Highlight Skin Showcase: jL 4K with the R8 Revolver

To much surprise, 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 won 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. 

At the BLAST Premier Fall Groups against BIG, jL, fitting of his character decided to purchase the R8 Revolver on a second round force buy. The R8 Revolver is a memed weapon in the community, being a famously terrible choice, especially compared to the Desert Eagle. But, with the R8 Revolver in hand, the Lithuanian managed to rip the German roster to pieces, finding four kills on the B bombsite of Dust2. 

So, without any more introduction, let’s have a look at the skins he was using when he pulled off such a bizarre and spectacular play.

Knife + Glove combo -

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. The PGL Major MVP sports a pair of Sport Gloves | Hedge Maze in Field Tested condition which feature areas of green and white making the gloves particularly eye-catching. To complement his gloves he has one of the most desirable knives in the game, the Butterfly Knife | Gamma Doppler Emerald. All Doppler finishes but especially the Gems like the Emerald are sought after due to their gorgeous appearance, this is due to the way light beams off them, amplified with the new lighting effects added to CS2.

This combination will set you back around $20K, with the knife being worth around $16K due to its immense rarity and the gloves costing just under $4K.

Now for the main event, the R8 Revolver skin. To dispatch BIG, jL used his R8 Revolver | Fade which has five jL (Holo) | Paris 2023 stickers on it. Using this skin on this weapon to get four kills at the highest level of competition is the definition of flamboyant, with jL honestly just showboating. Since the play, jL has renamed his R8 Revolver skin “NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN”, which is befitting of such a play and really demonstrates jL’s character.

With the gun not being so popular, (although it might be now) the R8 Revolver | Fade costs around $20, with the jL (Holo) | Paris 2023 stickers costing around 50 cents each. Therefore, for very little cost, you too can represent Western culture and try to emulate jL’s cowboy-esque highlight.