The second Vitality-NAVI scrim block of the Antwerp bootcamp ran July 4 morning with NAVI's second stand-in trial candidate Soren "sjr" Madsen (promoted from the NAVI academy roster) making his tier-1 opponent debut. Bo3 finished Vitality 2-0.
Map results
- Dust2 13-8 Vitality — Vitality T-side opened 8-4 with ZywOo AWP dominance on mid + long-doors dual-threat. NAVI CT-side struggled to establish CT-mid identity against sjr Madsen's academy-level utility calls. w0nderful put up 22 kills and 4 opening picks — the individual highlight of NAVI's side.
- Mirage 13-10 Vitality — Closer map. NAVI T-side opened 7-5 with aggressive Palace default reads. Vitality CT-side pulled to 7-8, then took control of the map with a rop-z 3-round eco-force run. sjr Madsen's mid-round calling in the 12-10 close-out sequence was cited by post-scrim analytics as the tactical weakness — he defaulted to a B-site retake read when the Vitality T-side execute was A-site.
sjr Madsen individual read
sjr Madsen posted a 0.94 series rating — below fnatic_v1's 1.02 from the July 1 scrim block. Detailed analytics:
- KAST: 63% (target 72%+, below fnatic_v1's 68%)
- Opening picks: 2 across 2 maps (fnatic_v1: 4 across 3 maps)
- Headshot rate: 55% (fnatic_v1: 62%)
- Utility damage per round: 7.1 (fnatic_v1: 8.4)
- Multi-kill rounds: 1 (fnatic_v1: 3)
The IGL trial comparison — 2/3 stands
NAVI have now completed 2 of 3 stand-in trials:
- fnatic_v1 (Tier-2 IGL trial): July 1 scrim block. Rating 1.02. NAVI lost 2-1 to Vitality with the Inferno close-out T-side execute cited as tier-1 read. Ceiling: tier-1 IGL potential with 6-8 weeks of tactical integration.
- sjr Madsen (Academy promotion trial): July 4 scrim block. Rating 0.94. NAVI lost 2-0 to Vitality with the Mirage close-out mid-round call cited as tactical weakness. Ceiling: tier-2 potential with 3-4 months of tier-1 integration.
- kingfisher (Third trial candidate): July 9-13 scrim block scheduled. Free-agent tier-1 IGL. Expected to be the highest-ceiling of the three trials based on his prior tier-1 body of work.
NAVI's tactical read of the trial process
Head coach B1ad3 (post-scrim comment): "sjr Madsen scrim was below tier-1 baseline as expected — he's an academy player making his first tier-1 opponent scrim. His utility habits and mid-round rotation calling need 3-4 months of tier-1 exposure before we'd deploy him at a Major. The trial confirmed our read that fnatic_v1 has the tier-1 potential, and kingfisher's tier-1 body of work carries the highest-ceiling read. Final decision after kingfisher trial July 13."
The Aleksib return alternative
Speculation about Aleksib potentially returning from the bench (his 4-week paid-bench window ends July 12) surfaced in NAVI-adjacent Discord communities July 4 afternoon. NAVI management have not commented publicly on the Aleksib return possibility. Tier-1 roster-tracking sources indicate the Aleksib return is not under consideration by NAVI — the July 12 window expiration will convert to a release rather than a return.
Vitality read
ZywOo (Twitter July 4 evening): "Two scrim blocks with different NAVI trial candidates. Two different tactical NAVI identities. Both cases we adapted to the new identity within 8-12 rounds. That's a positive read for our bootcamp adaptation process ahead of Spring Finals bracket."
