Last week, we saw the end of Dreamhack Summer coming to a close, we saw a re-match of NiP vs NaVi after the two faced off at SLTV. I wanted to take the time to talk about momentum in CS:GO and how much it impacts both team and individual performance, and why it is so crucial to start on the right foot.

Starting the series off on Inferno, we saw NaVi starting off the match on the right foot by securing themselves not only CT (easier) side, but also the pistol round win. Even on the pistol round, we were able to see how much NaVi was playing defensively, and arguably “scared”. While in some situations, such a 3v1 clutches, it pays off to play passively, it is equally necessary to peek out in battles that you should take. NaVi opted to continue the passive style play into the second round where they found themselves forfeiting the B bombsite to NiP’s smoke & flash take. While NaVi was able to eliminate all of the NiP players, they did not grant themselves enough time to get the bomb defuse which led to us seeing the score equalized at 1-1. In situations such as eco rounds, it is necessary to take aim battles at certain strategic points such as choke points, or long distance with rifles versus pistols.

As soon as you start playing over-cautiously, you start to lose your confidence for the times that you need to win your aim battles.

NiP was then able to bring the match score to 3-1 as they were able to afford weapons and just crush NaVi using slow default tactics and pushing a site together.

The next gun-round that we saw was a misplay by NiP. After trading down kills into a 3v3 situation, NiP planted the bomb before over-extending and losing an additional player. Still in a 2v3 situation with the bomb planted, Fifflaren was able to push out and kill two NaVi members to make the round a 1v1 after his teammate died in the pit. Due to what I can only chalk down to a short-term memory failure, Fifflaren only lost the round to a defuse after forgetting where the bomb was planted and not allowing himself enough time to peek the defuser in time. Without this mistake, the NiP would have secured the round easily.

At a 3-2 scoreline in favor of NiP, we saw a great truck-side mid defense coming in from NaVi who not only chose to take an aim-battle, but reinforce the defenses with extra teammates. Zeus started off the round with a solid 2k and as he ran out of ammo, Edward was able to come to his rescue to pick up the third frag of the round. This type of confidence and teamwork is absolutely crucial in these types of situations as it utilizes the layout of the map to control and dictate the round.

With the scores evened up at 3-3, we saw NiP needing an eco round. An over-confident and lackluster defense from NaVi led to NiP overwhelming the A bombsite. Guardian had missed his AWP shots over at the arch side of middle which forced him to fall back into a passive position. Similarly, Edward was pushed back off of truck-side middle. In an attempt to regain some map control, Edward decided to re-engage at truck-side middle by engaging aggressively towards the porch awning where he ultimately died without getting a frag to a swarm of NiP members. Zeus, in an attempt to bail Edward out of the situation, was shot in the back by a lurking GeT_RiGhT from apartments. With full site control, NiP was able to plant the bomb and wither away at the NaVi retake by finally clinching the round in a 2v2.

This brings me back to my initial point of NaVi playing too scared. Inferno is set up in such a way that Counter-Terrorists can establish very strong crossfires and quick rotations to one another. This makes it incredibly difficult for Terrorists to not only gain footing in the map, but also maintain it. When NaVi forfeit middle control and played what I refer to as a “1-1-1” setup, they let themselves get run over.

With the scoreline sitting at 4-6, we saw an aggressive push down middle from Edward of NaVi. This is a display of a tactic which would catch NiP off guard. Unfortunately, Edward shot an entire clip at an enemy point blank and missed most of his bullets. Again, this is a testament to just poor individual performances and being without confidence. In the end of the round, we saw a 2v2 come down. With the bomb planted in the A bombsite, NaVi pushed in to the site from two angles. After trading down kills, we saw Fifflaren versus Seized in a 1v1. After very patient play from seized, and Fifflaren getting a little bit uneasy, Seized was able to seize the clutch. This, however, would be the last round which they would win.

The remainder of the half saw early picks from NiP with no return (or trade) frags. After NiP got the opening kill, the team would group up and storm into bombsites together.

After winning the pistol round with great patience and safe plays, NiP was able to pick up an early stride. NaVi actually opted to do a 2nd round buy of an AK, Galil, and 3x pistols to hopefully turn the tides a bit. Great teamwork coming in from NiP shut down this early surprise buy of NaVi as the 5v5 turned into a 5v3 which was shortly then followed up by a flawless round win by NiP who incurred no casualties.

Finding themselves short in money, NaVi chose to do an eco round followed by a force buy of pistol armour. Both of these rounds were unsuccessful as the latter round we saw Xizt getting a 4k autosniper round at middle.

Now on match point, NiP botched a middle aggression. Xizt saved face slightly by getting a nice 2k before going down himself. NaVi was able to make their way into A bombsite where NiP won in a 2v2 situation. Onto map 2 which was de_train.

NaVi was able to string rounds together in the second game where they were able to push NiP into overtime, but I think all was lost from this first map. The momentum that NiP was accumulating so quickly and it is so difficult to break a team’s momentum in CS. Once a team gets on a roll, they really start collecting rounds. Beyond that, when you are actually in the shoes of these players, it seems like when you have momentum on your side, you hit shots that you do not normally hit, and you survive in situations where you really should not.