Natus Vincere vs Eternal Fire. ESL Pro League Season 20 Grand Final Prediction
After 19 days, the epic called ESL Pro League Season 20 is coming to its logical conclusion. During this time, we had to watch many matches, most of which were only minimally interesting to viewers, but the playoff stage was still interesting, despite the disadvantage of not having a large arena with spectators. One of the main favorites reached the grand final, as well as one of the outsiders, whom no one expected to see in the final match. However, both Natus Vincere and Eternal Fire did a great job and clearly deserved their place in the grand final. In this article, we will discuss the final match of ESL Pro League Season 20, and also give a prediction for the tournament champion.
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere demonstrate the highest level of Counter-Strike and if victory at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 happened now, it would not seem like an accident. The team manages to dominate not only weaker opponents, but also world giants. And the four players who have never been superstars show excellent personal performance and have excellent statistics. During the entire ESL Pro League Season 20, there has not been a single team that was able to create significant problems and competition for Natus Vincere. Even the only map lost during the entire tournament against G2 Esports in the semi-finals seems like an accident, especially since it ended with a score of 11:13. Even losing with a score of 9:3, NAVI managed to almost completely return to the game. And the other two maps were completely dictated by Natus Vincere. The team’s presence in the grand final is no longer a sensation for anyone, it will be unexpected only if NAVI loses to Eternal Fire or gives up more than one map.
Eternal Fire
The Turks from Eternal Fire also deserve praise. From a stable tier-2, they quickly grew into a full-fledged tier-1 team, which is already in the second grand final in a row. But still, this will most likely be another match without a chance for Eternal Fire, it is very far from the level of Natus Vincere. At BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 Season 2, the Turks lost to Team Spirit with a score of 0:3, at ESL Pro League Season 20, the same result will most likely be. However, the team has a strong sniper in the person of Özgür woxic Eker and crazy shooter Ismailkan XANTARES Dörtkardeş, so Eternal Fire may be able to impose a fight on at least one of the maps, but for this, Natus Vincere will need to make a lot of critical mistakes.
The teams' paths at the tournament
The teams’ paths turned out to be quite different. As expected, Natus Vincere got to the grand finals easily, beating Lynn Vision, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Eternal Fire themselves in the group, and in the playoffs they put up almost no fight against Team Spirit and G2 Esports. It looks like the grand finals will be as easy as possible for Natus Vincere.
Eternal Fire, in turn, had to play a little longer due to Natus Vincere’s defeat in the group stage, but the team was able to cope with FlyQuest, Sangal, and in the playoffs The MongolZ and MIBR were defeated. Separately, it is worth noting the sensational victory over Team Vitality in the quarterfinals, few expected this outcome, given that in the past matches, the Turks did not look like such a formidable opponent for the team that has a winstreak of 11 matches and became the champion of IEM Cologne 2024.
Personal meetings
In personal meetings, everything also speaks in favor of Natus Vincere. In 2024, the teams met three times and each time NAVI emerged victorious from the meeting, and Eternal Fire managed to take at least one map only at IEM Katowice 2024. Meetings at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 and ESL Pro League Season 20 ended dry, although in some there were quite close scores and even long overtimes (11:13 and 20:22).
Mappool
In the BO5 format, teams should be expected to exclude their permobans – Vertigo and Ancient. It is obvious that Natus Vincere will want to start with their signature Mirage, which is also not particularly strong for Eternal Fire. The Turks will respond by choosing Inferno, which is one of the weakest maps for NAVI. Then Natus Vincere will prefer to choose Nuke, and Eternal Fire will choose Anubis. The fifth map should be Dust2, which is extremely good for both finalists.
Who will get the MVP?
There is only one contender for the MVP medal before the grand final. And even in the event of an unexpected defeat, the best player of ESL Pro League Season 20 will be Justinas jL Lekavicius. For 11 maps, he has a rating of 1.46, and of the closest pursuers there is only Ivan iM Mihai with a rating of 1.30, there is not a single Eternal Fire player on the list of the best players, so they are unlikely to get the MVP even in case of victory.
Eternal Fire is already in the second tournament in a row before the grand final, but this time it is unlikely to be able to create competition for the favorite. Natus Vincere plays even stronger than Team Spirit in the final of BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 Season 2. The team does not make any critical mistakes at all and during the entire long tournament lost only one map in the semi-final against G2 Esports, which was as close as possible. Eternal Fire is clearly not the opponent that can impose a fight on Natus Vincere in the grand final, the Turks are still very inexperienced in such confrontations, and NAVI captain Aleksi Aleksib Virolainen wants to win even more than his team, because then he will be able to interrupt his long-term losing streak in BO5 grand finals. We expect an extremely easy victory for Natus Vincere, and the match itself will end with a score of 3:0.
Final prediction – Natus Vincere wins with a score of 3:0