Natus Vincere have placed AWPer Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács on the bench and are replacing him with young gun Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy.
Who is GuardiaN
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács is one of the most well-known and highly regarded AWPers in CS:GO history. The 28-year-old has a long resume behind his back which includes a ton of titles, three Major final appearances, all of them losses sadly, and eight MVP medals. In fact, two of his three Major finals came while wearing Na'Vi's colors.
GuardiaN first joined the Ukrainian organization in December 2013 but a style mismatch with new Na'Vi star Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and subsequent unsatisfying results led to his dismissal from the team in July 2017. GuardiaN went on to join FaZe Clan, where he reached the third Major final of his career, coming the closest to actually winning. Four blown Championship points later the Slovakian AWPer was left empty-handed once more, and the downfall of FaZe finally resulted in his return to Natus Vincere in October 2019.
The second time around replicated his final days on the old Na'Vi roster with the same old lack of chemistry with s1mple, now regarded as a top 2 player in the world, being at the center of the team's lack of success. As the veteran and the objectively lesser player in 2020 GuardiaN was, of course, the one forced to take a back seat and the Slovak would have to replace Na'Vi with a different org for the second time in his career.
Who is Perfecto
It's near impossible to impress after even the briefest of biographies of GuardiaN, so I'm not going to try to overhype the kid. Perfecto entered the scene relatively late – at 19-years-old, and has played for only one thing up until now – Syman. He has done well individually, but we all know how individual stats can be at lower-tier CS:GO, so there's not much use in dwelling on the numbers.
At worst, Perfecto's arrival should increase team chemistry as he is a rifler, and s1mple could return to his favorite AWP that GuardiaN was occupying previously. At best, Perfecto could be electronic 2.0, and we could see Natus Vincere battle for big titles again is 2020.
Realistically, teammates and management should be patient and let the flow come to them naturally. With GuardiaN on the bench, s1mple becomes the oldest player in the starting five, and the man is just 22-years-old. Such a setup will inevitably need guidance and patience if it's to succeed. Na'Vi is one of the more patient organizations in the top tier of CS:GO, so the prospects for this lineup could turn into reality.
