Na’Vi Make Big Changes to Their Dota 2 Team

Image credit: Natus Vincere

In preparation for the next competitive season, Natus Vincere have made some serious changes to their Dota 2 squad. Na’Vi benched three players and their coach.

Valve’s recent announcement that the next Dota 2 competitive season will be delayed to early 2021 didn’t prevent the big roster shuffle. Natus Vincere last played in the OMEGA League where after underperforming in the Immortal division they got to the 5th-6th place in the Divine one. That raised some flags that the team is out of shape. The squad has been struggling in the last couple of months and results are still lacking. Na’Vi haven’t had a good run in a Dota 2 event in some time and it came as no surprise that some changes were in order.

Four Benched From the Active Roster

Late on Friday Na’Vi announced some major changes in their roster. According to it, Crystallize, 9pasha, young G and Mag have left the active roster.

Huge changes in our Dota 2 roster and a new approach to player selection! : https://t.co/ih1BidAmIS #navination #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/YFVWeUUXOS
— NAVI (@natusvincere) September 18, 2020

Natus Vincere esports club has decided to make changes in the Dota 2 roster due to unsatisfactory results at the last tournaments.Vladyslav “Crystallize” Krystanek, Pavel “9pasha” Khvastunov, Nikita “young G” Bochko, and coach Andrey “Mag” Chipenko have left the active roster. Currently, NAVI Dota 2 consists of the two players: Illias “Illias” Ganeev and Alexander “Immersion” Hmelevskoy.Natus Vincere has already started to consider suitable candidates for the coaching position. The new NAVI Dota 2 roster will be assembled step-by-step: we will be testing those players who interest us most in tournament conditions. Those who will show their best performance during this time will be invited to Natus Vincere.

Currently, there are only two players remaining in the team’s active roster:

Illias “Illias” Ganeev
Alexander “Immersion” Hmelevskoy

Na’Vi mentioned that they’re looking at possible candidates and their selection process might be already underway. Who’ll join the team though? At this point, we can only speculate but maybe Andrey "Ghostik" Kadyk or Rinat "KingR" Abdullin are within the realm of possibilities. Both players were part of B8 but now reside as free agents. Natus Vincere will have to either find three new players really quick or play with stand-ins during ESL One Germany, an event they already received an invitation to. The tournament is set to kick off on October 5, so there’s still plenty of time to get another update from the CIS team.