3DMAX pulled off a huge upset at the Esports World Cup CS2 2025 tournament, knocking out defending champions NAVI with a 2-1 reverse sweep.
NAVI won 13-10 on Ancient but then lost consecutive maps, with the final scorelines being 9-13 on Inferno and 11-13 on Nuke. The decider map was close, with NAVI attempting to make a comeback, but 3DMAX had other plans.
In the final map, Lucky tallied the highest K/D ratio from the winning team, with 19 kills and 13 deaths to his name, while securing some important kills in the match. 3DMAX will next face The MongolZ (who defeated GamerLegion 2-0) in the quarterfinals on Aug. 21.
There was a recent leadership change within the French team, with Maka handing over the IGL duties to Graviti, who joined the team back in April last year. That change has brought in great results so far, as 3DMAX managed to secure the win against EWC CS2 titleholders NAVI in Graviti’s first game as an IGL.
NAVI were easily one of the favorites going into EWC CS2. Before the tournament started, Dot Esports spoke with Aleksib on Aug. 19. According to the IGL, the addition of makazze addition to the roster was their biggest strength in their title defense, saying: “I think the fact that we have new energy in the team still with the addition of makazze.”
Makazze proved to be a bright spot in the heartbreaking defeat as the 18-year-old pro came up with a 1.49 rating built on 24 kills against 15 deaths on Nuke. The NAVI Junior standout was recently promoted to the senior roster last July 8 to replace jL.
NAVI, who are still aiming to snap their title drought this year, ended their EWC 2025 run with $20,000. They will look to bounce back and qualify for the BLAST Open London slated early next month.
