Na`Vi distances itself from MMR boosting, will investigate its streamer

The Dota 2 community called out Natus Vincere yesterday for working with a streamer who is also a notorious MMR booster. Now the organization has made a statement on the subject.

MMR boosting, where a highly ranked player plays on a lower ranked patron’s account in exchange for money, was a hot topic in the Dota community last week. Several big personalities in the Russian-speaking scene aired their grievances on the subject, putting it at the forefront of everyone’s minds. So when the Na`Vi allegations were made, needless to say the community was not happy—especially with the organization being one of the most respected in Dota.

Na`Vi responded to the complaints in a Reddit thread titled: “Na’Vi do not advertising boosting services.” The post was written by the organization’s head of live streaming and YouTube, Oleg “prb” Bulavko, who claims they were not aware that the Na`Vi partnered streamer Ybicanoooobov actively advertises boosting services.

“First of all we’re not advertising any boosters,” he states. “We’re not promoting them. We never even made any posts on social media. Ybicanoooobov was scouted as a steamer.”

Bulavko continues by assuring that Na`Vi follows a strict sense of principles, stating that “promoting boosters is not one of them.” Commenters were, however, not having any of it and pointed out the fact that Ybicanoooobov has long been known as one of the most notorious MMR boosters on Twitch, claiming that it would’ve been impossible for the organization to not be aware of it.

Bulavko’s statement concludes with him stating that, “We will review our partnership with ybicanooobov and his relation to Na’Vi as a Partner and his streaming under our brand. We hope changes will follow shortly.”