defeated FaZe with a score of 13-2, and already the third was won by the Ukrainian team with a score of 13 to 3.

The prize pool of the tournament is $1,250,000, of which NaVi will receive $500,000, Faze will receive $170,000.

During the broadcast on Maincast channels, more than 5.6 million hryvnias ($142,824) were collected in donations for the needs of Azov fighters. NaVi announced that they will double this amount.

In addition to Ukrainians Valeriy Vakhovskyi (b1t) and Ihor Zhdanov (w0nderful), citizens of Finland Aleksi Virolainen (Aleksib), Romanian Ivan Mihai (iM) and Lithuanian Justinas Lekavicius (jL) played for the team.

Counter Strike 2 was released on Steam on September 28, 2023. It was the first Major for this game — the previous ones were for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

After the release of the second part, CS:GO disappeared from Steam.

The only time NaVi won a Major with CS:GO was in 2021 in Stockholm, Sweden. Then the Ukrainian team defeated the European G2 Esports.