Natus Vincere Benches 3 Players

This week was full of unexpected roster changes. Fnatic went through a massive transformation, arguably for the worse, while PSG.LGD and EHOME swapped players and morphed into versions of themselves that are unrecognizable to their fans. Now, Natus Vincere has decided to say goodbye to 3 of its players. They haven’t sold them yet to other clubs, so they’ve been announced as inactive. And we all know what that means.

Who Left

The players that left Natus Vincere’s active roster are Crystallize, 9pasha, and young G. The last of these 3 players is hardly recognizable by anyone, but the first two are very popular. Furthermore, in 9pasha’s case, his time at Virtus.pro is unforgettable. He stayed there for 3 years and won numerous Majors and many other tournaments. He also finished 5^th – 6^th at  The International in 2017 and 2018. Until he got transferred to Na’Vi in September 2019, 9pasha was definitely one of the best offlaners in the world.

Crystallize had a brief stay at Double Dimension before joining Na’Vi in 2017. He spent 3 years playing for the CIS organization and achieved a lot of decent results: 2^nd place at DreamLeague Season 10, 2^nd place at MegaFon Winter Clash, 13^th – 16^th place at The International 2019, and so on. Keep in mind that Crystallize is only 21 years old. So he still has many years in which he could potentially become one of the greatest players in CIS.

young G is a player from Belarus who spent less than 3 months playing for Na’Vi and his impact was almost inexistent. Of course, it’s hard to say if it was his fault or the team’s for the poor results, but he clearly didn’t make a big difference. From a midlaner, people expect more. Just think of Miracle- or other players who joined little-known teams and turned them into champions almost overnight, thanks to their exceptional skills. So far, young G hasn’t managed to do this.

Who Is Left

Only two players are left at the moment: Immersion and illias. Immersion is definitely good and you can see that by analyzing his time with Gambit Esports. In just 6 months during 2019, he managed to play with them in 6 Grand Finals of important events. He also finished 7^th – 8^th at EPICENTER Major 2019. He joined Na’Vi at the end of June 2020 and he’s likely to remain here for the rest of the season.

As for illias, he’s been with the team for almost a year. He’s just 18 years old, so it’s too late to say if he’s going to do well or not in the future. But I imagine he’s good at his role, since he’s part of the team in spite of having achieved very little prior to joining Na’Vi.

Who Might Join

Three obvious names come to mind: soNNeikO, RodjER, and Dendi. In spite of having a team of his own these days, Dendi is most likely unhappy with his Dota 2 career and would likely drop everything to return to his former organization. As for the other two, they’re both exceptional at their roles and don’t play for anyone at the moment.

 

Photo credit: Valve