Can Na’Vi’s new CS:GO roster succeed?

After months of disappointing results, Natus Vincere’s management has finally snapped. The team’s CS:GO roster has been changed like never before.

In the past, we used to see Na’Vi making one roster change at a time, testing the new player thoroughly, and working diligently to integrate each new piece into the puzzle in a way that leads to improved results.

But now we’ve seen three big moves made instantly. One should wonder whether the moves were purely related to Na’Vi’s performance or whether there was an additional reason that guided the team to make them all at once.

What we do know for sure is that both Denis “electroNic” Sharipov and Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy are Russians. In the case of Andrij “npl” Kukharsjkyj, we understand that he’s from Ukraine. But he’s still very young and Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev probably complained that he’s not good enough for the team.

Even though, it was he who stated that he regards him as a formidable player and more advanced in his understanding of the game than other Na’Vi players at the time when they joined the main roster.

Time for some changes pic.twitter.com/XdsQogspHq

— NAVI (@natusvincere) June 30, 2023

The roster changes

Na’Vi replacements for the three players that were benched are a bit surprising, but some of them have definitely proved their already skills:

• Ivan “iM” Mihai
• Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen
• Justinas “jL” Lekavicius

In the case of iM, we’ve already seen him hard-carrying his former team, GamerLegion to the Grand Final of a CS:GO Major. His stats were always off-the-charts and that must have impressed s1mple. He rarely sees someone who can do what he does and it was probably not difficult to sign iM, given GamerLegion’s need for money.

Aleksib is an IGL who’s been around for many years. He keeps moving from team to team but it’s hard to put the blame on him for the failures. Judging by his overall career results, he’s clearly highly competent at what he does.

His former team, Ninjas in Pyjamas, lost their patience a bit too early. They finished 9^th-11^th at BLAST.tv Paris Major, which wasn’t a bad result all things considered. There was plenty of room for improvement and all that was needed was 3-6 more months. But nobody was willing to give Aleksib that much time, so he was removed.

The only unknown player here is jL. Nobody knows how good he is but he comes from Apeks, a team that finished 3^rd-4^th at the Paris Major. So he should be fine.

Header: Natus Vincere