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We continue to watch the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024. And there from the 5th of December Long will be Elimination Stage, during which we will be watching 16 teams, including all the top HLTV.
All participants of the Elimination Stage will fight for the Legend Stage, aka Playoffs Stage. Among the contenders are NaVi and Liquid, who will face each other in the first Elimination Stage match.
Let's try to find out who of the pair NaVi - Liquid will be stronger in this match and earn the first victory in the Elimination Stage.
Let's go.
NaVi Form
Let's open the NaVi vs Liquid match with a look at NaVi's form. In this match the Ukrainian club and the top 1 HLTV play the first number one, with odds to win around 1.6.
NaVi played a series of good tournaments while still in the previous squad. They placed high in almost every one.
They started with a top 6 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023. Then TOP-3 at IEM Katowice 2023 and a similar result at ESL Pro League Season 17.
NaVi took BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A without any problems and qualified for the Major in Paris. Before the only Major of the season, Natus Vincere took the top 4 at the IEM Masters Rio 2023.
The Paris tournament turned out to be a failure for NaVi. Top-11 is hardly a decent result for a team of Natus Vincere's status.
- NaVi roster: w0nderful, b1t, Aleksib, jL, iM.
Before the Long Conner IEM Cologne NaVi made a global Reshuffle, translating the roster into English. In addition to electroNic, Perfecto and npl who left, jL with Apeks, iM with GamerLegion and Aleksib, who previously played for Ninjas in Pyjamas, joined the team.
With the new lineup, NaVi made their debut at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023. "Born to Win" managed to earn a place in the autumn finals by finishing in the top 4-6.
At IEM Cologne 2023 Natus Vincere played two matches. First, they lost to MOUZ with a score of 0-2, and then defeated OG in Bo3. At the end of the top championship NaVi reached the top 8, which is a good result for the then renewed roster.
Then there were a number of appearances at major events with very good results. NaVi entered the top 8 at Gamers8 and took the top 2 at ESL Pro Legue Season 18.
The key tournament of the season for "yellow-black" can be called IEM Sydney 2023. There NaVi for the first time in a long time played without their main headliner S1mple, whose place was temporarily taken by coach B1ad3. Andrew tried, but NaVi could not jump above the top-12.
After S1mple left the active roster, NaVi started the game with w0nderful. He made his debut for the Yellow-Blacks at BLAST Premier: World Final 2023. Natus Vincere played him very well, reaching the top 4. In the match for the Grand Final Ledgeili future tournament champions and the best team in the world Vitality.
The year 2024 started with high notes - they became the best at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European Qualifier A. However, further on, the performance slipped a bit and NaVi took the top-12 at ESL Pro League Season 19 and IEM Dallas 2024, as well as the top-2 at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024.
Esports World Cup 2024 NaVi Long Competed with a solid 2-0 win over FURIA. Entering the play-offs, the "born to win" fell to FaZe Clan in the first round. NaVi were again stronger than FaZe, but this time they won with the score 2-0. Then there was a rather difficult match against MOUZ, where NaVi lost on the first map with the score 1-13, but then they got together and made it to the grand final. In the final match they played against G2 Esports, where they won 2-1, thus winning their second prestigious tournament of the year.
At the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024 NaVi Long Competed with a confident victory over BIG. But against Liquid "born to win" did not fare well, losing in a dramatic situation without defuse kits on the 3rd map. In the re-match with BIG they were stronger again, confidently shutting down the German club with a score of 2-0. However, they failed to move further into the top 6 at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024.
At the ESL Pro League Season 20 NAVI became the winners of Group A, passing Lynn Vision, NiP and Eternal Fire without any problems. NaVi started the ESL Pro League Season 20 playoffs with a victory over their principal rival - Team Spirit - and a confident 2-0 win. Next, they defeated G2 Esports (2-1) and defeated Eternal Fire in the EPL S20 final with a score of 3-2.
At IEM Rio 2024, NaVi qualified from Group A in second place, Ledgeiv there Furia. In the play-offs, they beat Vp (2-0) and Heroic (2-1) in turn. And in the grand finals NaVi defeated MOUZ (3-1), thus becoming the champion of a major tournament for the 4th time in a season.
However, NaVi did not manage to be the best everywhere and everywhere. For example, at BLAST Premier: World Final 2024, where "Born to Win" failed to qualify for the play-offs.
At PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, NaVi won two matches, beating Fnatic and Sinners, but then lost to MOUZ in the match to qualify for the Major. However, they managed to reach the Elimination Stage at Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 at the second attempt, beating sAw 2-0.
NaVi Mappool
The best NaVi map for 3 months is Inferno. The team played there 5 times with a winrate of 60 per cent.
On Mirage, Ancient. Nuker, Overpass and Anubis NaVi has 50% wins. On Ancient and Nuke the team played 4 matches each, on the others - 2.
Vertigo is not playing.
Team Liquid's form
We continue the analysis of Liquid vs NaVi match with the analysis of Liquid's form. In this match they play in the status of outsider with odds to win in the area of
The American club had a pretty productive 2023 season. Played in a lot of
tournaments, but high scores were rare.
They started the year with a top-4 finish at IEM Katowice 2023, where they reached the top 4. Next was the equally good BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown with a similar top-4, and then BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: American RMR followed by a top-3 and a trip to the main tournament of the year.
Unfortunately for Liquid, that's where their results ended. At BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, the team made it to the top 8 and that was their biggest achievement of the year.
After making it to the legends stage at the only Major tournament of the season, Liquid played at a lot of big events. These included IEM Dallas 2023 with a top-12 ranking, BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with a top-9 ranking, and IEM Master Cologne with a top-12 ranking.
At the end of the season they played at Gamers8 2023, finishing in the top 16 and ESL Pro League Season 18, finishing in the top 20. Closed the year with a second place finish at BLAST Premier: Fall American Showdown 2023.
- Team Liquid roster: NAF, YEKINDAR, jks, ultimate, Twistzz.
A string of failures at major championships has caused major roster changes. Such that Liquid in 2024 can be called "Dream Team", but the status still has to be earned.
2024 began with qualifiers for the American RMR. They came out, which is not surprising. They also tried to qualify for IEM Chengdu 2024, but it was not successful: in the final of the qualifiers Ledge and M80.
Liquid took TOP-8 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, and then passed at IEM Dallas 2024, did not pass at PGL Copenhagen Major 2024, taking TOP-8 at home, and then TOP-16 at BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 and TOP-6 at IEM Masters and TOP-6 Chengdu 2024. They also played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they finished in the Top 8.
IEM Dallas 2024 Liquid started with a victory over CoL, but then - a completely unexpected defeat by 9z Team in the match for the play-offs. As a result, at IEM Dallas 2024 Liquid finished in the top 9-12 without making the play-offs.
Liquid attended BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they surprised everyone. At BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, Liquid finished in the top 1-4, winning their group, thus securing a slot at BLAST Premier: World Final.
Liquid Long Sogpeg IEM Cologne 2024 from the Play-In stage, where they played twice against Brazilian representatives: paiN and FURIA and won both times to advance to the group stage. At the Long Stage of the group stage IEM Cologne 2024 played against FaZe, where Ledgeili 0-2. After falling to the bottom of the group stage, Liquid made it to the small final, where they again played against FaZe and in a very dramatic match they lost 1-2 and as a result finished in the top 8.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Team Liquid started with a performance in Group D, where they beat ENCE and Vp 2-0, and lost to Vitality 1-2 in the play-offs seeding match. Starting the main stage of the ESL Pro League Season 20 play-offs with a match against CoL, Liquid beat the American club 2-0 without a chance. But then they faced G2 and as a result of the meeting they left ESL Pro League S20. Next Liquid played at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they finished in the top 6 and at IEM Rio 2024, where they finished in the top 12.
At PW Shanghai Major 2024, Liquid went head-to-head with American RMR, coming away with a 3-1 win. Opening Stage went through without much trouble, beating C9, Wildcard, and FlyQuest.
Team Liquid Mappool
Team Liquid's top 1 map in the last 3 months is Mirage. Liquid has a mind-blowing winrate of 92% with 13 games played.
They also played on Inferno, where they won 5 matches out of 7 games. Nuke is also in plus winrate, where the "ninjas" have 3 wins from 5 matches.
The most not favoured map for Team Liquid will be Vertigo. There they have 6 maps and only 1 win.
History of head-to-head meetings between NaVi and Team Liquid
In the season 2024 clubs played each other three times. The score is 2-1 in favour of Liquid.
Predicted result of the match Liquid - NaVi at PW Shanghai Major 2024
In this match, I would expect an even game. In general, all year NaVi has problems with Liquid, and here and bo1 format. I'll bet on Liquid.
Bottom line: Liquid wins.
