Natus Vincere (NAVI) have continued their preparations for the release of CS2 this summer by signing three players in addition to s1mple and b1t as the organization replaced the earlier dropped trio of star rifler electroNic, Perfecto, and the youngster Andrij “npl” Kukharsjkyj.
NAVI brought in Finnish in-game leader Aleksib, Romanian star rifler Ivan “iM” Mihai, and Lithuanian player Justinas “jL” Lekavicius on Friday, and they will be playing alongside s1mple and b1t ahead of CS2’s release.
This is the first time that the Ukrainian organization will be building an international lineup as their roster has always been dominated by Ukrainians, but with the new development, s1mple and b1t will be the only Ukrainians left.
NAVI’s roster changes were inevitable after the recent struggles in the CS:GO. This has been majorly due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which also led to the exit of the team’s former Russian in-game leader Boombl4 in May 2022.
Electronic became the new In-Game Leader, but since then, NAVI only won the BLAST Premier Spring Final in June 2022 with him in charge. Other results in other tournaments were pretty much inconsistent.
NAVI tried to arrest the situation by promoting academy player npl in January 2023 only worsened the situation, and this has led them to take another route which also resulted in the exit of npl, electroNic, and Perfecto, making room for a new trio.
Meanwhile, Romanina iM burst into the limelight at the BLAST Paris Major in May, helping GamerLegion all the way to the grand finals and also ending the tournament as the second-highest-rated player. Jl was also Apeks’ best in the Paris Major as they got to the final.
Aleksib, on the other hand, hasn’t been up to such levels since leaving ENCE in 2019 and also left G2 and NiP without winning any trophies in July 2022 and June 2023, respectively.
The new NAVI roster will play their first game together in a show match against Vitality on July 8.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
