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NAVI crumbles down after a 9 year streak of appearances at IEM Cologne playoffs – CS GO

NAVI is one if not the most historic Counter Strike organization of all time, they have been synonymous to the game throughout the years. Unfortunately today after almost a decade of playoff appearances, NAVI has not qualified to the cathedral of Counter-Strike. An unexpected early exit at IEM Cologne’s group stage has pushed NAVI to see the tournament on the sidelines.

Going into the second tournament after the international rebuild, which saw both electronic and Perfecto leave in the off season, fans were excited to see what the new NAVI could do at the biggest event on the calendar. Historically, NAVI has produced incredible moments at Cologne, being extremely dominant since all the way back in 2014.

NAVI crumbles down after a 9 year streak of appearances at IEM Cologne playoffs - CS GO
NAVI roster at IEM Cologne

In every single iteration of the Ukrainian squad, the organization has managed to step inside the LANXESS Arena, however in 2023 this will not be the case thanks to defeats versus MOUZ and Astralis.

NAVI was pushed into the lower side of the group stage bracket after a surprising loss against MOUZ, who are currently in a rebuild as well. Nevertheless, massive wins against OG and FaZe Clan sparked hope for the boys in yellow, with most believing they would be able to advance into the tournament’s playoffs stage once again.

However, an improved Astralis was enough to stop them in their tracks. The Danish organization pushed NAVI to 3 overtimes on Ancient, while s1mple’s squad took a point back in Nuke, but Map 3 Overpass saw an unlikely player go absolutely ballistic. ChristianBuzzAndersen recorded a massive total of 31 kills with a ludacris 2.02 rating according to HLTV. This performance was more than enough to send his squad to the LANXESS Arena.

As for NAVI, their new roster has experienced a tough start to the 2023 campaign. The roster was barely able to advance at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups event, and now with an early exit at IEM Cologne, fans are disappointed.

Even s1mple has dropped his usual consistent sharpness, even after a huge 1.50 rating plus 40 kills against face on Overpass. Nevertheless, all the negative attention has flushed into Mihai “iM” IVan, who has visibly struggled to play under NAVI’s playstyle after playing extremely well at the Paris Major with GamerLegion.

One of the main reasons behind his signing with NAVI was a streak of 1.11+ ratings throughout several events, that sort of consistency is rather rare to see. Sadly this streak was broken after an overall rating of 0.92 over 10 maps in IEM Cologne, just barely ahead of in-game leader Aleksib.

The IEM Cologne playoffs are set to start on Friday, August 2nd.

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