Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere (Latin for "born to win"), abbreviated NAVI (formerly Na`Vi), is an esports organization based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as "", "Dota 2", "FIFA", "World of Tanks", "Paladins", "", "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", "Apex Legends", "Rainbow Six Siege, , Fortnite, and VALORANT". Na'Vi's "Counter-Strike" team was the first in history to win three premier tournaments—Intel Extreme Masters, Electronic Sports World Cup, and World Cyber Games 2010—in one calendar year. Their "Dota 2" squad won The International 2011, becoming the most successful esports organization at  the time. On March 1, 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Natus Vincere cut ties with their holding company, Russian esports conglomerate ESForce, saying that the company "publicly denies the horror that is now happening in Ukraine." Section::::"Counter-Strike" division. History. 2009: Formation. In October 2009, Murat "Arbalet" Zhumashevich declared the creation of an esports organization during the Intel Extreme Masters tournament being held in Dubai. He was to provide the finances required to run the organization and also provide a place for players to train in, while starix, a Counter-Strike professional player, took up the duty of  creating a lineup for the organization. On 17 December 2009, Natus Vincere was formed, based around their Counter-Strike team, which consisted of players Edward, markeloff, starix, ceh9 and Zeus, with ZeroGravity taking the position of manager. The abbreviation Na'Vi was inspired by the film Avatar, with its full form being decided by the fans through a competition. 2010: Multiple championships. After a poor performance at the Arbalet Cup CIS 2010 (4th place), Markeloff, the team's top player, decided to skip the next big tournament, ASUS Winter 2010, so that the team could prepare for the Arbalet Cup and  the Ukrainian qualifications for the ESWC. In the middle of May 2010, Na'Vi took 2nd place in the prestigious Arbalet Cup Europe 2010 in Stockholm, losing to Fnatic in the finals and earning $10,000 in prize money. Na'Vi finally gained victory at ESWC Ukraine. In the final part of the ESWC, the team hit the highest seeding, along with SK Gaming, Fnatic, and mTw.dk. On 4 July 2010, Natus Vincere achieved the highest accolade in the history of Ukrainian e-Sports, winning the ESWC (which previously could not be reached by any CIS team), defeating SK Gaming in the  finals: 16:5 (de_train) and 16:4 (de_inferno). During the tournament Na'Vi passed through the group stage thanks to fortune, but outplayed Fnatic and mTw.dk in the playoffs. After being victorious in the world championship, Natus Vincere announced their participation in 2 more tournaments—Arbalet Cup Dallas and GameGune 2010 (Bilbao). On 18 July 2010, Na'Vi won Arbalet Cup Dallas beating Mousesports in the final match: 19:15 (de_dust2), 16:12 (de_inferno). After receiving $25,000, Na'Vi took the first place in quantity of prize money earned by European teams that year. Na'Vi took 3rd place in GameGune 2010 and Intel Extreme Masters Shanghai . On 15 August, Na'Vi won the Ukrainian qualifications for the 2010 World Cyber Games and received a paid voucher to the finals in Los Angeles from 30 September to 3 October 2010. The next tournament for Na'Vi was ASUS Summer 2010, to which the team received a direct invitation. This tournament became first in the ASUS Open series, which was held at Kyiv gaming center "Kyiv CyberSport Arena". In the semi-finals Na'Vi lost to Kazakh team k23 and as a result took the 3rd place. On 4 October 2010 Natus Vincere became the World Cyber Games world champions by  defeating Danish team mTw.dk in the finals. This victory made Na'Vi the first team in the world which had managed to hold the three most prestigious championship titles at once (IEM, ESWC, WCG). At the end of October 2010, ESL TV commentator Bakr "KinGSaicx" Fadl proclaimed that SK Gaming was going to invite the Ukrainian team to take place of its Swedish squad, but the manager of Natus Vincere declined this information. In early November 2010 Natus Vincere took part in the World e-Sports Masters tournament (WEM 2010), which annually gathers the best teams from all over the world  in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Among the eight participants of the