Return of Natus Vincere and dominant G2 Esports. Forecast for the grand final of Esports World Cup 2024
The first tournament of the new Counter-Strike 2 competitive season is coming to an end. Over three days, the Esports World Cup 2024 gave us a lot of sensations, and none of the main favorites made it to the grand final. The final match will feature Natus Vincere, who are returning to peak form after the setbacks that befell the team after winning the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, and G2 Esports, who made drastic changes to their roster that immediately bore fruit. The teams will compete for an impressive cash prize: the winner will receive 400 thousand dollars, and the loser will leave with 175 thousand. In this material, we will share the forecast for the grand final of the Esports World Cup 2024 and discuss the strengths of the teams.
G2 Esports
Changes in the G2 Esports lineup initially looked stronger only against the backdrop of the previous unsuccessful lineup. There were no guarantees that Janusz Snax Pogorzelski would be able to perform consistently on the tier-1 stage again and become a good captain for G2 Esports. There was also no confidence that Mario malbsMd Samayoa would be able to fully develop after playing at the tier-2 level. The team also had big problems with in-game roles, but they managed to fix them. Despite all the shortcomings, the players fit perfectly into the team, and it is not inferior to any stable team that has been playing in the same lineup for a long time. Mario malbsMd Samayoa has not lost his individual form after moving to a tier-1 team; for the tournament he has a rating of 1.13, and Janusz Snax Pogorzelski scored 0.99, which is not so bad for an in-game leader.
For the first time in a long time, the key to G2 Esports victories was not the performance of Ilya m0NESY Osipov, but the success of Nikola NiKo Kovac. The Bosnian is playing his best tournament in CS2 and one of the most successful in the last few years. NiKo’s rating is 1.44 and it is already obvious that the player will receive an MVP medal if he wins, Ilya m0NESY Osipov has only 1.25 for 7 maps. With Nikola NiKo Kovac like him, G2 Esports have great prospects in the next championships if he can maintain his form.
Natus Vincere
Unlike G2 Esports, Natus Vincere achieve success more through team decisions than individual player performances. Natus Vincere still has no star players and there is absolutely no one in the team to carry the game alone. Justinas jL Lekavicius, who received the MVP of the major, shows a weak game in recent tournaments, but at the Esports World Cup 2024 NAVI is saved by the fact that Valeriy b1t Vakhovskiy and sniper Ihor w0nderful Zhdanov are showing their best form. This performance allowed us to reach the grand finals, but it definitely won’t be enough against G2 Esports. With Justinas jL Lekavicius and Aleksi Aleksib Virolainen out, Natus Vincere will have absolutely nothing to counter the crazy style of G2 Esports, who are difficult to stop.
The teams' path to the tournament
The path of G2 Esports and Natus Vincere turned out to be almost identical. Both teams started the tournament with easy wins in their opening matches against The Mongolz and FURIA respectively. In the playoffs they played two games each, both teams had one simple match with a score of 2:0 and a tense match with all three maps. Only G2 Esports defeated Team Spirit and Virtus.Pro, who are in great shape, and Natus Vincere dealt with FaZe Clan, who were experiencing problems, and MOUZ, who had not reached the grand finals for a long time and did not show a first-class game. G2 Esports’ opponents were clearly stronger and in past matches the team looked a level higher than Natus Vincere.
Map pool
In terms of map pool in this match, G2 Esports also has a significant advantage. Natus Vincere will have to get rid of their permoban Vertigo, which is the weakest map of their opponents, this will allow G2 to choose their strongest Inferno, which NAVI has also not been playing lately. G2 Esports also has complete freedom of action in terms of banning maps; most likely, they will get rid of Mirage, who did not play until the Esports World Cup 2024, but at the championship they began to do well. Natus Vincere will have to choose Dust 2, which the team lost to MOUZ yesterday with a score of 1:13, or Ancient, which is also one of the strongest maps of the opponents. The decidfer map should be Nuke, and even if the match comes down to it, G2 Esports have a higher win rate on it than Natus Vincere, and will calmly play this map.
Personal meetings
The only advantage of Natus Vincere is past personal meetings. However, this factor cannot be fully taken into account due to changes in the G2 Esports lineup. In 2023 and 2024, NAVI did not lose a single match to G2 Esports, which can give the team confidence. Natus Vincere defeated their opponent at BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023, BLAST Premier World Final 2023, BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024 and PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024. But G2 Esports definitely want to break this trend and this makes Natus Vincere an even more fundamental opponent.
At the moment, the new G2 Esports roster looks unstoppable. Not a single team in the tournament could cope with their style of play, and it’s unlikely that Natus Vincere will either. G2 Esports has done a great job rebuilding its roster and preparing for the Esports World Cup 2024; the team deserves to lift its first trophy in the new competitive season. Most likely, this meeting will end quite simply for G2 Esports with a score of 2:0 on the maps.