The Ukrainian esports team won the final of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 championship, beating the Americans from FaZe Clan. As a result, NAVI became the world’s first Counter-Strike 2 champions.
The team won on two maps out of three. The teams played on maps with bomb disposal: Ancient (the Ukrainians won 13 to 9), Mirage (here it is 13-2 in favor of FaZe), and Inferno (13 to 3 and the title goes to Ukraine). The prize pool of the tournament is $1.25 million, of which NaVi will receive $500 thousand and Faze — $170 thousand.
In the first qualifying match, Natus Vincere defeated The Mongolz with a score of 13:10. Then they proved to be stronger than the G2 team (13:11). In the last two qualifying matches, NaVi lost to Spirit and Cloud9 with the same score of 1-2. This did not stop the team from moving on. In the 1/4 finals of the tournament, the team beat Eternal Fire with a score of 2:0. In the semifinals, they defeated G2 with a score of 2:1.
“Falling asleep with the joy of your favorite team’s victory and waking up a few hours later to the sounds of sirens and explosions — this is the reality of NAVI fans and staff in Ukraine. We do our best to entertain you, but we ask you to remember what our country faces every day,” the team said in a statement.
This is NAVI’s second victory at the championship, following their success in Stockholm in 2021. This is also the sixth final for the team. PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 is the first ever CS2 championship. The next one will be held in Shanghai this December.
During the broadcast of the championship, Ukrainians collected 5.6 million for Azov. The owner of NAVI promised to double the amount of the fee.
Sources: IT Ukraine, RBC-Ukraine, Oboz.ua