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B1ad3: a year as NAVI coach

CS2 / News / 21 September 2020 — 16:15

Congratulations!

Today marks exactly one year since ua Andrii "B1ad3" Gorodenskyi became a coach of ua NAVI CS: GO. What results did the team achieve during this period? Let's take a look.

uaYevhen Zolotarov
Natus Vincere CEO

"Andrii, it's just been a year, and it's still very EARLY to relax :) I'm glad you're with us, coach!"

uaOleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
Natus Vincere player

“Andrii is a very talented person. I was lucky enough to work with him both during the Flipsid3 Tactics days and now. Even if I did not really appreciate what he does not only for me but for the whole team, the entire esports earlier, now I can safely call this person a genius of thought. He constantly works and never stops: he knows what needs to be improved, what needs attention. Andrii works a lot - it's impossible to miss that."

B1ad3 as sports director


Andrii
the Born to Win on March 30, 2019, and took the position of sports director. His responsibilities included maintaining the personnel and transfer policy of the club, building a training system for the rosters, forming a scouting structure, and creating a player reserve for the key titles. NAVI Esports Camp Academy was introduced to the fans, where ua B1ad3, as a mentor, together with ua Amiran “ami” Rekhviashvili, shared their knowledge with the younger generation of CS players. By the way, ua NAVI Junior roster has recently celebrated its birthday: you can read more .


Moving to a coach position


In September 2019, after an unsuccessful performance at
BLAST Pro Series: Moscow, ua NAVI CS: GO roster underwent changes: ua Danylo " Zeus" Teslenko, and his place was taken by  sk  Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs. The team also parted ways withua Mykhailo "Kane" Blagin, and the position of the mentor was given to ua B1ad3. There were no questions about Andrii's candidacy: before joining ua NAVI he has been a coach of CS: GO teams, in addition, when on ru FlipSid3 Tactics ua B1ad3 had a chance to get to know ua s1mple and ru electronic, so he knew them well.

The first tournament with ua B1ad3 as a coach was DreamHack Masters Malmö. The Born to Win advanced through the group stage with no issues but then lost 1:2 tofr Team Vitality in the playoffs. The result - 3-4th place and $22.000 in prize money.

In early November, the roster took third place at BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2019, and a month later it took part in the final stage of ESL Pro League 10, stopping at the semifinals — a loss to se Fnatic with a score of 1: 2.

Reshuffle after EPICENTER: roster with Perfecto


The final tournament of 2019 for ua
Natus Vincere was EPICENTER 2019: losing to us Evil Geniuses in the playoffs, and finishing the run on 5-6th place, the team realized something had to change. sk Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs was benched, and his place was taken by the young talent ru Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutsky, who at that time did not have extensive experience in performing on the stage.

Two days after acquiring ru Perfecto ua NAVI were already fighting in ICE Challenge 2020 in London, taking 2nd place. A few days later, they advanced to the spring finals of BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 from the group stage.

The team had an excellent run at IEM Katowice 2020 LAN: although there were some troubles, they managed to advance from the group from the lower bracket, and then showed their power in the playoffs and became the champions.

NAVI after the triumph at IEM Katowice 2020


After the victory in Poland, the guys were on the edge, and it seemed that the next six months would be dictated by the Born to Win, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the competition moved online, where ua NAVI was
doing much worse. At BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals DreamHack Masters Spring 2020: Europe and in the eleventh season of the ESL Pro League, the Born to Win took fourth place, and in the RMR tournament from ESL they finished at a 7-8th place.

But there were also offline victories: first place at the Gamers Without Borders charity tournament and champion title at RMR tournament WePlay! Clutch Island.

The first tournament after the summer vacation for the Born to Win was ESL One Cologne 2020: Europe, where the guys stopped at 9-12th places. Due to an unsuccessful performance, it was decided to extend the bootcamp in Kyiv for the next month. Thanks to this, the team fought confidently in ESL Pro League Season 12, where they reached the playoffs from the first place in the group with the 6-1 stat.

What tournaments are next?


Now the squad has a week break between official matches, but then the players will have a long marathon: EPL playoffs
, IEM XV - New York Online: CIS, BLAST Premier: Fall 2020, and DreamHack Masters Winter 2020.

We believe that ua B1ad3 will properly prepare the roster for the next challenges, and at the beginning of next year, the championships will, hopefully, again return to the LAN format, which will allow ua Natus Vincere to use its full potential.

NAVI results with B1ad3:
Place Tournament Prize money
1 IEM XIV - World Championship $250.000
1 WePlay! Clutch Island $15.000
1 BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season $50.000
1 Gamers Without Borders $ 750.000 (charity)
2 ICE Challenge $50.000
3 BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018 $25.000
3–4 DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019 $22.000
3–4 ESL Pro League Season 10 - Finals $40.000
4 ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe $43.000
4 BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Finals $20.000
5-6 DreamHack Masters Spring 2020: Europe $16.000
5-6 EPICENTER 2019 $15.000
7 — 8 ESL One: Road to Rio - CIS $2.000
9 - 12 ESL One: Cologne 2020 Online - Europe $4.500
13-16 StarSeries & i-League CS: GO Season 8 $ 5.000