The season of rumors about new NAVI CS:GO lineup is officially over, and as it often happens, the team's lineup was revealed even before the official announcement. What to expect from the team, why the Ukrainian multigaming made the right decision, and what are the risks - in our article.
The new roster of Natus Vincere for the second season of 2023:
After Boombl4 left, Natus Vincere was in agony for a long time - first temporarily playing with sdy, and then experimenting with a player from the academy. In both cases, the team never reached the previous results. With the release of CS2 on the horizon, NAVI decided on a complete reboot of the team, which will definitely have significant consequences.
Having a fully Ukrainian roster is not an option for NAVI
No matter how much Ukrainian fans of "Born to Win" would want it, in Ukraine, the CS:GO hype has been centered around s1mple for the past five years. Therefore, for most young players, he becomes an idol to look up to. Before him, there was markeloff, which is essentially the same. Because of this, the majority of successful and promising players from Ukraine themselves play with the AWP and are not suitable for the NAVI team. We immediately recall Woro2k, r1nkle, w0nderful, and others.
At the same time, in other positions, young talents simply have not grown to the caliber of Natus Vincere yet. Previously, the organization could seek talents in the east - in Russia, Belarus, or even Kazakhstan. But due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine since February 24, 2022, this is impossible.
Therefore, NAVI had only one right path - to rebuild the team in the English language and search for players from abroad, which they did.
This is definitely a risky step from the club, with the goal of winning the first Major in the history of CS2.
But are NAVI sure they didn't make a mistake with the reshuffles?
We turned to James Banks, a host of esports events and a long-time fan of the yellow-black team, for his opinion on the future of Natus Vincere:
This is a big risk for NAVI and a huge change, but if they can hold on for a few months, working together and creating team chemistry, it can bring them tremendous success.
iM - the new "fragger" in Natus Vincere
Let's start with the star player of GamerLegion, Ivan "iM" Mihai. He began his professional career in 2018, but he only achieved real success in 2021 when he joined the new organization, GamerLegion.
It all started with a victory at the ESEA Cash Cup: Europe - Spring 2021 #5 and ended with a second-place finish at the latest CS:GO Major - BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, where they lost to Team Vitality.
It was Ivan who shone as the star of the team at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, standing out not only among his teammates but also among everyone else. If they had won the final, he could have easily received the MVP award. He was only surpassed by the tournament MVP - ZywOo.
iM fits perfectly into the team as a strong rifler. In the last 3 months alone, he has achieved 702 kills with assault rifles out of a total of 893 kills.
jL - a worthy replacement for Perfecto in the team
23-year-old Latvian player, Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, will be the new member of the team. He started his professional career in 2020 with regional online tournaments and in 2023, together with Apeks, he secured a 3-4th place at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.
jL is a great fit for Natus Vincere due to his aggressive playstyle, and he can cover almost all positions that his predecessor, Perfecto, held. When comparing these two players, Natus Vincere takes a significant step forward statistically.
Interestingly, Justinas "jL" Lekavicius has openly criticized Russia for its aggression against Ukraine multiple times on his Twitter account. The Ukrainian organization's fanbase will only be pleased with the addition of such a player who aligns with their stance.
It's actually fking crazy that people still address ruzzia's aggresion towards Ukraine as "POLITICS". Wdym politics, innocent people are dying every day, how dare you even compare it to political views
— Apeks x jL (@jLcsgo_) May 9, 2023
James Banks on jL's future in NAVI:
As for jL, he is a player who can adapt and grow. kuben believed in him for a long time and undoubtedly saw his potential. He will have to work hard to achieve what NAVI wants.
But why is jL specifically considered a replacement for Perfecto? It's simple, throughout his career, even though not extensive, Justinas has found himself in clutch situations one-on-one a total of 188 times, and he emerged as the winner in 129 of those situations!
Aleksib - the future captain of the NAVI team
On paper, his resume looks impressive, but his career peak came with ENCE. Ironically, their run began with the StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 6 in Kyiv and reached its climax in the grand final of the Intel Extreme Masters XIII - Katowice Major 2019. After that, the Finns earned a series of silver finishes and won the BLAST Pro Series: Madrid 2019, defeating the "mighty" Astralis in the final.
However, the players soon started to lose synergy. Already at the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, the team was a mere shadow of its former strength, and right after the tournament, AleksiB was benched.
And now, after 4 years, that period still remains the highlight of Aleksi Virolainen's career.
Aleksib assembled the first OG roster, but they didn't achieve the desired results. Perhaps the problem was not with the captain, but with the players themselves? In G2, the Finn played alongside some of the best players in the world, but Aleksib couldn't find the right approach with them, and their best achievement was a second-place finish at the Intel Extreme Masters XVI - Katowice.
