The first CS2 major, PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, has come to its logical conclusion. He gave the CS2 community many sensations and interesting matches. The Ukrainian team Natus Vincere (NAVI) became the champion of this tournament. In this article from the author eZstah you will learn about the most striking moments of the tournament, as well as the winners. You can find out more about the current CS2 tournaments and the pro players on the Profilerr website.

NAVI is The Winner of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024

The playoff of the major in Copenhagen is almost the most interesting and balanced in terms of the strength of the teams compared to other major tournaments. There is the fearsome Team Spirit, the champion of the last major – Team Vitality, the incredible FaZe Clan, and m0NESY with G2. Among the eight teams, Natus Vincere had the least chance of winning. Few analysts, fans, or just CS2 players believed that this team could even reach the finals.

Even NAVI coach Andrei “B1ad3” Gorodensky himself called getting into the top 4 as a goal for the upcoming tournament. Players Aleksib and iM were the worst at the Elimination Stage; they occupied one of the last places in rating among all players in the tournament. And the team barely made it to the playoffs, losing all the important matches against Cloud9 and Team Spirit, and only in the decisive match NAVI was able to close out the not-strongest paiN and get a ticket to the next stage.

However, in the playoffs, NAVI began to prove that they ended up here for a reason. First, the team met with the Turks from Eternal Fire. The teams’ chances were approximately equal, but NAVI confidently defeated the team. Then Natus Vincere dealt with G2, preventing m0NESY and NiKo from reaching the much-coveted final of the major. Here players jL, Aleksib, and iM demonstrated their capabilities, keeping up with their comrades.

In the finals, NAVI met with FaZe Clan (the same team that defeated Spirit and then Vitality). The tournament final once again proved that anything can happen on the Counter-Strike stage.

Who is Aleksib?

Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen is the captain of the Natus Vincere team. He was already in the final of a major with ENCE. Then, in 2019, his team lost to the invincible Astralis. After some time, the Finnish organization replaced the player with another – suNny. Aleksib moved to OG. The player failed to repeat his former success in the new team. For three years in the new organization, the player and his team were unable to achieve victories at major tournaments.

After OG, Aleksib moved to G2, where less than a year later he was kicked again. Then the player became a captain in NiP, but this period was even worse than the previous one. And in June 2023, Natus Vincere announced its new and first international lineup, betting on Aleksib.

And after just 9 months, the team, at its first major with a new lineup, took the coveted trophy.

Who Replaced s1mple?

After it became known about the transfer of Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov to Natus Vincere, many were skeptical about this transfer. And this was to be expected, because the 18-year-old guy had a huge burden – to become the team’s new sniper, replacing the three-time best player in the world according to HLTV – Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev. Even s1mple himself believed that Igor would not be able to replace him in the new NAVI lineup.

Even w0nderful himself did not believe that he could even get into the NAVI team. However, dreams are destined to come true. Now w0nderful is not only a NAVI player, but also a major champion within NAVI. Igor was one of the best at the event, demonstrating a masterpiece level of play with AWP. Just look at how he took the “B” site on Inferno and dealt with the Eternal Fire five. This moment was definitely one of the most memorable of the entire major.

W0nderful finished the tournament with a rating of 1.11. Despite the fact that jL received the MVP award, without this guy NAVI would hardly have been able to win. Now, at the age of 19, Igor is equal to s1mple in the number of majors won. It took more than 5 years for s1mple to achieve this.

Key Moments of The Battle

FaZe surprised players by choosing the map Ancient, which they only played twice in this Major with mixed results. Starting on the attack, FaZe grabbed an early lead, but Natus Vincere quickly took control of the game thanks to a stunning hat-trick from jL, including a solo kill.

Natus Vincere showed exemplary defensive play, preventing Finn “⁠karrigan⁠” Andersen from making much progress for most of the first half. However, FaZe managed to find openings and finished the first half only two rounds behind.

Natus Vincere extended their lead by winning the pistol round after the break and maintained that momentum by taking the score to 10-5. With weapons in hand, FaZe found their game and reduced the gap to one round. It looked like a classic FaZe comeback was in store, but Natus Vincere kept their cool. jL broke the streak with a 1v1 win, and then when FaZe was on the verge of winning the round with only one SMG, he pulled off a sensational 1v3 clutch to seal the game for his team.

Final Thoughts

CS2 has an incredible following all over the world – from Chicago (USA) to Tokyo. In March 2024, the average monthly active number of players approached 900,000.0. New heroes are appearing on the professional scene who demonstrate an incredibly high level of preparation and inspiration. If you want to learn more about settings for playing CS2, evaluate the inventory and settings of the best players, and find out about upcoming matches, we recommend visiting the Profiler website. In addition, here you can find such useful services as CS2 crosshair generator, Steam ID finder, and many others.