Natus Vincere had to make a roster decision after using both stand-in Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev and NAVI Junior’s player Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi at BLAST Premier World Final, the last tournament of 2022. Instead of signing the experienced sdy on a full-time basis, the Ukrainian organization decided to move on with the 17-year-old npl for 2023.<\/p>
While many fans have pointed out that the reasoning behind the move was sdy’s lackluster performances throughout his stint with NAVI\u2014the Ukrainian averaged a 1.00 rating while playing next to s1mple, according to HLTV<\/a>\u2014 it wasn’t exactly because of this and it had more to do with NAVI’s philosophy when it comes to signing players, according to the team’s coach Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy.<\/p>
“Sdy wanted to continue with a more or less lengthy contract, but we saw the future with young players, not with him,” B1ad3 said in an interview with Ukrainian<\/a> outlet Players. “I don’t think he will significantly develop further. He might become a bit better, but he didn’t fit our style with his game skills and style. We would never sign a player who is more than 25 years old. Of course, he’d have a chance if he would have played incredibly, and made no mistakes. Of course, we would have kept him.”<\/p>
With npl playing instead of sdy, NAVI secured a spot in the BLAST Premier Spring Final after the Spring Groups and most notably reached the semifinals of IEM Katowice last weekend. The 17-year-old is averaging a 0.93 rating after 26 maps played in 2023, according to HLTV<\/a>, which shows that he’s still learning the ropes.<\/p>
