Highlight Skin Showcase: jL 1v3 against Spirit

To the surprise of many, after failure at the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023, Natus Vincere decided to bench Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi, Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy and Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, and transition their Counter-Strike division to an international roster. They acquired two breakout stars from the Paris Major - Mihai “iM” Ivan from GamerLegion and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius from Apeks, alongside Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen who had quickly bounced from OG to G2 to NIP before joining NAVI.

This international conglomerate originally featured the greatest Counter-Strike player of all time - Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. Still, with him on the side, the team struggled to find cohesion, with the multinational project starting to pick up steam once he departed, taking a break from competition entirely. In his place came fellow countryman Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov from Sprout who took to Natus Vincere like a duck to water, with the team instantly finding improvement.

With Ihor in the roster, Natus Vincere have become consistent title contenders, winning two events - the first Major of CS2 - PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen and the Esports World Cup most recently. A big part of the success has been the good mood noted in the NAVI camp, with a lot of that being attributed to the zany antics of Lithuanian rifler jL who was the MVP at the PGL Major. 

Another reason for Natus Vincere’s consistency is the step up that jL has taken over the last couple of months, with the rifle star being the highest-rated player so far at ESL Pro League Season 20 heading into the semi-finals. He has an outrageous 1.50 rating and with Natus Vincere the likely favorite for the event, another MVP could be coming his way.

He was instrumental against Spirit in the quarterfinals, where he and his side made quick work of Danil “donk” Kryshkovets and Co. On the first map of Dust 2, jL set the tone for the series, winning a stunning 1v3 to put NAVI on map point.

Without further rambling, let’s take a look at the skins on display from the PGL Major MVP…

Possibly because it is the center of his country’s flag or perhaps because jL just likes green, the Lithuanian has a green-themed knife and glove combo. NAVI’s star sports a pair of Specialist Gloves | Emerald Web gloves. These gloves are particularly eye-catching, being a bright emerald green with a striking spiderweb pattern. To complement the green of the Emerald Web, he has more green, with his gorgeous Butterfly Knife | Gamma Doppler Emerald. This knife mixes the best animation from the Butterfly Knife with one of the best finishes, the Emerald finish, a finish only made better with Counter-Strike 2’s updated lighting. A Minimal Wear pair of Specialist Gloves | Emerald Web is valued at just over $2K and the Butterfly Knife | Gamma Doppler Emerald is around $18K.

His rifle, with which he found all three kills in the clutch, was his Factory New AK-47 | Wild Lotus which had four mousesports | Katowice 2014 stickers on it. The AK-47 | Wild Lotus has one of the most intricate designs in the game, with an abundance of lotus flowers atop a gorgeous subtle green base. The focal point of the design is the largest lotus flower, the orange lotus which is particularly eye-catching. The Wild Lotus in Factory New will set you back around $12K, with the mousesports | Katowice 2014 stickers valued at around $500 each, making the craft around $14K.

Want to see his entire collection? Check out his Steam account and browse at your leisure!