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Natus Vincere, one of the most successful and well-known esports organizations in the world, has announced that it will be parting ways with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive rifler Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev. The 25-year old Ukrainian has ended his time with Natus Vincere after serving as a stand-in for the former in-game leader Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov.
NaVi took to its Twitter page to announce his departure using a 15-seconds clip, thanking him for his contribution.
“Today we thank @somedieyoungCS for being a part of #navination. Once NAVI, always NAVI!” Natus Vincere announced.
Sdy also commented on his exit away from NaVi as he made a departure post on Twitlonger. He clarified that the decision to part ways with the franchise was mutual by both parties, while also stating that he had no long-term contract with the team as he was only a stand-in.
“Hello my dear friends and haters. NAVI and I decided to part aways for 2023. The truth is that I’ve never had a long term contract with them and I believe that makes me the longest stand-in of them all! The experience that I’ve got from this time together is unbelievable,” sdy wrote.
He also expressed his appreciation to the franchise for the knowledge and experience he has garnered in his time with the team. Sdy went on to wish the team the best in its future endeavors.
“I would have never imagined how fast I could learn in and out of the game. I now understand and have proper vision on how things should work as well as the best ways to make a great team. I’m thankful for everything that we achieved and I wish them all the best in the world, and peace for all of us,” sdy continued.
He also used the opportunity to announce that he is on the lookout for a new home ahead of the 2023 season. However, he shared that he will be taking a break to spend some time with his family.
“So, now I’m looking for new home where I can bring what I’ve learned, and where we can put it all together and bring back trophies! I’m going to be taking few weeks off with my family, and I’ll get back to grind FPL with streams,” he added.
“As always, I’m highly motivated. I can travel to bootcamps and tournaments, there’s no problem with that. Also, I will try to do “talking” videos with you guys for my YouTube channel so I can make things clearer. Finally, I don’t have any buyout at all, so contact information is in tweet.”
It is currently unknown who Natus Vincere will permanently sign to replace sdy. In the meantime, the franchise has added Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi, a player from its NaVi Junior team, to its main roster.
Npl will be a full-time player for the organization at the IEM Katowice 2023 tournament and other January events. While npl has previously participated in a few NaVi matches, including the BLAST Premier World Final 2022, his performance has been underwhelming, with a rating of only 0.67 over three maps, according to HLTV. It remains to be seen whether npl will be a permanent addition to the NaVi roster or if the franchise will bring in another player to fill the vacant spot.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the franchise has refrained from signing new Russian players and is instead focusing on recruiting Ukrainian professionals. The organization’s academy team consists of mostly Ukrainian players, and one of them may have the opportunity to join the first team, similar to what teams like MOUZ did this year.
During his time with Natus Vincere, sdy did not take on a leadership role in the game, but rather played a more supportive role rather than focusing on getting multiple kills like s1mple and b1t.
Sdy had a successful stint with NaVi, competing in eight tournaments with the team. Some of his notable achievements include helping the team secure first place at the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022 and earning a second-place finish at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2022.
