Flamie becomes a free agent

Egor “⁠flamie⁠” Vasilyev is free to explore other options since he’s no longer under contract with Natus Vincere, the Ukrainian organization announced today. The Russian CS:GO rifler, though, will play for Na’Vi Junior in WePlay Academy League season two to regain his individual form and share his experience with youngsters.

He lost some time in the active lineup starting in December 2020 when the organization promoted Valeriy “⁠B1T” Vakhovskiy from Na’Vi Junior and the team rotated both players depending on the map. In April 2021, however, the young blood became Na’Vi’s official fifth ahead of the first Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament after Valve said it would punish teams who subbed out players in these events. With flamie on the bench and B1T in the server, Na’Vi became the best team in the world, winning four out of six tournaments, plus the Intel Grand Slam season three after they secured the ESL Pro League season 14 title.

Flamie joined Na’Vi in April 2015 after a brief period as a stand-in and took part in many of Na’Vi’s iterations, helping the team win notable tournaments such as IEM Katowice in 2020, ESL One Cologne in 2018, and ESL One New York in 2016.

“We have made this decision based on the team’s successful results recently and the specifics of the RMR system, which effectively doesn’t allow a sixth player in the roster anymore,” Na’Vi’s COO Aleksey “xaoc” Kucherov said in an official statement. “Taking these factors into consideration, as well as Egor’s contribution to the development of the discipline and the club in general, we have decided to give flamie the status of a free agent, so he doesn’t come across possible restrictions for his further development. Despite the fact that Egor is a NAVI veteran, he is young, motivated, experienced, and has a fantastic aim. These characteristics are definitely demanded in ambitious teams.”

The WePlay Academy League season two still doesn’t have a start date yet. But for now, Na’Vi fans can celebrate some of flamie’s best moments until he plays what could be his last tournament under the Ukrainian organization’s banner.