S1mple The Savior: NAVI rely too much on top talent | Richard Lewis reacts @ BLAST Fall Finals
Richard Lewis argues that Natus Vincere is relying too much on their star players to make up for a lack of tactics to win games. They’ve had a tough road at BLAST Premier Global Finals, dropping into the Lower Bracket after their opening game.
NAVI is lacking in information plays and tactics, but their most impactful players, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov, are pulling them through games. Richard adds, however, that NAVI could still go all the way at BLAST, but it’ll take a lot to overcome Astralis.
Today at the penultimate day of the event, NAVI dominated Team Liquid with a 2-0 win, bouncing back into form after previously dropping down into the Lower Bracket. While not a surprise to him after they won Katowice — he even went so far as to say they could be the next Dynasty — Richard finds that the team is cruising through and relying too heavily on its top talent, predominantly s1mple.
In the online era, teams have had to deal with playing in an incredibly different way, and the pandemic has undoubtedly affected how NAVI plays. With an incredibly talented roster — especially with the developing skill of player Valeriy ‘B1T’ Vakhovskiy — the team still seems to struggle with pinning down a win at tournaments.
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