tournament, Na’Vi took 4th place as well as $7,500. From the 25th to the 27 November 2010 in the Swedish city of Jönköping the largest LAN party in the world took place—DreamHack Winter 2010. To go to this tournament, Natus Vincere had to skip a major Russian tournament, ASUS Autumn 2010, since it was coinciding with DreamHack's dates. After finishing the group stage Na'Vi consistently outplayed teams puta, Fnatic, Frag Executors, and mTw.dk in the finals, winning the tournament. During the four playoff matches the  Ukrainians lost only one time to Fnatic on the new map—de_mirage. "Starix" (Serhiy Ischuk) received the tournament's MVP award. After winning DreamHack Winter 2010, the team established a new record: winning $220,000 in one year. The previous record belonged to Swedish team Fnatic, who earned $189,000 in 2009 (before that, the record was held by Swedish team SK Gaming with earnings of $183,000 in 2003). In 2010, popular website HLTV.org had made rankings for the 20 best "Counter-Strike" players. Yegor "markeloff" Markelov was 1st place, Sergey "Starix" Ischuk 4th, Ioann "Edward" Sukharev 5th, and  the captain of Na'Vi, Daniil "Zeus" Teslenko had 19th place, as well as "The best captain of the year". 2011. On 5 March 2011 Na'Vi defended their position in Hannover as the champions of the Intel Extreme Masters and earned $35,000. They defeated Polish team Frag Executors in the finals: 16:12 (de_train) and 16:10 (de_dust2). $4,550 of the prize money was deducted (13% of the total) as a penalty for breaking the rules. 2015. Na'Vi reached the finals of DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 where they were beat 0-2 by Team EnVyUs. Na'Vi won Intel Extreme Masters  Season X - San Jose after beating Team SoloMid (Now Astralis) in the grand finals 2–0. 2016. Na'Vi started off the year by winning DreamHack Leipzig 2016 2–0 over Luminosity Gaming (Now MiBR) on 22 January. Na'Vi placed 3rd-4th at the Intel Extreme Masters Season X – World Championship. On 3 April, Na'Vi placed second at MLG Columbus 2016, losing 0–2 to Luminosity in the finals. Shortly after on 17 April the team placed second at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016. Na'Vi got second at the StarLadder i-League Invitational #1 after losing to Virtus.pro in the finals on 22 May. Na'Vi placed  5-8th at ESL One Cologne 2016. On 29 July, the team placed 3rd-4th at ELeague Season 1. On 4 August, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev replaced Daniil "Zeus" Teslenko on the active roster. On 2 September, Na'Vi became the champions of , defeating Virtus.pro in the finals. 2017. On 10 March, team coach starix stepped down from his role in the team. He is replaced by team analyst Andrey "Andi" Prokhorov. On 28 July, Denis "Seized" Kostin and Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács stepped down from Natus Vincere. On 9 August, Mykhailo "Kane" Blagin was brought in and Seized and Zeus returned. On 6  November, Na'Vi brought in Denis "Electronic" Sharipov in place of Seized who stepped down from the roster. 2018. On 8 July, Na'Vi ended up winning ESL One Cologne 2018 over BIG 3-1 for its first Intel Grand Slam win. 2019. On 9 September, Na'Vi announced that Zeus would retire after BLAST Pro Series Moscow 2019. He retired on 14 September. On 20 September, Na'Vi acquired GuardiaN from FaZe Clan and Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy joined as a coach. Guardian later stepped down and was replaced by Perfecto. 2021. On 12 September, Na'Vi closed out 3rd season of the Intel Grand  Slam after winning IEM Katowice 2020, IEM Cologne 2021, DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 and ESL Pro League Season 14. On 7 November they won their first , PGL Stockholm 2021, defeating G2 Esports 2–0. Team Na'Vi gained 1st places at BLAST Premier World Final 2021 and BLAST Premier Fall Final 2021. Na'Vi also cooperated with Hator, producer of gamers oriented computer equipment, in coorganizing esport events in 22 cities of Ukraine. Section::::"Dota" division. History. In October 2010, the creation of a "Defence of the Ancients" (DotA) squad was announced, which included the best Ukrainian players. Initially the team was composed of  Aleksandr "XBOCT" Dashkevych, Artur "Goblak" Kostenko, Bogdan "Axypa" Boychuk, Oleksandr "Deff" Stepaniuc, and Andriy "Mag~" Chipenko. However, in December 2010, Mag~ and