NAVI Sweep Gambit To Win DreamHack Masters Spring

Natus Vincere have been crowned DreamHack Masters Spring champions after taking out Gambit in the best-of-five grand final derby. Aleksandr “⁠s1mple⁠” Kostyliev and company swept their rivals in three maps, making this the first time they beat their regional rivals this year after losing to them three times previously, including in the tournament’s group stage.

“It feels great [to win DreamHack Masters Spring]. It feels great when the whole team is playing so insane,” s1mple said minutes after winning the title. “I hope we’ll keep this form in next events. It’s good for us, it’s great emotions when you’re just sitting and watching how all of your teammates are just destroying.”

This title marks Natus Vincere’s second trophy this year after their BLAST Premier Global Final victory in January, and is their first with Valeriy “⁠B1T⁠” Vakhovskiy as a starter on all maps following Egor “⁠flamie⁠” Vasilyev‘s benching. It is also s1mple’s first DreamHack Masters title despite him being named MVP of DreamHack Masters Marseille in 2018 after a grand final loss at the hands of Astralis.

s1mple and electronic both had big impact in the grand final

Natus Vincere kept Gambit at bay in the best-of-five final’s opening rounds on Overpass as CTs, clinically taking the first kill on every round to an 8-0 lead. Abay “⁠Hobbit⁠” Khasenov and company were able to wedge themselves back into the half by winning five of the remaining seven rounds, but Natus Vincere charged with full force on the attack, with s1mple leading the way, and gave up just two rounds in an impressive 16-7 victory on Gambit’s first map pick.

On their first map pick, Dust2, Natus Vincere once again set the pace despite losing the pistol round, albeit this time on the attack. Kirill “⁠Boombl4⁠” Mikhailov and co. tore in on the CTs round in and round out all the way to a 9-1 lead in the first ten rounds, after which they took a timeout going into the crucial final rounds of the half. Down 3-12, Gambit stayed alive winning the second pistol round and slowly but surely got themselves back in the game, turning the tides as terrorists and laboring a complicated comeback, but eventually fell short.

Gambit started their monumental task of reverse-sweeping Natus Vincere on the attacking side of Train, where they took the three first rounds before Andrey “⁠B1ad3⁠” Gorodenskiy’s men brought it back to a tie at the ten round mark, although they weren’t able to keep up with Gambit’s pace as an incisive Vladislav “⁠nafany⁠” Gorshkov led his team to a 9-6 half.

Natus Vincere didn’t let up, however, and regained the lead on the attack, although Hobbit won a key 1vs2 afterplant clutch to tie things up, 11-11, but he was then denied a second clutch the following round in a similar situation by Ilya “⁠Perfecto⁠” Zalutskiy. Finally, with Denis “⁠electronic⁠” Sharipov leading the way, NAVI were able to close the map out 16-12 to secure the series cleanly, 3-0, and claim the DreamHack Masters Spring title.

The DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 standings are:

1. Natus Vincere – $100,000
2. Gambit – $42,000
3-4. Heroic – $20,000
3-4. G2 – $20,000
5-6. FURIA – $10,000
5-6. Astralis – $10,000
7-8. Vitality – $6,000
7-8. Virtus.pro – $6,000
9-12. Complexity – $5,000
9-12. BIG – $5,000
9-12. mousesports – $5,000
9-12. Spirit – $5,000
13-16. Extra Salt – $4,000
13-16. paiN – $4,000
13-16. FaZe – $4,000
13-16. Fiend – $4,000