Another Counter-Strike champion was crowned this weekend in Shanghai, China. Natus Vincere won the inaugural CS:GO Asia Championship earlier this morning, making it their second tournament victory of 2018. The CAC was the first tournament hosted by Chinese game publisher Perfect World, who released CS:GO in China last September. The GSL-style group stage began on June 14, with Na’Vi going 2-0 through their opening and and winners’ best-of-three matches. They narrowly defeated Team Envy in their initial game 2-0 (Overpass 19-16 and Inferno 16-12) and followed it up with a 2-1 series win against Ninjas in Pyjamas (Mirage 16-13, Train 16-9). This earned Na’Vi a spot in the semifinals, where they’d later have a rematch with Envy, who bested Heroic 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
Na’Vi handed Envy a swift 2-0 sweep in the semis, with Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev leading the charge in frags. They’d later go on to defeat Virtus Pro 2-1 very convincingly in the grand finals, despite losing map one Dust II, which was VP’s map pick. Na’Vi earned their championship title by taking Nuke 16-4 and Train 16-6. Egor “flamie” Vasilyev also helped his teammates Edward and s1mple in the fragging department during the final. S1mple was given the HLTV MVP Award, unsurprisingly. Their win at the CAC is Na’Vi’s second consecutive championship win at the international level, after they won StarSeries Season Five two weeks ago. Na’Vi also outlasted many other big names at the CAC, such as Heroic and TyLoo. Although the future seems to be bright for the CIS-region powerhouse following their victory in China, Na’Vi CEO Yevhen Zolotarov hinted on Twitter that they may be undergoing roster changes this week. Na’Vi’s next big event will be at ESL Cologne from July 3 to 8.
