Photo: HLTV
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , the competitive CS:GO scene has distanced itself from Russia. Several tournament organizers have thus decided to "ban" Russian teams, which were however able to participate but under a neutral banner (no shirt and no sponsor). This was the case with Gambit , which has since become Cloud9, but also Virtus.Pro , which has still not found a solution to date.
In this thorny situation, a team was a symbol: Navi (Natus Vincere). Although Ukrainian, this structure maintains strong links with Russia and in its team there were no less than 3 Russian players, who were born or who live in the country. Often cited as an example of solidarity and tolerance, Navi spoke out several times for peace and against invasion. But this beautiful story took on a slightly different twist: one of the Russian players was benched... Considered "too close" to Russia, he was endangering the structure's " reputation ". Beyond image and politics, it is also a very strong sporting choice, because we are talking about a roster manager .
Navi loses its in-game leader
The player who was dropped was Kirill " Boombl4 " Mikhaylov. Arrived at the beginning of 2019, it was part of the team's furniture. It was under his leadership that Navi became the superpower it is today. He thus led the team to its first Major (Stockholm 2021), while bringing back various trophies: BLAST Worlds Final 2021, ESL Pro League Season 14, IEM Cologne 2021... Sportingly speaking, his sidelining could hurt a lot. In Antwerp and despite the complicated context, he had also responded and the structure had risen to the grand final (0-2 defeat against FaZe Clan).
The reasons for his dismissal were not very well detailed. Navi spoke of the risk to its image and reputation... A few weeks ago, the structure announced that it refused to work with elements too close to Russian interests. Without holding the players of his team responsible for the invasion, it was in particular a question of separating from the players wishing to continue living on Russian soil. Boombl4 has therefore surely paid the price for this policy . Navi has indeed specified that the performance of its former holder was not called into question. On the networks, rumors have advanced that the wife of Boombl4 would also have been problematic, since she would have more or less indirectly displayed her support for the Russian military forces. Not being specialized in people, difficult to verify this information. But one thing is certain: the player was too close to Russia for Navi's taste.
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