The start of the new season was not very successful for Natus Vincere: at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022, it lost the first two matches, losing to MIBR and Astralis, and as a result ended up in last place in the group. Unlike many other teams, NAVI did not rebuild its roster at the beginning of the year, which looks quite logical, given the success it managed to achieve in 2021.
However, in their opening match at BLAST Premier Spring Groups, the team from the CIS lost to MIBR, which turned out to be especially unexpected, given that one of the regular players in the Brazilian lineup was replaced by an esports player from the youth team. In the match against Astralis, Natus Vincere lost to Mirage by a large margin (9 - 15). They managed to reduce the difference in the score and send the game into overtime, but the victory ultimately remained with the Danes (17 – 19).
Finding last place in Group B, Natus Vincere risks being eliminated from the tournament. The team will have to fight for a place in the playoffs in the Gauntlet stage. This is a new tournament component that BLAST has added this season. Next Thursday, Alexander's team "s1mple" Kostylev will face the team that will take third place in Group C. If the team wins this match, it will still have a chance to advance to the final stage of the tournament.
