Recalling NAVI history: part 1

NAVI celebrates a decade!

Today Natus Vincere esports club celebrates ten years. During this time, we have had many achievements, ups and downs, we have witnessed the rise and fall of several esports titles. 

The history of NAVI consists of many achievements, and today we will recall what is the most important about those rosters and players who defended or still defend the banners of  Natus Vincere, starting from 2011 and ending today. Together with you, we will restore the chronological order of the history of our club and experience a nagging sense of nostalgia. Here we go!

FIFA (2011—2019)

After the club has established itself and formed CS and DotA rosters, the interest in other popular disciplines became clear. So, the management's eyes fell on FIFA — a series of football simulators. The 2011 roster included the most eminent Ukrainian players:   Alexander "ToTsi" Shramko,  Alexander "BlooD" Ryabikin and  Yevhen "Yozhyk" Mostovyk. In the same year, the guys took first and second places at the Ukrainian FIFA League 2011, and also won the OSPL Spring 2011, WCG 2011 UA and SEC 2011 . 

Later, since 2012, only  Yevhen "Yozhyk" Mostovyk remained in the ranks of the Born to Win in FIFA. He has won first places at Samsung European Championship 2011, WCG Ukraine 2012, International Esports Tournament 2014 and International Esports Tournament 2015, as well as Prestigio FIFA15 Finals and several other major tournaments. 

 Yozhyk has been a part of  Natus Vincere for eight years, taking part in over 15 tournaments and earning over $ 35 000. In February 2019, Yevhen the organization, focusing on the development of his own brand and media channels.

Rage of Titans (2011—2012)

At the same time, in 2011, Natus Vincere introduced its RoT team, which was a rather popular MOBA in those days. The final toster was:  Stanislav "Simbad" Voiteshik (captain),  Alexander «Stalk» Melder,  Alikhan «classiQ» Getagazov,  Stanislav «Lovethis» Belorukov and  Ilya «Nori» Cherepanin. Together, the guys took part in WCG Russia 2011 and took third place there. Their reward was 50,000 rubles.

The roster lasted less than a year - the organization decided to close the RoT division due to the lack of tournaments, as well as due to a decrease in activity in the gaming community. 

StarCraft II (2011—2013)

In April 2011, Natus Vincere opened a division in a new genre for itself - real-time strategy StarCraft II. The team did not live up to expectations and in December was disbanded. The club, however, was determined and promised to return to the game immediately after the release of the new part in 2013 — StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. The promise was kept! 

The new  NAVI roster had pretty much all the players of  FXOpen e-Sports Europe, and some of them have played in roster circa 2011:  Evgenii «Strelok» Oparyshev, John «BabyKnight» Andersen,  Anton «LoWeLy» Plebanovich,  Vitaly «Minato» Ponomarenko and  Svyatoslav «HappyZerg» Vlasyuk. 

A lot of effort was made to achieve some results, but the roster achieved little: fourth place in CСL # 5 and fifth to eighth places in RaidCall EMS Spring 2013 by ESL.

Alas, after that the team was never able to achieve success on the professional stage of StarCraft II and finally left the discipline at the end of the year.

League of Legends (2012—2017)

The history of  NAVI.LoL dates back to 2012. The club management has officially announced the contract with  MyBoys European squad. A few months later, the guys won the SoloMid EU Tournament Circuit, but in the same year the squad was disbanded due to unsatisfactory results.

In 2015, Natus Vincere announced their intention to return to the competitive stage of League of Legends. First, the club introduced the European squad, which included both beginners and professional players. The team included Jesper “Jwaow” Strandgren (captain), Amin “Amin” Mezher, Hisham “SozPurefect” Tazrini, Sebastien “exork” Lamot, Patrick “MounTain” Dasberg, Christian “Czaru” Pshibylsky (sub). 

A few weeks later, Natus Vincere made another big announcement related to the LoL discipline: the club signed a roster that included mainly players from the CIS. It included Simon “Zvene”Svensson, Ilya “Lasagna” Melkumov, Saulius “Saulius” Lukosius, Yegor “VincentVega” Medvedev and Arthur “skash” Ermolaev.

In February 2016, the European squad was disbanded after it did not qualify for the Challenger Series. For the CIS team of Born to Win, that same year can be called successful: the players finished the spring split in fourth place and the summer split in third and fourth places. 

