Navi CS:GO

After Gambit sold its five players to the American cybersports organization Cloud9 at the end of April 2022, Navi CS:GO becomes the unquestioned leader in Counter Strike: Global Offensive in the CIS in the absence of its main competitor.

By the middle of 2022, NAVI approached the status of world champions after winning the Stockholm Major. The club has had a great 2021, retained a stellar roster of players, including the top rated player for 2021 according to experts and 2 majors record holders, and apparently has no intention of stopping there. The team intends to gain a dominant position in the CS GO discipline, and so far they have every reason to think positively about the future.

Origin of the name

Team Navi CS:GO was formed on December 18, 2009 in Ukraine on the money of a millionaire from Kazakhstan Murat Zhumashevich, also known in the cybersports community under the nickname «Arbalet». The name of the gamer collective fully copies the name of the tribe fighting with humans from the famous 2009 blockbuster «Avatar».

The backbone of the newly formed team was made up of gamers who had previously played in the recently disbanded KerchNET. Navi's first squad became stellar, feared by opponents. The reasons for fear were actually good reasons. Five gamers consisting of Zeus (Daniel Teslenko), markeloff (Egor Markelov), ceh9 (Arseniy Trinozhenko), Edward (Ivan Sukharev) and starix (Sergey Ishchuk) crushed everyone on their way, winning 9 tournaments in 2010.

On the wave of popularity of the club HLTV.org held a contest in 2010, where they proposed to decipher the abbreviation NAVI. This is how the second name of the club appeared - Natus Vincere (translated from Latin «Born to win»). The winner of the contest Bruno Estevens came up with this version of the acronym because he was impressed by the iron discipline of the players and their all-destroying power.

Players

Today's Navi CS:GO squad is already the eleventh. It was finally formed in 2021, when the management decided that flamie (Egor Vasiliev) would leave the club, and his place would be taken permanently by B1T (Valery Vakhovsky).

Thus, the five players representing Navi now look like this:

• s1mple (Alexander Kostylev). One of the best Counter Strike gamers in history, number one in the world in 2018 and 2021, which, by the way, no one from the CIS has ever managed to do. 

• Boombl4 (Kirill Mikhailov) in Navi has been acting as an in-game leader since 2019. Kirill's transfer to Navi from Winstrike made him the most expensive Russian cyber athlete at the moment.

• electronic (Denis Sharipov) is famous for his responsible approach to Navi CS:GO matches and his ability to combine cyber sports with the life of a model family man.

• B1T (Valery Vakhovskiy) – is a headshot specialist, a record holder of majors for this indicator.

• Perfecto (Ilya Zalutsky) – one of the best rifflers in CS:GO. Set a Major tournament record for KAST, i.e. Ilya has the best percentage of rounds in which he simultaneously made a kill, assist, survived or was exchanged by a teammate.

Management

I think it is necessary to say a few words about the people who are not paid close attention to as players, but who provide the Navi CS:GO squad with the opportunity to comfortably prepare for competitions, organize the solution of everyday issues, tell them what to do in difficult situations.

Firstly, it is the founder and general manager of the club until 2017. Alexander «ZeroGravity» Kokhanovsky. He played KC 1.6 from 1999 to 2005, was one of the first professional cybersports players, but did not achieve great success as a gamer. His organizational talent was evident in running Navi as a cyber sports organization. It was Kohanovskiy who started to promote players and matches of Navi CS:GO in the media, began to look for sponsors and build the structure of the club.

Secondly, coach Andrei «B1ad3» Gorodensky. Perhaps Andrew – is the ideal coach for a Navi team that adheres not just to a winning philosophy, but considers itself born to win. His ambitions are such that he plans to create a Navi era in CS:GO similar to the dominance of the Spanish national soccer team in the late 2000s or the basketball team «Chicago Bulls» with Michael Jordan in the 1990s

Where Navi plays in 2022

Professional cyber sports teams in Counter Strike tend to have very busy schedules. At least 1 major tournament per month is held, so gamers have only 1-2 weeks of rest.

Navi CS:GO game schedule is no exception. Natus Vincere has already participated in four tournaments in 2022:

• BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022, held online from January 28 to February 7.

• IEM Katowice 2022. This major LAN competition ran from February 15 through February 28.

• ESL Pro League 15 – from March 9 to April 11, 2022.

• PGL Major Antwerp European RMR A – from April 17 to April 21.

As of May 2022, the Navi CS:GO schedule is PGL Major Antwerp – the first major of the year. The team has passed the selection and will perform at the prestigious tournament right from the Legends stage, from where with a successful game goes to the playoffs, where the main struggle for 1st place and an impressive prize of 500 thousand dollars will unfold.

On what cyber competitions Natus Vincere will perform next, it is still unknown. Apparently, management and players are still fully focused on the Antwerp Major, where they intend to defend the championship title won in Stockholm in 2021.

Interesting Facts

There are several curious

facts

First fact. The history of Navi began on December 18, 2009. As it was said earlier, the game team borrowed the name of the tribe fighting against the invasion of humans from the movie «Avatar». At the same time «Avatar» was released in official rental in Ukraine on December 17, 2009. So some of the future Navi members were very impressed by James Cameron's masterpiece.

The second fact. Natus Vincere – club, which was the first in the history of Counter Strike to win three major tournaments within one year. This happened in 2010, when Navi took first place at the 2010 World Cyber Games, Electronic Sports World Cup, and Intel Extreme Masters.

Third fact. Between 2010 and 2021, the club only won $7,734, ,259.34 in prize money.

Fourth fact. After a mega-successful 2010, the team fell into a prolonged 11-year drought. Only in Stockholm in 2021 could Navi win the coveted championship title again.

Fifth fact. In 2020, Navi CS:GO matches attracted the most viewer interest worldwide (60 million hours of viewing).