On the eve of the start of the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 15, it became known that Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov from Natus Vincere will miss his first matches due to a positive test for coronavirus. Thus, NAVI will have to start playing in the tournament without an in-game leader.
Boombl4’s place in the team will be temporarily taken by Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov from NAVI Junior, who was officially listed as a reserve player in the team’s application. However, during the matches he will be isolated from the other participants, since he arrived in Düsseldorf only a few days ago and must be in quarantine.
The beginning of the year was not very successful for Natus Vincere, especially compared to the achievements of the past. She finished her performance at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022 in 4th-6th place, and at IEM Katowice 2022 she lost to G2 in the semi-finals. However, there remains a possibility that the group stage of the ESL Pro League will turn out favorably for Natus Vincere: most of the teams with which it ended up in the same group are unlikely to turn out to be serious rivals for it. An exception may be, perhaps, Heroic.
The team will play the first match of the tournament on Wednesday against the Polish AGO, which is in the second hundred of the world rankings.