Alas, then things went tumbling down. Reshuffles in the team did not lead to an improvement in unsatisfactory results, and NAVI continued to wage a tense struggle for survival in the last two splits. Even though the team still managed to keep a spot in the CIS major league, in 2017 the organization decided to focus on other popular disciplines and abandoned the League of Legends roster. 

In total, during their existence, teams have earned more than $ 15,000. 

World of Tanks (2013—2017)

In 2013, the Red Rush team was merged with Natus Vincere. Red Rush players at that time established themselves as experienced fighters, having won more than ten first places in 2011-2013.  The first team included Maxim “lnspirer” Masein, Dmitry “SL1DE” Frischman, Kirill “Kirilloid” Ponomarev, Oleg “Straik” Romanenkov, Dmitry “LeBwa” Palashchenko, Nikolai “Ec1ipse” Bogdanov and Dmitry “de1uxe” Repin (captain). 

Having been signed with the yellow-blacks, the guys seemed to become even more charged with the fighting spirit. The tankers claimed the first cup in September, having won the championship in Seattle. More victories followed shortly after! So, the team has repeatedly become the champion of major international tournaments, Wargaming.net League 2014 Grand Final and Wargaming.net League 2016 Grand Final, as well as Go4WoT Finals, StarLadder , TechLabsand other leagues.

For a long time the roster saw no changes, until in 2017  Ec1ipse was benched, while  de1uxe took up the manager duties. The new NAVI players were Andrei “Rhino” Les' and Anatoly “TheAnatolich” Barakov. But, despite the efforts, hard work and good achievements of the tankers, the esports component of WoT did not move from the point at which it froze in 2013. This was the only reason why the organization had to close the roster 

One way or another, the WoT team can be called one of the most stable — the guys did not give reasons to doubt their strength, being one of the strongest team on the pro stage for four years. The total amount of their prize is more than $ 800,000.

Infinite Crisis (2014)

In the spring of 2014, the club noticed a recently released MOBA-game Infinite Crisis, created based on DC Comics (DC Universe). NAVI signed the contract with some of the experienced players who have won some trophies: Alexander “JU7SU” Kikkas, Taavi “Taavi” Ooyavi, Lauri “Endless” Tarkus, Johannes “EZ” Harrsen, Matich “Zarmony” Mikech.

The creation of this roster was a kind of experiment with the long-term plans However, after six months of waiting, the experiment did not bear fruit: although NAVI won first places in several Go4InfiniteCrisis Cups, it was later disbanded due to unpopularity and poor title development. 

Heroes of the Storm (2015—2016)

The HotS team has a rich history of achievements. In 2015, a contract was signed with the players of the then-strongest team — Team Tomorrow Big.  Pontus “Breez” Sorgen, Simon “ScHwimpi” Svensson, Aleksandar “ethernal” Milanov, Lachezar “cilium” Nikolaev-Kochevand Lubomyr “Splendour”Kozlowski achieved a lot as part of “yellow-black”.

Our players excelled at DreamHack tournaments: the first place at DreamHack Tours 2015, the second at DreamHack All-Stars Valencia and the third at DreamHack Summer 2015. We were also champions of StormGrounds Invitational, 2015 HWC - Europe Championship and Enter the Storm # 4. 

Unfortunately, the team did not show high results at the World Cup, and in January 2016 reshuffles were made. This didn't save HotS roster: in April, it became a part of the history. 

Players earned over $ 130,000 for the year. 

Hearthstone (2015—2016)

The collectible card game based on the Warcraft universe, released in 2014, gradually gained great popularity, and its esports component was developing rapidly. In 2015, the organization signed a contract with three talented European players: Sebastian“Xixo” Bentert, Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engvall and Frederick “Hoej” Nielsen. In late January, Asian player Jung-Su “Surrender” Kim joined the team.

 Ostkaka had a successful run by the end of 2015: BlizzCon 2015 saw him become a world champion, earning $ 100 000. 

In 2016 Natus Vincere squad attended more than 15 esports events and took first places at eSports ArenaInvitational, SL iL StarSeries Season 2, WePlay Hearthstone League and others. So, by the end of the summer of 2016, the quartet of Born to Win became the top team, not only the strongest in the world, but a beacon for the aspiring players. 

Gradually, it became clear that the development of the Hearthstone professional scene slowed down, and the further plans of the game developers to bring it to a new competitive level were foggy. For this reason, despite the good results of the players, the club closed the roster, focusing its resources on other disciplines.

You will find more about other titles in the second part, that will be released soon.