If you’re not updated with the Dota 2 esports scene, Eastern European team Natus Vincere failed to qualify for the upcoming WePlay AniMajor. This in contrast to its Season 1 performance where the team finished second in the region. The rather unsatisfying result meant that changes must be made.
Sure enough, NAVI made the decision to remove Andrii "ALWAYSWANNAFLY" Bondarenko and Bogdan "Iceberg" Vasilenko from the roster. While NAVI was able to find replacements, it was pretty much at the expense of another team, which was AS Monaco Gambit.
Quick Grab
One of the players that Na’Vi signed was none other than AMS team captain Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev. In a post, it was revealed that SoNNeikO had no plans of playing a major tournament with ASM. Apparently, he didn't have high hopes for ASM to get the necessary points for a coveted direct invite to TI 10.
As if to add salt to the wounds, Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko also left the team to join NAVI. This is indeed painful for ASM who just signed No[o]ne as a full member back in April. NAVI had been considering him to be part of the team before but at the time decided to go with Iceberg. For his part, No[o]ne shared that he is happy to be part of NAVI and hopes to get strong results.
Talking about the roster change, NAVI COO Aleksey “xaoc” Kucherov shared that as a result of not being able to show good results consistently, it was inevitable that a change would arrive and the team's roster won’t be able to play together anymore. Kucherov also cited that while SoNNeikO and No[o]ne had a chance of playing at the WePlay AniMajor, they instead decided to join NAVI and start training for the TI qualifiers.
The question is there enough time for the team and new members to get the needed chemistry?
Now What ASM?
With two players leaving, it meant ASM needed to sign up two new players. This is important considering the team secured a spot to WePlay AniMajor. As a result, serving as stand-ins are Artem "Lorenof" Melnick and Stanislav "633" Glushan.
Talking about the two members who left, ASM tweeted that SoNNeikO already expresses his intention of leaving the team. The main reason was the initial poor performance of ASM in Season 2. However, ASM convinced him to finish the ongoing season. Even though ASM qualified for the Major, it seemed that SoNNeikO’s mind was already made up.
It turned out No[o]ne had the same sentiments. Because of this, ASM decided not to force the issue and released the players, whose contracts were expiring anyway.
What do you think? Was it right for SoNNeikO and No[o]ne to leave the team that qualified for the Major?
