Na`Vi won IEM Katowice and catapulted themselves to the top of CS:GO. Since then the world has changed as CS:GO has gone from LAN to online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This transition was particularly rough for Na`Vi as the core of the team hadn’t played in an online series in years. Na`Vi finished fourth at ESL Proleague EU Season 11. It was a stark contrast to their victory at IEM Katowice 2020. Where IEM Katowice showcased all of Na`Vi’s strengths at their best, EPL EU 11 showcased the strategic and tactical limitations of the Na`Vi squad. Contextual Factors to Consider Before I break down the strategic and tactical limitations of Na`Vi, we first need to consider the contextual situations of the games. All games are now online and online games do not affect players equally. There are technical aspects like time, ping, and mental condition. Veteran players who know how to deal with pressure can use that difference to take victories that would otherwise be impossible (Jung “Mvp” Jong Hyun’s entire 2012 career in SC2 is a testament to this). On the other side of the equation, there are players like Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dortkardes are brilliant online, but cannot transition that play to LAN. Read more: The Viability of 6-Man Rosters in CSGO Another factor to consider is the EPL EU 11 format. While Na`Vi finished fourth place in the tournament, that is solely based on the rules of the tournament. By the end of the second round-robin phase, Na`Vi, Astralis, and Mouz all went 3-2. While Astralis and Mouz have a better round differential, this isn’t a concrete evaluation of skill difference between the teams. After all Astralis beat Mouz, Mouz beat Na`Vi, and Na`Vi beat Astralis. In a different set of tie-breaking rules or in a situation where tiebreakers were played, we could have seen Na`Vi pass through this stage. Even given this context though, Na`Vi did have flaws in their play. Flaws that both Mouz and Fnatic exploited in the second phase round robin. The Mouz and Fnatic Game Plans Mouz and Fnatic are completely different styles of team. Mouz is a mixed international squad filled with skilled players and brought together by Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s leadership. Mouzy is a hybrid between individual skill, tactics, and strategy. Karrigan uses a wide variety of tools to exploit strategic weaknesses he sees in the defense. After studying the roles, tendencies, and form of the opponent, he uses a combination of individualistic dueling, cutting flanks, executes, adaptations, and gamesmanship to lead his squad to victory. Fnatic are a traditional Swedish team that like to use team play and individual skill as their bread and butter. Maikil “Golden” Selim brings this together with a fast and loose calling style. While not as comprehensive, his system gets the most out of his players as they are in their best respective roles. The Mouz and Fnatic styles are disparate from each other and this led to some different approaches. Mouz found holes in Na`Vi’s playstyle to exploit, while Fnatic looked for common dueling areas to let their individual players shine. What was especially surprising though wasn’t the differences between how Mouz and Fnatic played against Na`Vi, but the similarities. While each team used different tools, the overarching theme was the same. To beat Na`Vi’s T-side you have to deny them the entry duels they want, let them run down the clock while Na`Vi use up their utility, and then force Na`Vi to do a last-minute hit onto a site.

Mouz’s CT-side Strategy Mouz used this strategy on the CT-sides of both Nuke and Dust2. On Nuke, Mouz tried to avoid direct firefights at the beginning of rounds. Instead they played a more passive style, used their utility to control the rotations and then setup crossfires and forced Na`Vi to win at the end of each round through brute force. If this sounds familiar to you, it is because it’s akin to the gameplay that Karrigan used with FaZe back when he was in control of that team. The difference is that Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov doesn’t have karrigan’s ability to read or manipulate the rotations of the CT-side over the half. So where karrigan’s FaZe could still surprise opponents or setup isolated trades, Boombl4’s Na`Vi often needs to rely on their sheer firepower and trading potential to win out their rounds. Given Na`Vi’s ridiculous firepower though, that is usually all they need. In this particular game, I believe FaZe were in the right positions, but Na`Vi’s raw firepower won the trades anyway. In the end though, Mouz capitalized on a few mistakes from Na`Vi and clinched the map. While not that effective on Nuke, Mouz’s game plan worked wonders on Dust2. On that map, Mouz’s primary default was an initial 3-2 with David “frozen” Cernansky rotating back from the A-defense and moving over to the B-site after the initial stages of the round. This default gave Mouz the stability they needed to hold any fast rushes out long, but once that risky stage of the round was over, they used utility and passive positions to deny Na`Vi any easy duels around short or the long doors. After Na`Vi failed to get any sort of opening picks going, they went for B-to-mid splits at the end of the round and ended up running into triple stacks. Na`Vi only caught on to this in the final rounds of the half. Mouz finds holes on the T-side Another big thing to consider was how Mouz exploited Na`Vi’s CT-side on Nuke. Throughout the last few months, Mouz have slowly started making Robin “ropz” Kool more of an opening duelist. While he doesn’t take traditional duelist spots, he has become one of Mouz’s best and most consistent weapons at getting opening duels. On Nuke in particular, Mouz like to have Ropz find opening picks at squeak door early in the round. Na`Vi seemed to anticipate this tactic as they consistently had a player down in vents and/or main. The one time Mouz used ropz as an opening dueler in the half, Na`Vi shut it down. What’s interesting is that Mouz didn’t use ropz as their point man in this game. Instead they shifted gears as they used a double lurker strategy throughout the half. This exploited a number of vulnerabilities that Na`Vi had throughout the half. In the 5th round, frozen lurker into main and caught Denis “electronic” Sharipov. Karrigan consistently found himself in good positions whenever he lurked out into yard. By the end of the half, Karrigan had created a mental anchor that weighed in Na`Vi’s mind about the potential risks of someone lurking out in yard. So when Mouz threw the outer yard nades in the 15th round, Egor “flamie” Vasilev rotated outside at heaven to get info and Mouz timed their hit to take advantage of this and win the round. Fnatic one step ahead of the Banana Game In the first game between Na`Vi and Fnatic, Fnatic looked like they were on the verge of losing as they had gone 4-11 on their T-side. Despite that, Fnatic made the comeback, largely due to their banana control. By taking control of banana, Fnatic were consistently able to rotate the correct amount of players to the A or B site. Fnatic kept banana control for so long because they were one step ahead of Na`Vi for almost the entire half. The banana game unfolded like this. In the 20th round, electronic rushed banana and died by himself, so in the 21st, electronic and boombl4 rushed down banana to win the trade and the round. Fnatic then used a bunch of molotovs from top mid and banana to take it. Na`Vi realized that they needed to have banana control to win easier T-rounds, but so did Fnatic. So in the 24th round, Fnatic started using HE stacks at the beginning of rounds to chunk the Na`Vi players and then stall them with the rest of their utility towards the top of banana. This seemed to fluster the Na`Vi players as they messed up their utility and had to take mid control dry, whereupon Fnatic punished them with a pop flash play. By the 26th round, Na`Vi started to play a much cleaner game, but it was too little too late. One bad flash in the 27th caught electronic blind when Na`Vi were doing a B hit which let Golden get the first free kill, let him reset for the second, and let Fnatic rotate over to win the round.