Last night, the grand final of the DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 tournament took place featuring the two top teams in the world at this moment: Gambit Esports and Natus Vincere. Pre-match predictions leaned towards Gambit, as they held the #1 position on the HLTV rankings with an incredibly impressive performance: winning 9 out of their last 10 bo3 – bo5 matches and remaining undefeated against Na`Vi since the beginning of the year (3-0). On the other side, the Na`Vi members were also showing great form, especially S1mple and Perfecto, promising an eye-catching bo5 match.
Entering the opponent’s map pick Overpass, Na`Vi displayed an extremely solid CT-side with the proactive play from bombsite A by S1mple and B1T. The first half ended with a dominant score of 10-5, and after winning the second pistol round, Na`Vi quickly wrapped up the first map with a score of 16-7.
On map 2, Dust2, the script repeated itself as Na`Vi annihilated their opponents in the first half with a score of 12-3, led by the explosive duo of S1mple and Electronic. However, Gambit proved their championship mettle from IEM Katowice 2021 with a spectacular comeback, winning 9 rounds to bring the score to 12-14. In the last two rounds, the young talent B1T made timely plays to help Na`Vi finish the map with a score of 16-12.
Entering the decisive map Train, Gambit had a dominant T-side with 9 round wins after the first half, continuously winning important rounds. However, in the second half, Electronic had a career-defining game with a total of 31 frags, leading Na`Vi to victory with a score of 16-12. In the end, Na`Vi secured a convincing 3-0 victory and was crowned champions of DreamHack Masters Spring 2021, marking their first DreamHack title in history. With this victory, Na`Vi will receive $100,000 and one point in the Intel Grand Slam season 3 system.
After the final match, S1mple was crowned the MVP of the tournament with an impressive rating of 1.41 and a K/D of +132. This is his second MVP title this year (after the BLAST Premier Global Final) and the 13th of this 23-year-old player’s career, moving him to second place on the list of the most accomplished players in history, trailing 5 titles behind the leader, dev1ce.
With this championship title, CIS teams have once again asserted their dominance in the professional arena; since the beginning of 2021, the three names Na`Vi, Gambit, and Virtus.Pro have won 4 out of 5 major tournaments and brought home all 5 MVP titles.
The teams will now take a break to prepare for the first RMR tournament of the year in the CIS region, as well as IEM Summer 2021, which is expected to take place in early June. After that, these teams will participate in IEM Cologne 2021, one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year, expected to be held on LAN.