Na'Vi reserved SoNNeikO due to personal matters

Captain Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev will sit on the bench for now.

This was due to the disappointing result after qualifying for the MDL Chengdu Major which triggered a “personal conflict” within the team.

Na’Vi CEO Yevhen Zolotarov revealed that problems have arisen in the team since they slumped at The International 2021 (TI9) at 13-16 ranking. They seem to have opted to stick together to sort out their issues and bounce back for the next season, especially with the arrival of veteran offlaner Pavel “9pasha” Khvastunov of Virtus.pro (VP) in a post-TI9 reshuffle.

Many expected Na’Vi to challenge VP’s dominance in the CIS region, but they only managed to record a 2-6 record in the Major qualifying group stage and didn’t even qualify for the Dota Summit 11 Minor.

“Difficulty in official matches sparked personal conflicts that have occurred in the past, and everything fell apart like a house of cards,” Zolotarov said in a statement. statement.

With SoNNeikO on the bench and highly likely to move to a new team, Bakyt “W_Zayac” Emilzhanov will take over as captain of Na’Vi, while the team starts looking for a new 5th position support player.

“I would like to sincerely thank Akbar after many years with Na’Vi, his professionalism and loyalty. I wish him luck and still believe that success awaits him,” Zolotarov said.

Na’Vi’s CEO added that the team will avoid all media activity to focus on preparing for the DreamLeague Season 13 Major qualifiers in Leipzig in early December.

Na’Vi was also invited to ONE Esports Dota 2 Invitational, which takes place in Singapore on 20-22 December.