Organization Natus Vincere (NaVi)

2009

The history of Natus Vincere begins in 2009 when the esports was not that developed as it is now. Murat ‘Arbalet’ Zhumashevich, a rich man from Kazakhstan, stated his desire to create an esports organization at Intel Extreme Masters, which took place in Dubai then. He wanted a competitive team to appear in CIS, for which Murat could become the main sponsor. Zhumashevich promised to make a training ground for players and to pay all financial expenses, including regular monthly salary and players’ transport costs.

The first one who decided to answer the offer was Sergey ‘starix’ Ischuk, a Ukrainian CS 1.6 player. He received an objective from Murat: to assemble a team, which could compete with the world-level teams. Starix coped with his objective, having gathered Ioann ‘Edward’ Sukhariev, Yegor ‘markeloff’ Markelov, Arseniy ‘ceh9’ Trynozhenko, and Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko. Each of the above-mentioned players stood out among other contenders due to their individual skills and big experience of participating in tournaments.

In such a way, the organization Natus Vincere was formed around the CS roster on December 17, 2009. The history of the club’s name is also notorious. The abbreviation Na’Vi was taken from the Avatar movie and after a contest for the best transcription of this abbreviation, the option Natus Vincere won, which the Ukrainian organization used as a name.

2010

2010 was very successful for Natus Vincere because Na’Vi managed to achieve 12 medals that year, 8 of which were the first place. Natus Vincere gathered a big fan base during this period and on the outcome of 2010, three of the players entered the top representatives of the shooting discipline, according to HLTV. Edward placed 5th, starix held the 4th place and markeloff headed the list of the strongest CS 1.6 players. It’s worth to notice that that year, Edward made his famous -5 kill on USP, after which received a name ‘Pistol King’ and all players who use AWP as the main weapon were looking up to Yegor Markelov. Zeus, in turn, received a title of the best in-game leader.

In October 2010, Natus Vincere received a status of the multi-gaming organization. The DotA branch was created at the moment, which only started developing. The roster initially had changed, however, the first stable roster was assembled at the beginning of 2011, which included such players as Danil ‘Dendi’ Ishutin, Alexander ‘XBOCT’ Dashkevich, Dmitriy ‘LightOfHeaveN’ Kupriyanov, Ivan ‘ArtStyle’ Antonov, and Clement ‘Puppey’ Ivanov. This five has become famous due to the victory at the first The International.

Natus Vincere expanded its multi-gaming to three more disciplines next year: FIFA, StarCraft II, and League of Legends. The StarCraft and LoL rosters were not able to meet the expectations and were disbanded as a result. With regard to Yevhen ‘Yozhyk’ Mostovyk, which was representing Na’Vi in FIFA, his fate was different. The FIFA player’s contract lasted several years. The efootball player earned more than 20 medals, while he was representing Natus Vincere.

2011

In 2011, there was a memorable event, which was related to the Dota 2 world. Valve hosted its famous The International for the first time that year. Na’Vi was considered to be one of the strongest in the world at that moment, due to which received a direct invitation to the tournament. Their performance at the championship surprised lots of viewers. The team made it to the playoffs without special problems and went to their success “over heads”. They defeated the main favorites of the tournament, EHOME, in the grand final. As a result, the players from Natus Vincere became the owners of the main money prize, which was fabulous and the truth is that many people didn’t believe till the very end that the main reward of TI1 would amount $1,000,000.

2012

2012 was productive for Natus Vincere too but not that productive as the previous one. The CS roster achieved one victory at the Kiev championship and placed second at six other tournaments. With regard to the Dota 2 representatives, the team participated in The International against and also made it to the final against the Chinese team but the players from Invictus Gaming faced them this time. Na’Vi managed to win only one map in a bo5 series. The main prize, just like in the previous year, amounted $1,000,000 and Natus Vincere became the owners of a money reward in the sum of $250,000 this time.

2013

In 2013, the scene with the loss of Natus Vincere repeated but in the final of the third The International this time. There, they faced the players from Alliance and this match is still considered to be one of the most dramatic and breathtaking in the history of the competitive Dota.

In the same year, Na’Vi decided to open a World of Tanks roster, a new discipline, which differed among other disciplines with its focus on a tactical component and a slow tempo of the game. The team achieved the first victory in three months after the signing of players who were known The RED Rush. The roster was protecting the honor of Natus Vincere at all international tournaments during four years where it managed to achieve 20 rewards and earn more than $350,000.

2014

Natus Vincere signed the second Dota 2 roster in 2014, the representatives of which were the Americans. As a result, both rosters took part in The International 2014 but they didn’t enter the top 4. NaVi.US finished its participation in the tournament on the 15th-16th place, having received no prize, and the main roster of Natus Vincere performed way better, having held the 7th-8th place. The team earned a monetary reward in the sum of $518,889 for their efforts.

