The Ukrainian esports organization Natus Vincere, known worldwide, also has a Valorant roster that competes in the highest division of VCT EMEA. However, recently, the team's performance has significantly declined, and during the current season, they haven't secured any victories or podium finishes at major international events. Today, we've prepared an article where we analyze NAVI's performance during VCT 2024 and speculate on the reasons for these prior results.
NAVI's history in Valorant
To begin, let's recall the journey of Natus Vincere on the Valorant esports scene since its inception. We won't go into details but will briefly summarize the past years of the Ukrainian organization in Valorant and its key results.
2021 - Creation of the Valorant roster
The organization first announced its Valorant roster in June 2021. It included 3 Belarusian and 2 Russian players, so we won't delve into details about them. The Valorant esports scene was still developing at that time, so there were no significant tournaments that impacted the global ranking of teams. Nevertheless, the team participated in both international and local events and began earning its first prize money.
Tournament | Results | Prize |
VCT 2021: EMEA Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs | 9-12 | $1,754 |
Meta Open Valorant | 2 | $500 |
Red Bull Home Ground #2 | 9-12 | $1,156 |
Finest Invitational | 2 | $1,500 |
2022 - Invitation to VCT partner league
The following season was quite successful for the team, and although NAVI didn't take podium finishes, the roster still earned tens of thousands of dollars. But the main news came after the conclusion of VCT 2022. In early autumn, specifically on September 21, it was announced that Natus Vincere would join Riot Games' partner program and, along with 29 other teams, secured a slot in the VCT league for four years. After this, the organization introduced an updated Valorant roster with a creative video, which you can watch below.
2023 - The most successful season for NAVI
The next season began with a major international event, VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, featuring 32 teams. Despite this, the roster showed excellent results and finished the tournament in 3-4th place. While fans believed this marked the beginning of NAVI's era in Valorant, expectations were not met. Afterward, the team failed to win any tournaments during the season, consistently being eliminated at the last or second-to-last places at international events.
Tournament | Results | Prize |
VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo | 3-4 | $40,000 |
VCT 2023: EMEA League | 4 | $25,000 |
VCT 2023: Masters Tokyo | 11-12 | $15,000 |
VALORANT Champions 2023 | 9-12 | $30,000 |
2024 - A disastrous season and massive changes
After the conclusion of VCT 2023, before the start of the next season, there was only one change in NAVI's main roster. Mehmet "cNed" İpek left the team, and the well-known Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks joined in his place. The latter had long been familiar with captain ANGE1, as they had previously played together in FunPlus Phoenix. However, despite the addition of such a prominent player, the roster not only failed to surpass last year's results but also had one of its worst seasons ever. NAVI finished 3-4th at VCT 2024: EMEA Kickoff, which resulted in them missing Masters Madrid, 5-6th at VCT 2024: EMEA Stage 1, which also caused them to miss Masters Shanghai. By the end of the season, the roster once again faltered at VCT 2024: EMEA Stage 2, finishing 5-6th and failing to qualify for the world championship. As a result, the team played only 15 matches throughout 2024 and earned $10,000, which is a rather poor result.
The beginning of major changes
After the conclusion of VCT 2024, NAVI's head of esports, Amiran “ami” Rekhviashvili, announced on his official social media that major changes were coming to the team. He stated that the roster would start searching for new players and coaches, and anyone interested could apply.
Hello everyone,
— ami 💛💙 (@NAVIami_R) July 23, 2024
For the second year in a row, our Valorant roster results have been much lower than expected. To improve this, we will start rebuilding the roster immediately. If you feel you are the right fit to bring NAVI back to the top (we welcome both coaching staff and…
- Kyrylo "ANGE1" Karasov
- Andrei "Shaohttps://bo3.gg/valorant/players/shao" Kiprskii
- Oliwer "LATEKS" Fahlander (coach)
Reasons for failure in the current season
Now that you know how the roster performed this season, it's time to analyze and hypothesize why the Ukrainian team showed such mediocre results. Keep in mind that this is the editorial team's subjective opinion, which may not align with yours.
Roster stagnation
The first and main reason, in our opinion, is that the roster has remained almost unchanged for the past two and a half years, relying heavily on four core players. The core of the team—ANGE1, Shao, SUYGETSU, and Zyppan—joined the roster at the end of 2022. And although the players had a decent season in 2023, there wasn't much progress. As a result, the team was completely unprepared for 2024, where teams like Team Heretics and FUT Esports, once underdogs, presented refreshed rosters that easily outperformed NAVI.
Poor communication with ardiis
Another possible reason is that the main roster couldn't get along with the new player. Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks is quite eccentric and has previously made controversial statements about Chinese players and the North American Valorant region. Out of the four NAVI members, only ANGE1 had prior experience working with the Latvian player, which may explain why the other team members couldn't click with him.
Tilt and regular losses to Team Heretics
The last reason that comes to mind is the negative emotions the players faced during defeats. As we mentioned earlier, Team Heretics burst into 2024 with a refreshed roster, dominating the EMEA region and the international scene overall. They were the reason NAVI twice missed international tournaments. First, in the semifinals of VCT 2024: EMEA Kickoff, Team Heretics defeated NAVI 2-0, eliminating them from the tournament and denying them entry to Masters Madrid. Later, at VCT 2024: EMEA Stage 1, Team Heretics once again beat Natus Vincere 2-0, knocking them out of the tournament and preventing the team from advancing to the second Masters Shanghai. Although emotions have no place in competitive esports, consistent losses to the same opponents can certainly affect the team's morale going into new matches and events, possibly even causing fear.
What’s next for NAVI
It's clear that the organization does not plan to leave Valorant, at least for the next two years while they have a slot in the VCT partner league. As mentioned above, the team is currently undergoing a rebuild during the offseason, and three players and an analyst have already left. So far, there's only one rumored player who might join NAVI in the future—Turkish player Emirhan "hiro" Kat, who played as a substitute for Europe's top team Fnatic during the current season. You can read more about his possible addition to NAVI in our article.
Additionally, it remains unclear who will strengthen the team before the upcoming season, but our editorial team has its own suggestions. The first option is Dragan "ellement" Milanović. Although the player competes in the tier-2 Challengers league, the team needs "new blood." Moreover, this year he took 3rd place at Ascension in the European region and was close to reaching the VCT division. The second possible option is Martin “Magnum” Peňkov, who recently left Karmine Corp. The player has experience competing on the tier-1 stage and, moreover, represents the EMEA region, which would be an advantage for the team. It should be noted that the Valorant off-season is currently underway, with many small events taking place. Perhaps at one of them, NAVI will reveal some of its future players.
Continue following our portal to stay updated on future roster changes in Natus Vincere and other shifts on the Valorant esports scene.
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