Deff- left the team. The empty slots on the team were filled by Ukrainian players from "DTS.Chatrix"—Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, and Ivan "Artstyle" Antonov, who became the captain of this new squad. A roster change on 17 June 2011 resulted in the replacements of Goblak and Axypa with Clement "Puppey" Ivanov and Dmitriy "LighTofHeaveN" Kupriyanov. In August 2011, "Na'Vi" was invited to the first "Dota 2" tournament at GamesCom, Cologne, Germany. The event named "The International" featured 16 of  the top teams from all over the world with an impressive amount of prize money—$1,600,000. Na'Vi was the ultimate winner, beating Chinese team EHOME 3–1 in the grand finals and winning a cash prize of $1,000,000. On 13 October 2011, shortly after their victory, Artstyle left the team. TXBOCThe captain position was taken up by Puppey, and Sergey "ARS-ART" Revin, from Russian team "Moscow Five", took the fifth slot on the roster. 2012 was a very successful season for "Na'Vi" as they won multiple tournaments throughout the year, including four consecutive seasons of Star Ladder's Star Series , the premier tournament for the CIS region. At The International 2012, "Na'Vi" attempted to defend their title where they ultimately placed 2nd, losing to the Chinese team "Invictus Gaming" 1–3 in the grand finals. At the end of February 2013, ARS-ART was replaced by Gleb "Funn1k" Lipatnikov from Russian squad "Team Empire". Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi from "Mousesports" also joined the team, while LighTofHeaveN went inactive. In April 2013, after his contract expired, LighTofHeaveN officially left for "Team Empire". In June 2013, Na'Vi announced an all female squad. The first half of 2013 was difficult for Na'Vi as they  struggled to gain a footing in major tournaments with their new lineup. Their first major tournament win was against "RoX.KIS" at the first season of the ESL Major Series One in April. In July, Na'Vi competed against 9 of the best Eastern teams at the Alienware Cup. They defeated "LGD Gaming.cn" 3–2 in the grand finals, and became one of the few Western teams to win a major Chinese tournament. In August 2013, Na'Vi once again reached the Grand Finals of The International 2013, but they lost 2–3 in a very close fifth game against the Swedish team "Alliance". In  July 2014, Na'Vi was knocked out in the lower bracket knockout phase of The International by Cloud9, placing at 7/8th place and earning $519,208. This would be the first time Na'Vi would not make it to the Grand Finals of The International. Many fans attributed this to a lack of adaptation and even went as far to mark it as an end of an era. Soon after this, Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi and Clement "Puppey" Ivanov left the team. On 13 February 2015, Gleb "Funn1k" Lipatnikov retired from the Na'Vi Dota 2 team. On 4 March 2015, DkPhobos joined  Na'Vi, replacing Funn1k. On 9 March 2015, DkPhobos left Na'Vi to rejoin ASUS.Polar. On 25 March 2015, Goblak left Na'Vi with SoNNeikO taking his spot. On 5 April 2015, Na'Vi announced the return of Funn1k and ArtStyle with VANSKOR moving to reserve after battling a long-term illness. On 27 August 2015, Na'Vi announced the departure of captain Ivan "Artstyle" Antonov following a disappointing finish at The International 2015. On 2 September 2015, Artstyle returned, but as a substitute. The main roster spot was filled by acquiring M.Batbileg "Ra", and the second substitute spot was filled by Ilnur "Kudes" Khafizov . On 16 October 2015, Na`Vi announced the disband of their main roster. On 19 October 2015, Na`Vi posted on their website that Danil "Dendi" Ishutin and Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev will pick out the remaining 3 players for a new Na`Vi roster. On 23 February 2016, Na'Vi's new team was finalized with the team moving forward in the Dota Pit tournament after a disappointing defeat in the final qualifying round for ESL Manila. On 3 September 2018, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin noted that he was looking for a new team and players for that team, signaling his departure as team captain  of Na'Vi's DOTA 2 team. On 25 March 2021, Na'Vi's DOTA 2 team decided to withdraw from the One Esports' Singapore Major tournament due to COVID-19. On 2 September 2021, Na'Vi announced a new roster managed and coached by ArtStyle. It includes Alexey "Solo" Berezin, Ilya "ALOHADANCE" Korobkin and Victor "GeneRaL" Nigrini. Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko and Alik "V-Tune" Vorobei retained their places in the team. Section::::"League of Legends: Wild Rift" division. Na'Vi previously had a "League of Legends" team in 2012. Their new roster played at CIS region's LCL during spring and summer in 2016. Roster  has been disbanded after summer split. Na'Vi announced their "" roster on 12 March 2021. The team consists of five Chinese players, with the team being based in Europe. Section::::"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" division. On 11 April 2018, the organization announced the acquisition of a PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) team. It includes four Russian players: Vadim "POKAMOLODOY" Ulshin, Ivan "Ubah" Kapustin, Dmitry "Shade1" Roshchin and Svyatoslav "Drainys" Komissarov. On 19 November 2018, a new PUBG team was announced. In April 2019, after unsuccessful performance at the LAN-tournament of the PUBG Europe League, which was held in Berlin (NA’VI at the end  of the first phase of the tournament took 14th place out of 16 teams), the management of the organization decided to renew the team. From the previous squad only Vadim «POKAMOLODOY» Ulshin remained, who, however, lost the status of team captain. Alexander "BatulinS" Batulin, Dmitry "Recrent" Osintsev and Artem "Sadovnik" Danilyuk were sent to "inactive". On 1 October 2020, Natus Vincere signed a PUBG Mobile roster hence entering the PUBG Mobile Competitive Esports. On 5 October 2020, they received an invitation to Peace Elite Championship which boasted a massive prizepool of $1.7 million. On 26 October 2020, Na'Vi won  the PUBG Mobile EMEA League and hence advanced to the PUBG Mobile Global Championship. Section::::"World of Tanks" division. In July 2013 Russian–Ukrainian team Red Rush began competing under the Natus Vincere banner in "World of Tanks". Na'Vi won the first Wargaming.net League of World of Tanks in Warsaw, Poland in April 2014 and won it again in April 2016. Section::::"Rainbow Six Siege" division. Natus Vincere made an entrance into "Rainbow Six Siege" Pro League by acquiring the German roster of Mock-it E-sports in February 2019. The original Na'Vi "Rainbow Six Siege" roster was Pascal "Cry1NNN" Alouane, Lukas  Korey Zwingmann, Jan "ripz" Hucke, Niklas "KS" Massierer, and Lasse "Lazzo" Klie. On 30 May 2019, The organisation announced that the Korey was to join another team and the rest of German roster had been released and Na'Vi would announce a new roster the following day. On 1 June 2019, Na'Vi announced that they had signed on the British roster of MnM Gaming shortly after it had qualified for Pro League Season 10. The roster consisted of Ben "CTZN" MacMillan, Jack "Doki" Robertson, Luke "Kendrew" Kendrew, Leon "neLo" Pesić, Szymon "Saves" Kamieniak, and Ellis "GiG" Hindle as coach. On 11  October, Doki was banned by Ubisoft, the developers of the game, for severe toxicity and the ESL, the organizers of Pro League, chose to honor the ban and required NaVi to sign a stand-in for the duration of Doki's ban which lasts until 11 April 2020. Ellis "Pie" Pyart was announced as the stand-in for Doki four days later. With Pie, Na'Vi qualified for the Pro League Season 11 Finals, where they placed first and won $100,000. About a month after on 18 December, GiG left the roster and analyst Cyril "jahk" Renoud would be the  team's acting coach. This roster would remain until after the Six Invitational 2020 in February 2020, when Pie and CTZN both left Na'Vi. On 13 March 2020, Byron "Blurr" Murray was announced as the stand-in for the remainder of Doki's ban. On 21 March, Dimitri "Panix" de Longeaux joined the team as a permanent player. Section::::"Valorant" division. Natus Vincere signed No Pressure on 16 July 2021, marking their entrance into "Valorant". Contribution to the development of Ukrainian esports. In July 2010, Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov met the team in the Cabinet of Ministers building in  Kyiv. During the meeting issues pertaining to the development of the IT industry in Ukraine were discussed. The Prime Minister promised to hold the esports International Open Cup of Ukraine in 2011. Ukrainian players were enrolled in to the so-called "Gold Reserve", enlisting the support of the government.