Head of esports at Natus Vincere, Amiran "ami" Rekhviashvili, has officially denied rumors about the possible replacement of the team's sniper Igor "w0nderful" Zhdanov. After the information about the possible banning of the Ukrainian and the transfer of Mykyta "cmtry" Samolyotov from NAVI Junior to the main team, ami decided to publicly deny these insights:
Hello everyone , reading the news just makes me smile, we were not considering changing w0nderful. Please stop spreading this false "insidesAmiran "ami" Rekhviashvili
Despite this statement, discussions around w0nderful's role in NAVI continue. The player is often criticized for his unstable performances, although his statistics show a high level in recent tournaments.
NAVI Performance in Recent Months:
The team's recent performances show a stable, but not perfect level of play. Despite the successful end of 2024, the beginning of 2025 was not so bright.
- 3-4th place - IEM Katowice 2025 ( prize: $80,000)
- 3-4th place - BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 ( prize: $22,500)
- 1st-8th place - BLASTBounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier
- 9-11th place - Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024
- 3-5th place - Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A
Despite the fact that the team consistently reaches the playoffs, NAVI lacks the final realization - the last time they won an S-Tier tournament was back in October 2024, when they became the champions of the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024.
W0nderful's statistics for the last 3 months
Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov's results remain reliable, but not outstanding:
- Average rating - 6 .3
- Kills per round - 0 .70
- Deaths per round - 0. 62
- Average damage dealt - 73.81
For the main sniper of a top 10 team in the world, these figures are average - w0nderful is not a burden for the team, but he cannot be the X-factor that will lead NAVI to the championship titles.
What's next for NAVI?
The organization continues to fight for Valve rating points before BLAST.tv Major Austin 2025.
One of the key challenges will be qualifying for the major, where NAVI has not yet received a guaranteed slot.
Currently, NAVI is ranked 8th in the Valve world rankings, but a few bad tournaments can send the team to the qualifiers for the major.
Ami's statement effectively closes the question of replacing w0nderful in the short term. However, the future results of the team may affect the decision of the management - if NAVI fails to reach the major or fails at ESL Pro League, changes may become inevitable.
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