NAVI’s crushing loss against Heroic at BLAST Premier Fall Groups yesterday has frontman s1mple showing early signs of behavior fans and prior teammates are all too familiar with. The NAVI AWPer called the squad’s performance “trash” via a July 16 tweet following the loss and movements spotted on the server highlight his frustration further.
As Heroic was only mere kills away from closing out Inferno, viewers could see s1mple moving wildly via the minimap and x-ray vision. Streamed footage showcased s1mple flicking his mouse around in circles inside Inferno’s apartments, shortly after a rage-inducing round loss four rounds prior.
NAVI fell 0-2 against Heroic, losing Mirage 16-9 and Inferno 16-10. The international squad hasn’t started off with a bang, also struggling to put away a debut Astralis lineup, and according to s1mple himself, they “apparently need more time.”
Unease likely developed in the NAVI camp after a costly mistake against a low-buy Heroic on round 22 of Inferno. NAVI’s fully kitted squad ran head-first into an A-site stack, despite IGL Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen having complete control of the B-site.
The squad ran down the clock, leaving them no time to rotate—and five CTs waiting for them to walk onto the site. Carnage ensued and NAVI were left to lick their wounds. While they strung together the following three rounds, the damage was done and Heroic cruised to victory behind a 28-kill performance from Martin “stavn” Lund.
Related: BLAST Premier Fall Groups CS:GO 2023: Scores, brackets, results
The newly-formed international roster struggled to reach double-digit rounds against the world’s number one CS:GO team, with s1mple himself having an underwhelming performance on both maps. The star AWPer managed just a 0.79 HLTV rating—his second-lowest rating in a best-of-three this year.
Only Aleksib managed a positive rating across the series, with Ivan “iM” Mihai and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius still adjusting to life in the black and yellow. S1mple’s antics were not popular among the community, who voiced their frustration over the superstar’s lack of self-control given the squad has played just two series together.
NAVI is set to face BIG in the lower-bracket consolidation final, with both revamped rosters trying to scrape through for a rematch against Heroic. All teams are vying for the Falls Final qualification spot, with the losers sent to the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown to try their luck again.
