Natus Vincere vs Vici Gaming – StarSeries & i-League Season 7

On 26th March, StarSeries & i-League Season 7 tournament organizers published the draws for the first round of the group stage. According to the post, Natus Vincere will play against with Vici Gaming, and Team Spirit will meet with ENCE eSports.

The first stage of the tournament will take place on the Swiss system with the matches being played in the best of three (BO3) format. The top eight teams in the standing will make their way to the playoffs, while the matches will begin on March 30.

Earlier it became known that Rogue has declined to participate in the championship because of problems with their lineup. The organization dismissed the CS: GO team on March 23, Instead, the Chinese team Vici Gaming will take their place in the competition.

StarSeries & i-League Season 7 will take place from March 30 to April 7 in Shanghai (China). Participants will compete for a prize pool of $ 500 thousand.

Let’s have a look at one of the most anticipated games of the competition, Na’Vi vs Vici Gaming. Since it is the first competitive appearance for the CIS side after one of the most embarrassing displays in one of the biggest tournaments of CS: GO. It will be interesting to see how the Na’VI team will make its first impression in the StarSeries & i-League Season 7.

Natus Vincere vs Vici Gaming (StarSeries & i-League CS: GO Season 7, Best of 3 series MAR 30, 2019, 1:00 PM CET)

Last time we saw Na’Vi compete was about around 27 days ago in the Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019. The team was tipped by many to make it to the final and some thought the side may very well end the dominance of Astralis, by winning the title. However, to shock of the fans and the entire community of CS: GO, ENCE eSports beat them 2-1 in the semifinal. Before the major, there was a lot of talk about problems in Natus Vincere.

In December 2018, Daniil “Zeus” Teslenko announced plans to end his career this year. While in January a video blog came out on his channel, in which they got into an argument with trainer Mikhail “Kane” Begin. Shortly before the championship, Zeus also ambiguously hinted at the problematic nature of “some teammates” and said that he had ceased to enjoy teamwork. Later, Teslenko called the fight with Blagin a working moment, and the words about the character of the other NaVi players was just an emotional moment after the losing final of the ICE London Challenge 2019.

Troubles begin

Despite the absence of the bootcamp training, the team still reached the semifinals. They could have even reached the final if not for a number of in-game mistakes and a possibly picking up “worst” maps in the match against ENCE. Of course, Mirage can be called a strong NaVi map, but in the match against FaZe Clan, the team had its fair share of troubles on it. In the meantime, ENCE overcame Team Liquid on Mirage.

We believe that if Na’Vi banned Mirage instead of Cache, then they would have caught their opponent off guard. With that pick, the team would have competed on the Train, Dust2 and Nuke / Inferno. If Na’VI had made this decision then they probably would not have to hope for s1mple carrying the team again to win the 1v3 clutch with the score 13-13 on the final map. The interesting fact is, the match between Natus Vincere and ENCE eSports was viewed by 1,063 809 spectators on Twitch. The first semi-final was the most popular match of Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019.

After Effects

Less than 24 hours ago, in the updated CS: GO team rating from HLTV.org, Natus Vincere was dropped to fourth place. Their third place was proclaimed by Finnish team ENCE eSports.

According to the players themselves, now with the psychology and mood in the team, everything is much better. Even after an insulting defeat in the semifinals, a friendly atmosphere was traced due to the birth of a child by Denis electronic Sharipov, and Zeus published posts on social networks that “everything is fine”. This year, the team decided to rely on discipline and re-concentrate on the “priority tournaments”. Let’s see what happens.

Vici Gaming

Just a few days ago Spencer ” Hiko ” Martin assured fans that regardless of the rumors, the team intends to go to Shanghai and compete with the best. Zhuo ” advent ” Liang and the company tried to advance through Asian qualifiers, but there the team took only the third place in their group and was preparing to see the meetings as fans. Thanks to the Rogue breakup, the Asian mix received a second chance.

Not an easy journey

ViCi Gaming will not have an easy start because it will face Natus Vincere in the first match of the Swiss system. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese team will co-op with the NA’VI side that will not take anything for granted. The beating against ENCE should have taught that they cannot take even the weakest teams lightly.

Final verdict

The CIS side has lost its rank amongst the top three and now will be itching to regain its former glory.  We honestly feel bad for Vici Gaming since S1mple and co. we surely demolish them and might very well make an example of them. Even some of the renowned bookmakers have set the odds on Na’Vi to not only win this encounter but win the competition altogether. Therefore, it will be exciting to see how Na’VI redeem itself not only in this competition but also on Major level. They will surely want to get its 3rd place back from ENCE and ultimately proclaim the first spot in the world rankings.

Natus Vincere victory

Odds on bookmakers

Bookmakers	Natus Vincere Odds		Vici Gaming Odds
	European	American	European	American
GG.bet	1.17	-588.24	4.62	+362.00
Betway	1.20	-500.00	4.00	+300.00
Loot.bet	1.20	-500.00	4.40	+340.00
Bet365	1.12	-833.33	5.50	+450.00