On March 22, the ESL 2023 Navi vs Outsiders match happened. The teams competed for the opportunity to advance to the quarterfinals of ESL Pro League Season 17. We’re going to show you a review of the match, predictions, and highlights. How did this symbolic battle go? Let’s get started.
In article you will find:
Outsiders X NAVI Match Overview
ESL Season 17 Outsiders X NAVI began at the stage of the map ban. The teams banned uncomfortable maps. The third map could have been Inferno, but NAVI won with a score of 2-0. Let’s take a closer look at each map.
Table of map selection and ban:
The First Map
NAVI picked Ancient, which is not surprising since the team has an 80% win rate on it.
The start, however, was very successful for Outsiders, and they easily started to dominate. In the fourth round, a 1vs1 clutch from James gave his team a 4-1 lead on the CT side.
However, NAVI was able to fight back after the seventh round and almost tied the score.
In the first half of the first map, the teams got the following results:
- NAVI (T) – 7 rounds.
- Outsiders (CT) – 8 rounds.
The second half of the first map began with a rapid dominance of team NAVI.
It was Outsiders’ turn to play on T-side, and as you know, attacking is always harder. A sublime triple kill – and 1vs1 clutch – from Evgenii “FL1T” Lebedev kept Outsiders alive a little bit longer but the second part ended with a victory for NAVI.
Here are the results of the second half of the map.
- NAVI (CT) – 9 rounds.
- Outsiders (T) – 6 rounds.
The exact score for the first map is 14-16 in favor of Natus Vincere.
The Second Map
Perhaps the coach Dastan Akbayev and the team made this decision because their rivals NAVI have won only one1 game at Mirage in the last four matches. The outsiders decided to play on a map that is not convenient for NAVI.
Players NAVI, electroNic and s1mple combined for 16 kills to earn the Ukrainian team a 5-0 lead on defense.
But in the seventh round, Outsiders turned the tide of the battle with Alexey “Qikert” Golubev taking the clutch 1-2. And the score gradually moved to 6-9, where NAVI scored more points.
- NAVI (CT) – 9 rounds.
- Outsiders (T) – 6 rounds.
In the second half of Mirage, NAVI’s dominance lasted for 5 rounds in a row. The score was 6-14, Outsiders were very tense and exhausted, but they managed to make the score 7-14. Despite this, they lost the next 2 rounds and left the tournament.
NAVI won the second map with a score of 16-7.
NAVI Highlights
Let’s take a look at the team’s highlights at match ESL 2023 Outsiders X NAVI.
The first interesting moment was an attempt to win the 1-3 clutch by Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev.
S1mple’s 1 vs 3 clutch ( check here )
In this round, Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev was left alone with an AK-47 against three Outsiders players. s1mple killed two Outsiders but failed to defeat Jame with AWP.
“b1t” quick kill with АК-47 ( check here )
Another interesting moment in the game was when Valery “b1t” Vakhovsky managed to hit 3 headshots on the B site in 1 second in round 20.
Outsiders Highlights
Here are the best moments of Outsiders.
The first highlight was made on Ancient by player Petr “Fame” Bolyshev.
Good job by “Fame”, 4 kills with Famas
Player Fame made a triple kill 30 seconds after his first kill.
Great performance from Alexey “Qikert” Golubev in Round 12 ( check here )
He took a strong position. When the opponent’s team went for the kill, he made two excellent kills and won the round.
Some Predictions
ESL NAVI 2023 became the winner (check results here )
Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, ENCE, and MOUZ each won in the Round of 12, with all but MOUZ doing so with 2-0 sweeps. NAVI beat Outsiders, FaZe Clan took care of FURIA Esports, and ENCE beat G2 Esports. MOUZ beat paiN gaming 2-1.
As for further predictions, it is very difficult to say who can win, because all players are strong. Each team has signature maps, so it’s very difficult to say in advance who can win. Don’t forget that the tournament winner will receive $200.000 and slots at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne this summer and the BLAST Premier World Final in December.
To Wrap Up!
To summarize, Na’Vi beat Outsiders 16-14 on Ancient and 16-7 on Mirage with a score of 2:0. ESL NAVI 2023 is the only team to take third place in the group tournament and reach the quarterfinals.
The quarterfinals will begin on Thursday. Just imagine how many interesting things are still ahead.
Cheer for your favorite teams at ESL Pro League Season 17 and read our blog .