2015

2015 passed not without success for the Ukrainian organization. That year, the multi-gaming expanded to three disciplines: Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and League of Legends. As a result of such decisions, the HotS players advanced to a semi-final of BlizzCon and the Swedish Hearthstone player, Ostkaka became the world champion, having earned $100,000. Despite such a success, the management made a decision to close the HotS roster later and to stop the partnership with Sebastian ‘Ostkaka’ Engwall.

The general sum of prizes of Natus Vincere was more than $1,000,000 in 2015.

2016

2016 began with victories at such events as DreamHack ZOWIE Leipzig 2016 and Counter Pit Season 2 for Na’Vi. After that, the team had a long decline in results and to stop a losing streak, the decision was made to replace Zeus on s1mple. Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev told the world about his talents that year and this purchase was pretty profitable for Natus Vincere. In September, the roster with s1mple became the best at ESL One New York 2016 and Oleksandr received his first MVP reward.

After a bad performance of the Dota 2 roster, the MOBA discipline team was changed too. Then, the five was formed around two key players: Dendi and GeneRaL. At the end of 2016, the new roster was presented, which, besides the above-mentioned esportsmen, included Pajkatt, kmN-, and Biver.

In 2016, Natus Vincere managed to become the winners of more than 35 competitions and their overall winning amounted $1,400,000.

2017

2017 was not the best year for Na’Vi. The representatives of CS:GO and Dota rosters didn’t gain the required gaming shape and managers decided to fix this issue with replacements in the squads. The League of Legends was disbanded after a summer split. The management of Na’Vi also didn’t see perspectives in continuing the partnership with the World of Tanks roster and the esports segment of the discipline was fading quickly and losing popularity. As a result, the decision was made to close the WoT branch too.

Instead of rmN-, the team was joined by SoNNeikO who took the responsibilities of an in-game leader and empty slots were held by Crystallize and RodjER after the departure of Biver and Pajkatt. The renewed roster made a statement almost immediately. The team reached a semi-final of DreamLeague Season 8 and placed 3rd-4th at MDL Macau 2017. They even achieved victory at Adrenaline Cyber League 2017, having defeated Virtus.pro in the final.

After the CS:GO roster’s bad streak lasted too long, the Slovakian sniper GuardiaN decided to change conditions and joined FaZe Clan, having left Natus Vincere. His place was later taken by Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko who had previously had experience of being a captain and playing under the tag Natus Vincere. Despite these replacements, the team still had problems with results, so it was made a decision to replace seized on electronic later.

That year, Na’Vi tried themselves in such esports disciplines as Quake Champions and Paladins. The Quake II veteran, Anton ‘COOLLERZ’ Singov was ordered to represent “the yellow-black” in the new Quake. He is famous for being one of the best in the world in this shooter and he had very many medals, which he achieved at international competitions. A few days after the signing of the contract, COOLLERZ became triumphant at a Quake Champions tournament and entered the top 3 at the world championship.

The players who previously played WASD Sports started representing the colors of Natus Vincere in the new discipline Paladins. The Paladins roster of Na’Vi is considered to be one of the strongest in the world for a reason. The team is the three-time world champion and the sum of grabs is more than $175,000.

2018

The beginning of 2018 was not the best for Na’Vi. Two supports left the Dota roster: RodjER and SoNNeikO. The newcomers who replaced them in the face of Lil and LeBron didn’t make enough impact to make the team reach the required gaming level. After the team had a tough loss in an open qualification to The International 2018, the decision to move all players to inactive was made.

The Ukrainian organization decided to move with the times in 2018 and to sign a roster in a new genre for them, Battle Royal. The players of PUBG squad became popular quickly after they prevailed at Global Loot League Season 1, which roster amounted $50,000. Natus Vincere won the final of the CIS qualifiers to the world championship later and reinforced the status of the best CIS team in this discipline. The team placed 4th in the standings in a First Person category at PUBG Global Invitational 2018 with the prize pool in the sum of $2,000,000.

The year was pretty successful for the CS:GO roster too. The team held the 3rd-4th place at such championships as ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, ESL Pro League Season 7, and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 and the 2nd place at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 and StarLadder i-League Season 4. Na’Vi became the winners of StarLadder i-League Season 5, CS:GO Asia Championship 2018, and ESL One Cologne 2018. It’s worth to notice the talented player of Natus Vincere, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, in a special way. He achieved five rewards of the most valuable player of the tournament and placed 1st on the list of the best CS:GO players of 2018. This esportsman became the first player in the history who received the MVP title without winning a tournament — the player’s contribution was that valuable for the team. Natus Vincere managed to make it to the grand final of the second Major tournament FACEIT Major: London 2018 but despite this, lost a battle to the CS:GO titans, Astralis. The team earned a money prize in the sum of $150,000 for the second place.

With regard to the Dota 2 roster, it was the first time in the history of the organization when Danil ‘Dendi’ Ishutin didn’t become part of the roster. Managers decided to rely on young players. Crystalize was joined by Chuvash, MagicaL, and Blizzy and SoNNeikO again became the captain of Natus Vincere. Mag, who had been on the very first DotA roster of Na’Vi, became a coach of the team.