Natus Vincere has made another massive change to its Dota 2 division after missing out on the second Major of the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit season.
In preparation for The International 10 regional qualifiers that will take place later this summer, Na’Vi has signed No[o]ne and brought back SoNNeikO, replacing Bogdan “Iceberg” Vasilenko and Andrii “ALWAYSWANNAFLY” Bondarenko, the organization announced today.
No[o]ne and SoNNeikO spent the second season of the DPC regional leagues playing under AS Monaco Gambit after competing with the organization at the end of season one, once the Live to Win roster was acquired, and during the ONE Esports Singapore Major.
SoNNeikO wanted to leave the team during the regular season but was convinced to stay on, according to a statement from Gambit, helping the team qualify for the WePlay Esports AniMajor. But both SoNNeikO and No[o]ne refused to travel for the Major and “expressed their desire to leave Gambit.”
“We agreed to finish this season together, No[o]ne became responsible for drafts and coordination, we managed to qualify for Major,” SoNNeikO said. “I decided not to participate in the major even though other parties were willing to continue working. I would like to apologize to my teammates and to the organization and wish them success in Kyiv.”
Because both players were only signed through the end of the second season of the DPC, they were released. Gambit has replaced the pair with Artem “Lorenof” Melnick and Stanislav “633” Glushan as stand-ins for the Major.
Na’Vi is making the move as a reset of sorts after failing to qualify for the Major, despite facing a lot of heat after replacing Viktor “GeneRaL” Nigrini with RAMZES on its roster ahead of the second season.
“Despite the replacement just before the start of this season and numerous attempts to keep the squad together, we were unable to show consistently good results,” Na’Vi COO Aleksey “xaoc” Kucherov said. “Discussions with the guys led to the conclusion that the squad in its current form won’t continue playing together and, therefore, changes are inevitable. Discussions with the guys led to the conclusion that the squad in its current form won’t continue playing together and, therefore, changes are inevitable.”
With this move, Na’Vi has reunited RAMZES, No[o]ne, and RodjER, three players who formed part of Virtus Pro’s dominant core from 2018 and 2019.
SoNNeikO is also returning to the organization after just over a year of playing with various other teams and stacks. He was benched in October 2019 and later joined Ninjas in Pyjamas before stack jumping and being signed by Gambit.
Na’Vi will now spend the next month or so preparing for the TI regional qualifiers, which will be the final chance for many teams to qualify for the biggest Dota event of the year.
