NaVi Will win
On February 14, 2026, one of the main tournaments of the winter part of the season, PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026, begins. The opening match of the tournament will be a clash between two legendary teams, NAVI vs Astralis. Both teams have not shown good results so far this season, so PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 is a chance for them to redeem themselves. In this CS2 match preview, we will look at the best odds for the NAVI vs Astralis match, the form and rosters of both teams, as well as their head-to-head meetings to understand who has a better chance of winning.
Bookmakers Offers For The Match NAVI vs Astralis
Bookmakers consider NAVI the favorite in this match with average odds of 1.5 against 2.5. Thus, Astralis are slight underdogs in this match.
NAVI vs Astralis Line-Ups
The NAVI roster consists of both experienced and young players. b1t has been with the team the longest since 2020, while makazze joined the team in 2025. The star players of Natus Vincere can be considered b1t and w0nderful, who occasionally delivers very high-quality performances on the AWP.
At the beginning of the 2026 season, Astralis partially updated their roster by signing phzy and ryu. Astralis do not stand out with star players and instead focus on developing young players to a high level.
NAVI Form & Performance
Over the past six months, NAVI have shown inconsistent results. The team could easily defeat strong opponents and then be eliminated in the first matches of a tournament.
The analysis should begin with BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. The team approached the tournament as one of the favorites and started directly from Stage 3. NAVI secured 3 wins and 1 loss, qualifying for the playoffs, where they lost to Vitality in the first match and were eliminated from the tournament, finishing in the top 8.
At IEM Cologne 2025, NAVI played with a slightly updated roster, as makazze joined the team instead of jL. The team qualified for the playoffs through the lower bracket, where they defeated FaZe Clan in the Lower Bracket Final. In the playoffs, NAVI defeated Mongolz and lost to Team Spirit, finishing in 3rd–4th place.
At one of the main tournaments of the season, Esports World Cup 2025, NAVI performed poorly. The team unexpectedly lost their first match to 3DMAX and were eliminated from the tournament, finishing in the top 16.
At StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2025, NAVI managed to bounce back. The team demonstrated extremely confident play, winning the tournament without a single loss.
However, at a more serious tournament, ESL Pro League Season 22, NAVI again failed to maintain success, finishing in the top 8. This confirmed a trend: in long tournaments with many matches against stable top rosters, the team lacked strategic depth and consistency in decisive series.
At the same time, at Thunderpick World Championship 2025, against somewhat weaker opponents, NAVI reached the final and finished in 2nd place.
NAVI also participated in IEM Masters Chengdu 2025, and although the team performed poorly, finishing in the top 16, it allowed them to understand their mistakes and better prepare for one of the main tournaments of the season, StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.
Thanks to their performances, NAVI finished 6th–7th in the BLAST Frequent Flyers Program 2025 and received $115,385.
At StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, NAVI started from Stage 2 and won the group without problems, achieving victories over FlyQuest, Imperial Esports, and B8. In Stage 3, the team nearly got eliminated with a 2–2 record but managed to defeat B8 in the decisive match and qualify for the playoffs.
In the Quarterfinals, NAVI unexpectedly defeated one of the main contenders for the title, FURIA, 2–1, but in the Semifinals they lost to FaZe Clan with the same score and finished in 3rd–4th place.
The start of 2026 turned out to be difficult for the team and showed a decline in results after a busy previous season. NAVI had a poor start at BLAST Bounty Winter 2026: Closed Qualifier, where the team finished only 17th–32nd.
At Intel Extreme Masters Kraków 2026, the roster failed to reach the playoffs, finishing in the top 12. The team looked competitive on individual maps, but there was a noticeable lack of consistency and tactical weaknesses. As a result, the start of the season showed that the team needs to reconsider preparation for BO3 series and improve in-match adaptation; otherwise, achieving high results on the Tier-1 scene will be quite difficult.
Astralis Form & Performance
Over the past six months, Astralis have shown inconsistent results.
Their most successful performance of the previous season was at PGL Astana 2025, where Astralis played confidently. In the Group Stage, they finished with a 3–1 record and reached the Grand Final, becoming silver medalists. It is worth noting that not many Tier-1 teams participated in the tournament, but Astralis performed quite well.
