Turning the page: the EPL S14 final

After a pair of massive semifinals, only two teams are left in the ESL Pro League Season 14, as Natus Vincere and Team Vitality will play for the championship on Sunday.

For the CIS team winning on Sunday will mean a yet another milestone in the history of the success of the organisation. Natus Vincere have never won ESL Pro League, despite coming agonizingly close a few seasons ago, when Astralis reverse swept them in the finals, despite starting with a “0-1” deficit. Winning Season 14 will not only make up for those losses, but turn NAVI into only the third team ever to win Intel Grand Slam and a million dollars prize pool, allowing them to join a pair of rivals - Astralis and Team Liquid, who last took the prize in the middle of 2019.

For Team Vitality, even getting to the final is already a great sign. Losing a part of their system, as six-man rosters were essentially banned by Valve, making roster changes, going through the slump in the beginning of the year- the French lineup persevered through all of that and now looks every bit of a contender and not only a “ZywOo”’s show, no matter how good he is.

There will be no pressure on Team Vitality during the final, unlike Natus Vincere, who are a massive favourite in the eyes of the betting public, fans and the rankings. And noone can discount the memories of the last year final between NAVI and Vitality, when they played a best of five set for the IEM Beijing-Haidian championship, where Natus Vincere led “2-0” but got crushed in three maps in a row, settling down for the second place.

As far as potential maps go, bans are pretty clear, since Team Vitality don’t want to implement Ancient into their map pool yet, while Natus Vincere still have no desire to start playing Vertigo with their main lineup. The CIS team is going to be picking first, so it comes down to choosing between Dust2 and Mirage, since Nuke is likely going to be played third and Team Vitality will be picking both Overpass and Inferno in no particular order. 

Will Natus Vincere complete the Intel Grand Slam on Sunday or Team Vitality will play spoiler and boost themselves to the elite level once again? It will not take long to find out, as the series is going to take place at 16:00 CET on September 12th.