Natus Vincere kept their composure and won the last Regional Major Ranking CIS tournament before the player break. The favorites had some tough encounters along the way but ultimately lifted the WePlay! Clutch Island trophy and gathered the much needed RMR points for ESL One Rio.
Spirit rising, Na’Vi still on top
The news in the CIS region since the coronavirus forced CS:GO into online play is the emergence of Team Spirit as a consistent contender. Usually, the regional setup is that of Natus Vincere dominating and the rest of the teams taking turns at upsets here and there. While the first part still rings true and it’s hard for anyone to dispute Na’Vi’s stature in the region, Spirit have been displaying some quality Counter-Strike lately and the results have been there as well.
If I haven’t spoiled it already, let me do that straight away – Natus Vincere defeated Team Spirit in the WePlay! Clutch Island final. Sadly, I can’t say that Spirit showed much potential to dethrone Na’Vi anytime soon, but the first step – getting to the final stages of events, has been made.
With a victory at the #WePlayClutchIsland event, our squad secured 2000 RMR points. Keep it up, boys! https://t.co/f7m0351294#csgo #navination pic.twitter.com/dX91vfkSy4
— NAVI (@natusvincere) June 28, 2020
The champions were not very convincing themselves as they needed to go all the way through the loser bracket after a loss to Gambit Youngsters in the opening game. Along the road, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and co. took their revenge on the youngsters, avoided a Virtus.pro scare in the semi-final and finally did away 2-0 (16-9; 16-9) with Team Spirit in the Grand Final.
The $15,000 Na’Vi received for this victory are surely nice, but what they were gunning for are the 2000 RMR points. Following a disastrous ESL One: Road to Rio campaign, where Spirit were champions, Na’Vi were in danger of missing out on Major qualification in case of a similar performance at WePlay! Clutch Island. As we now know, that did not happen and with the points gathered, the CIS giants can sleep well knowing their Major spot is pretty much secured. The same goes for Spirit who are leading the CIS RMR race as it is.
WePlay! Clutch Island concludes the CS:GO competitive season in the CIS region. The players are going on a well-deserved summer break and will be joined by their European and American colleagues at the end of this week when cs_summit 6 comes to an end.
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