NAVI reverse sweep Gambit to win StarLadder CIS RMR

Natus Vincere sit atop the CIS Regional Major Ranking ahead of the region's third RMR event.

The third time’s the charm for Natus Vincere, as they have been crowned the StarLadder CIS RMR champions after defeating Gambit. Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy's men had lost to the world’s top team twice before during the tournament, once in the group stage and another time in the playoff’s upper bracket, but they were able to turn a 0-2 scoreline into a 3-2 victory when it mattered most, the grand final.

The Russian-Ukrainian squad claimed the title in a four-map affair when taking the upper bracket advantage in the best-of-five into account, with Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy excelling at the top of the scoreboard alongside Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev in a long day of play. NAVI were thrown into the grand final right after winning the consolidation final against Spirit in a match in which s1mple put on a stellar performance on the decider map, Inferno, with 42 kills and a 2.57 rating in 25 rounds.

"Gambit are doing really great and I think they’ll do much better in the future," B1ad3 said of NAVI's grand final rivals. "We see them evolving with every match. They gain something and become better. We play them, they analyze mistakes, come to a conclusion, and they come to the match with another approach, without making the same mistakes as before. I think we’ll have many more match-ups against them and [they will be] even more exciting."

s1mple and B1T topped the board in the final with 1.24 ratings

A second-round forcebuy win by Gambit on the attack after losing the pistol round gave the team lead by Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov an early lead on Ancient, their first map pick of the grand final. Natus Vincere struggled to keep up the pace as CTs, winning only a scattering of rounds before trailing 6-9 at the half. Gambit then won another forcebuy following a lost pistol round after the switch, going on to lock the map down on the defense, 16-7, to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

Natus Vincere turned up early on their first map pick, Dust2, with a strong start on the attacking side, which put Gambit under constant pressure as Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and company went on to hit double digits before half-time. The squad led by Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov then struck back in similar fashion as Gambit did on Ancient, by taking a grip on the CT side to extend their lead early on and run away 16-9 to keep the grand final alive.

Mirage started off with Gambit taking a 3-0 lead on the terrorist side, but Natus Vincere got on the board in the first gun round, after which they dominated the early stages with b1t leading the charge in five straight very convincing defenses. Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov and company didn’t fall too far behind, however, and tied things right back up before taking a narrow one-round lead at the half. Natus Vincere kept pushing and an ace by electroNic at 11-9 propelled his team ahead as they went on to the series up with a 16-11 victory.

Natus Vincere got off to a hot start on the attacking side of Inferno, the decider map, going up 4-0, but just as fast Gambit tied things up after the first eight rounds, Two consecutive round wins with doubles by Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy put NAVI back in the lead, resetting the counter-terrorists’ economy, before taking the half 8-7. NAVI then bounced back after losing the first two rounds on the defense taking a 6-1 partial scoreline before a final effort by Gambit to try turns things around, although they weren’t able to finally stop electroNic and company from winning 16-13 and securing the title.

StarLadder CIS RMR 2021Best of 5 GambitMatchpage 2 3 4th July 2021 Natus Vincere 1Default 0 16Ancient 7 9Dust2 16 11Mirage 16 13Inferno 16

Gambit	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolovsh1ro	72 - 61	+11	73.4	1.10
Sergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovAx1Le	72 - 72	0	80.4	1.09
Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovHObbit	65 - 67	-2	70.2	1.02
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkovnafany	72 - 82	-10	78.2	0.97
Timofey 'interz' Yakushininterz	44 - 71	-27	49.6	0.70

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiyb1t	85 - 64	+21	75.8	1.24
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostylievs1mple	78 - 61	+17	76.5	1.24
Denis 'electroNic' SharipovelectroNic	77 - 69	+8	78.1	1.18
Kirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovBoombl4	58 - 73	-15	73.0	0.95
Ilya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyPerfecto	54 - 59	-5	62.8	0.94

The final StarLadder CIS RMR standings are:

1. Natus Vincere - $40,000 + 2000 RMR points
2. Gambit - $15,000 + 1875 RMR points
3. Spirit - $12,000 + 1750 RMR points
4. K23 - $10,000 + 1625 RMR points
5. FORZE - $7,000 + 1500 RMR points
6. Entropiq - $5,000
7-8. 100PG - $3,000
7-8. Nemiga - $3,000
9-10. Virtus.pro - $2,500
9-10. Akuma - $2,500

Natus Vincere now sit at the top of the CIS Regional Major Ranking following their victory at the StarLadder event and are closely tailed by Spirit, while Gambit sit in third place despite first and second placements in the two first CIS RMR events of the year, as they didn't have any points transferring from 2020. Virtus.pro are currently the biggest underperformers, sitting outside of the qualifying spots in fifth place, behind K23 and FORZE, after flopping out in 9-10th place.

Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov Age: 22 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 944 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.69 Nemiga #52 Aleksandr 'mds' RubetsRassim 'Jyo' ValijevAnton 'boX' BurkoIgor 'lollipop21k' SolodkovArtem 'iDISBALANCE' Egorov Akuma #22 Serghij 'Sergiz' AtamanchukAlexandr 'Psycho' ZlobinDmitriy 'SENSEi' ShvorakSergiy 'DemQQ' DemchenkoYevhen 'j3kie' Serhachov Natus Vincere #2 Oleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' ZalutskiyValeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Entropiq #17 Aleksei 'NickelBack' TrofimovVladislav 'Krad' KravchenkoViktor 'Lack1' BoldyrevAleksei 'El1an' GusevIgor 'Forester' Bezotecheskiy Virtus.pro #6 Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy Age: 18 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 293 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.65 FORZE #16 Almaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAndrey 'Jerry' MekhryakovAleksandr 'zorte' ZagodyrenkoAleksandr 'KENSI' Gurkin Spirit #15 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Age: 21 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 548 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.61 K23 #38 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevRustem 'mou' TelepovSanzhar 'neaLaN' IskhakovDavid 'n0rb3r7' DanielyanPetr 'fame' Bolyshev Gambit #1 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov Age: 22 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 1144 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.66 Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov Age: 19 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 1.22 Maps played: 721 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.53 Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy Age: 34 Team: Natus VincereC Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Age: 20 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 718 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.70 100PG #49 Alikhan 'w1nt3r' KopzhanovAman 'ice' SeitkaliyevAlgat 'smiley' AbdulSuleımen 'dukefissura' OrazalyZhandarbek 'sorrow' Mamyrbek Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Age: 23 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 1397 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.64