NAVI’s recent win at the ESL Pro League Season 20 has officially kicked off their foray into the Intel Grand Slam race that now has 6 teams competing. They now have nine chances to win the coveted prize, which they could accomplish if they keep up their impeccable form.
The Intel Grand Slam is a competition that rewards teams for their continued success in multiple prestigious S-Tier tournaments organized by the Electronic Sports League. The Intel Grand Slam in itself isn’t a tournament but is instead a massive $1 million prize that is awarded to teams that manage to win 4 major tournaments within a 10 tournament window. Teams enter the running after winning their first S-Tier tournament and from then on have 9 attempts to complete the grand slam.
NAVI’s win at ESL Pro League Season 20 begins their campaign into the competition that now has 6 teams competing for the coveted prize. The last team to join the race was Team Vitality, who won IEM Cologne not too long ago and have dropped their chances from 9 to 8 after failing to win the ESL Season 20.
The Current State of the IGS Championship
The Intel Grand Slam is a very hotly contested competition, as it’s not a one-and-done deal like other tournaments and instead rewards consistency and dominance. For a team to win the Grand Slam, they need to maintain a run of form that can keep them competing and winning at the highest levels of esports, which is not as easy as it sounds. So far there have only been 5 winners, with most of the same teams that won before currently in the race, bar Astralis.
NAVI aren’t new to the IGS and even have a Grand Slam to their name after winning the third season back in 2021. Since then, the team has seen drastic changes, with the only remaining members from that IGS winning squad being S1mple and b1t.
As it stands, the current Intel Grand Slam Race is as follows:
With their win here in Malta at #ESLProLeague XX @natusvincere join the race for $1,000,000! 💵
They now have 9 chances remaining to complete the #IntelGrandSlam pic.twitter.com/c5etci71xJ
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 22, 2024
With NAVI now in the race, MOUZ are in an even tougher spot as they have to win two consecutive S-Tier Tournaments, with the upcoming IEM Rio being one of them. The rest of the teams outside of Navi, Vitality, and G2 have less than 5 chances to meet the IGS requirements before falling out of the competition.
The current pattern seems to once again take a V shape, which, if it continues to play out, could spell a win for Vitality at IEM Rio. This is entirely superstitious though, but it would make things a lot more interesting as that would mean they’d have 7 chances to win two tournaments, which is fairly doable. NAVI seem to be in a good spot as well and could end up swooping IEM Rio if they can keep up their current momentum. It’ll be interesting to see how the IGS plays out, but as of right now, all eyes are fixated on Rio.