At IEM Cologne 2025, Astralis started confidently with a win over B8 but lost to FURIA and dropped to the lower bracket. In an unstable series against paiN Gaming, Astralis managed to win and advance to the group stage. However, in the Group Stage, the team faced Tier-1 teams, lost two matches in a row, and finished the tournament in 13th–16th place.
A successful performance can be considered BLAST Bounty Fall 2025: Closed Qualifier, where Astralis defeated Rare Atom and Natus Vincere to qualify for the main stage. However, at BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 itself, the team stopped in the top 8 after a loss to MOUZ, which showed the difference between performances in qualifiers and matches against elite opponents in the final stages.
Further results only emphasized inconsistency: at Esports World Cup 2025, Astralis were eliminated after an opening loss to TYLOO (top 16), and at ESL Pro League Season 22, after a difficult run through Stage 1 (3–2), the team failed Stage 2 with a 0–3 record and finished 15th–16th. Similarly, at PGL Masters Bucharest 2025, a 2–3 group result led to an early elimination (9th–11th place).
Astralis showed a somewhat better result at IEM Chengdu 2025, where the team secured several important wins against strong opponents and finished in 5th–6th place.
However, at one of the main tournaments of the season, StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, the roster did not meet fans’ expectations — a 2–3 result in Stage 2 and a final 17th–19th place became one of the biggest disappointments of the season.
At the start of the 2026 season, Astralis signed phzy and ryu, but so far the players have not influenced the team’s level of play. At BLAST Bounty Winter 2026: Closed Qualifier, Astralis again performed below expectations, defeating Fnatic and finishing in the top 16.
The team is capable of putting up a fight and reaching the main stages of Tier-1 tournaments, but consistency against top teams and certain elements of gameplay require improvement.
Mappool For Match NAVI Vs Astralis
Let’s analyze both teams map statistics to make smart CS2 picks.
NAVI
- Best maps: Ancient (69.2%), Mirage (61.5%).
- Worst maps: Nuke (47.1%), Inferno (40.0%).
It is worth noting that NAVI most often pick Nuke and ban Dust2. The team stands out for strong defensive play and a high round-win rate (70–75%) after the first kill.
Astralis
- Best maps: Overpass (62.5%), Ancient (60.0%).
- Worst maps: Mirage (27.8%), Dust2 (16.7%).
Similar to NAVI, Astralis most often pick Nuke and ban Dust2 and are noted for good defensive play. However, the team performs somewhat worse in pistol rounds, so starting on the T side will give them fewer chances to win the match against NAVI.
NAVI vs Astralis Head-To-Head
The teams have played against each other 22 times, with NAVI winning 14 matches and Astralis winning 8. The most recent match took place at IEM Chengdu 2025 (LAN, Bo3), where Astralis won 2–1
Best Pick For Match NAVI vs Astralis
NAVI are considered the favorites in the match against Astralis at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026. The team shows more stable results at major tournaments, has stronger individual players, and has won more head-to-head matches. Astralis have recently updated their roster and are currently lacking synergy, which is an important aspect in matches against Tier-1 teams. In our opinion, NAVI will win 2–0.
Betting Prediction: NAVI win 2-0.
Dima Ostapchuk
Ostapchuk Dmytro – writer at EGamersWorld, ESports & Gaming Specialist
Dmytro started working at EGamersWorld in 2024 as a writer and later became a blog editor. His main focus is on esports disciplines Dota 2 and CS2. His tasks include finding topics that interest EGamersWorld readers and covering game updates, their features, and major esports tournaments.
Dmytro has recently begun working in this field, so he is learning a lot and making noticeable progress in this direction.
At the moment, the majority of bookmakers unanimously see the team NaVi as the favorite of the game with average odds on a victory in the sum of 1.383. Astralis chances to prevail are evaluated with average odds 2.813 by bookmakers.
How the teams played in the last matches
| Last Matches | NaVi | Astralis |
| 5 matches (wins) | 3 | 2 |
| 10 matches (wins) | 6 | 5 |
Gamblers will definitely be interested in the statistics of personal meetings between the teams. The participants in the battle before the meeting played 48 matches with each other. In these matches NaVi won 23 times, Astralis active consisits of 24 wins.
197