After G2, there were Ninjas in Pyjamas, but any efforts made by the Swedish organization fell victim to constant roster experiments. The final straw was the unsatisfactory performance of the team at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, where they placed 9-11th. While it wouldn't be considered a complete failure, it was not enough for a caliber organization like NiP.
Undoubtedly, Aleksib is talented. His qualities and achievements could be discussed at length, but ultimately, there is only one question that matters: Can Aleksib work within B1ad3's system?
By observing Aleksib's teams, it's easy to notice that he has a different playstyle compared to NAVI's coach.
B1ad3 likes swings, aggressive early plays, fast-paced action, and well-practiced execution. On the other hand, Aleksib plays a more calm and default style of CS, which largely relies on improvisation by the players.
Here's what James Banks thinks about it:
For the new players, starting with Aleksib as the IGL, it's an improvement in the role of the IGL, but not at the level of a player like electronic. electronic was a reliable fragger and IGL. However, iM can compensate for that. He was an absolute monster for GamerLegion, and now he will have a chance to continue showcasing his skills in top-tier tournaments with NAVI since NAVI is a partner team.
What will the NAVI lineup look like on paper?
On one hand, it looks pretty good. The team still has the Ukrainian terminator Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovsky and the best AWPer in the world, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev. Additionally, new individually strong players are being added, and along with them comes the experienced captain, Aleksib.
But not everything is smooth, even on paper. Previously, Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy played the role of the anchor for long sites. Now someone will have to fill that position.
If we continue to analyze the map Mirage, the most challenging position on the map is the connector. It is the player in connector who can change the course of the round. But who will play there?
Previously, this position was filled by either electronic or b1t. But now with the addition of jL and iM to the team, who play either in the ticket booth or short, it suggests that someone will have to say goodbye to their designated area of responsibility and learn something new.
The position changes on different maps indicate that the team won't immediately start showing worthy results because everyone still needs to develop synergy and find suitable roles on the maps.
James perfectly summed up everything you mentioned:
This player movement, which will attract attention and confuse people, can lead to incredible results if they work hard on it, let's say, for 6 months (usually I say 3 months). The relationship between Aleksib and B1ad3 will be one of the most crucial factors here.
Perhaps Aleksib should remember his time at ENCE, where he worked alongside coach Twista. The latter had a similar approach to the game as B1ad3, and by developing a similar style of interaction in NAVI, the coach and captain will achieve success.
The language barrier is the main challenge for the new team
Position changes on the map are just one future problem for Natus Vincere. After all, they will have to communicate solely in English. For the newly arrived players, this won't be something new, as they all come from international teams.
For s1mple, it's clearly not a sentence either, as he has previously played for Team Liquid, where he comfortably communicated in English. Recently, Alexander has been improving his foreign language skills while playing, which we could notice during his FPL streams or interviews.
However, for Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovsky, it is a real threat. Yes, the player has also given interviews in English, and as he himself stated, he understands everything, but sometimes he lacks the vocabulary to express everything he thinks.
James Banks also expressed his thoughts on this matter:
I think, especially for B1t, it may require a little more time to adapt. S1mple will continue to do what he does best, and if he can regain his form as the best player in the world, I believe it depends on his faith in the team around him and the team's execution of the game plan, playing in their roles, so that he can focus on his game.
In the end, it can be said that with the departure of electronic, who didn't know English, the team has discovered new opportunities in the reshuffles. English won't be a problem for the new players, but s1mple and b1t will have to adjust from communicating in Russian to using English, which may also take some time.
The main risk for NAVI is not the new players, but their star
If you haven't noticed yet, s1mple in 2023 is not the same as s1mple in 2022, and certainly not the same as Kostylev in 2021. In the last major tournament for NAVI in the first season, the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, his rating was 6.1, which is similar to the rating of the support player "B," Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy.
Referring to statistics, s1mple's average rating over the past 3.5 years has changed as follows:
- 2020 - 7.0
- 2021 - 7.3
- 2022 - 6.5
Over the past three months of 2023, the player's rating has reached a record low of 6.4. But NAVI fans have nothing to worry about. Not yet, at least. What may be bad news for s1mple is actually very good news for many other players. Oleksandr Kostyliev has been consistently delivering an outstanding level of play for over six years. The only problem is that sooner or later, even he will become mortal. The question is, when? How much more time will NAVI have with s1mple in his prime?
The main risk for NAVI is not signing new players or having a questionable captain, nor is it the transition to the English language. It is the loss of time with s1mple while he is still the best in the world.
The war in Ukraine has undoubtedly taken its toll on the legendary NAVI sniper, but with the release of CS2, we hope that he will find new motivation, and the change of environment within the team will benefit him.
To NAVI fans: Hold on. It can confidently be said that the guys need time to adapt to each other, to the new language of communication, to build synergy, and much more. But if they go through these trials together, who knows, maybe a new "NAVI Era" awaits us, but this time in Counter-Strike 2.
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