NAVI became ESL Pro League Season 20 champions by defeating Eternal Fire 3-2 on cards in the grand finals in a very tight battle. Thanks to the win NAVI's captain, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen will lose the BO5 finals curse.

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BO5 curse details

There is a curse in the community and in fact that prevents Aleksib from winning grand finals in the BO5 format. Before this, he has lost 7 past BO5 finals in different lineups, which can't help but speak of a curse. According to most analysts and experts today was the day to beat the curse.

Finals details

The first map was Nuke, NAVI's choice, where they had a good first half, where they managed to get 5 rauds on offense, but their defense didn't go well. Despite a clutch win from Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov at 5-10, the team managed to take two more rounds and lost 8-13 on their pick.

Second was Anubis, an EF pick who had this as their best card and in the first half they were able to get back in the game after a crushing start. They were losing 7-2 but they managed to come back and finish the half 5-7, in the second half they managed to take a good series of 4 rounds but this was answered by Mihai “iM” Ivan who almost single-handedly managed to win the map. In the end NAVI won with a close score of 13-11.

Third was Ancient, NAVI's choice, where they managed to take 7 rounds in the first half, but in the second half on the pistol round b1t, was able to show great kills. The game was close in the second half and ended 6-6, but that was enough for NAVI to win and they led the series 2-1.

The fourth was Inferno, EF's choice where they showed a solid start and were able to end the half with a score of 8-4 in their favor. In the second half they just masterfully brought the game to an end and won 13-4.

Last was Dust 2, where EF started the first half with confidence, but gave the second half away, ending the first half with a score of 7-5 in favor of NAVI. In the second half NAVI had a great showing winning 13-10.

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Fighting for the Intel Grand Slam

With their win at ESL Pro League Season 20, NAVI are in contention for another title, such as the Intel Grand Slam Season 5. The grand prize is $1,000,000, which will be awarded to the one team that can win four ESL Dash 1 tournaments in the next ten.

Past winners of the title include Astralis 2018, Team Liquid 2019, NAVI 2021, FaZe 2023, if they win this season NAVI could become the only organization to hold the title twice.