"Junior" Instead Of Sdy: Who Else Has a Chance To Get Into the Base of NAVI?

In one of his recent vlogs, Coach Andrey B1ad3 Horodensky commented on what NAVI with sdy is like. The coach of "Born to Win" praised the efforts and motivation of Viktor sdy Orujev, but also explained why he has not yet become a full-fledged base player. The point is that Victor's adaptation to the Natus Vincere game system was not very smooth, and age was a significant reason for this. Twenty-five years, by the standards of CS: GO (namely, that much sdy) is considered the equator of an eSports career, after which many begin a slight decline in the game.

It is possible to assume that the management of the "yellow-black" is still not confident in what results from Victor will be able to show at a distance. However, considering the emphasis B1ad3 made on the issue of age and ability to adapt, why not once again look at NAVI Junior players?

The most optimal candidate for getting into the base can be considered 17-year-old Andrey nipl Kuharsky. But why nipl, and not headtr1ck, who was previously allowed to act as a base in several matches of the group stage of the 15th EPL season? In terms of roles, nipl is more similar to sdy than his teammate from NAVI Junior - both are recognized as defenders and rotators. In addition, headtr1ck recently retrained into a full-fledged sniper, showing himself well in this role.

Natus Vincere is clearly interested in the further development of the history with the Junior line-up, especially against the background of the stunning success of Valery b1t Vakhovsky in 2021. His contribution helped the club earn the long-awaited major championship. However, his 18-year-old age and little experience of playing on the shooting tire-1 stage did not prevent Wachowski from becoming a major champion, being quite young.

A comparison of the individual performance of the two players over the past three months shows a significant superiority in all metrics, except for the effectiveness of blinding grenades, which is a correctable task. In addition, the roles of the players are quite similar - both are defenders and rotators.

Nipl, along with headtr1ck, deservedly retains the leadership in the list of best players in the fifth season of the WePlay Academy League statistics.

Andrey's statistics in the event of transition to the base will almost certainly decrease, at least for the period of getting used to the shooting range-1 scene.

But just the experience of playing on shooting range-1 is a strong argument in favor of letting sdy play as a substitute until the nearest major. The second place in Antwerp and the championship at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022 are strong arguments in favor of giving Orujev time to improve, which is what B1ad3 wants.

And if the management is not satisfied, then after the major in Rio, it will be possible to continue experiments with the composition, again giving way to the young.