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Ukrainian esports organization B8 signed Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi to their Counter-Strike lineup on Sunday, less than two weeks after his move to Natus Vincere’s inactive roster.
Natus Vincere benched the player on June 30 after seven months of uninspiring results. He will replace Alexey “alex666” Yarmoshchuk on B8 following his departure from the Ukrainian lineup on July 5.
B8 wrote in a welcome post, “We’re thrilled to announce Andrii’ npl’ Kukharskyi’s entry into our CS:GO team from @natusvincere, coming onboard for a long-term period with a priority buyout right.”
“This is a big boost for our team, filling a gap we felt in our recent two RMRs. Anyway, building a strong team and perfecting our gameplay can take some time, but we’re committed to working hard to achieve this as fast as we can.”
npl joined NAVI in December 2022 as a sixth player for the team. He eventually replaced Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev on the starting lineup in January 2023.
While with NAVI, npl had issues adapting to tier-one competition and reached a 0.92 average rating across 63 maps. He recorded his only positive rating during the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR. During the event, he posted a 1.34 rating, his highest while with NAVI.
NAVI also reached the semifinals of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2023, Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2023, and the Electronic Sports League Pro League Season 17 during npl’s stint.
With a new player among their ranks, B8 aim to elevate their current rank in the CS:GO scene. The team previously qualified for the IEM Rio and the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMRs, where they earned impressive wins in the opening matches. B8, however, failed to go much further in the events and, in the process, lost out on Major appearances.
B8 currently consists of npl, Artem “r1nkle” Moroz, Mykhailo “OWNER” Lymar, Arseniy “cptkurtka023”Derevinskiy, and Denis “amster” Liashenko. They are set to debut the new team in the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 qualifier. The online event will kick on July 27 to August 13.
