Constant turbulence, endless replacements of players and an attempt by Navi management to build a game model that will lead the club to victory in prestigious tournaments - this is a tough and very stressful reality in which every member of the Navi Dota 2 team is forced to play.
In my opinion, Navi’s leadership became hostage to the high-profile victories of the early 2010s, when “Born to Win” took the championship at the first International in Cologne, held in August 2011, and won a crazy prize for e-sports of $1,000,000 by then standards, and then took silver twice at The International (sometimes abbreviated as TI) in 2012 and 2013.
So the golden composition of the Navi Dota 2 team raised such a high bar that the gamers who replaced them could not meet. Attempts to find their game and return to the top of Olympus led to nothing, only to a leapfrog of players playing for Natus Vincere (43 players in 12 years, on average, 3 team members change on the Navi roster every year), and to disappointing results for fans.
Kerry
As part of the Navi Dota 2 team, V-Tune, also known as Alik Sparrow, plays the role of carry. As of August 2022, he is 21 years old and originally from Ukraine. The Natus Vincere flag has been performing since September 22, 2020
By the way, V-Tune has greatly improved its game, moving to the “Born to Win” camp. So, just six months after moving to Navi, i.e. in March 2021, his personal rating broke the 11 thousand mmr mark. For reference: top dota players have a personal rating of at least 12 thousand mmr.
Looking at his photograph, you can’t help but wonder what genes are present in Sparrow’s blood, what nationality his parents were. The Dota 2 player himself as part of the Navi team never touches this line from his own biography; he considers himself a Ukrainian, since he was born in Ukraine.
Alik Vorobey lists his favorite characters as:
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Wraith King;
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Phantom Lancer.
Mid
In this position, for “Born to Win” No[o]ne plays. His real name is Vladimir Minenko, he is now 24 years old, he comes from Ukraine.
Vladimir can rightfully be called a shot sparrow and an experienced dota player, since in the period from 2016 to 2020 he was part of the legendary Virtus.pro team, where he earned the lion's share of the prize money, the total amount of which is $ 1,630,597, winning the championship at the majors in Bucharest and Kuala Lumpur and finishing with teammates second place in the crazy final of the 2017 Kyiv Major.
He was included in the Navi Dota 2 team on May 25, 2021.
Minenko, in addition, has an interesting personal achievement: he was only the second professional gamer from the CIS who managed to cross the rating mark of 10 thousand mmr.
Heroes he enjoys playing the most are Outworld Devourer, Invoker, Storm Spirit.
Offlane
Ukrainian dota player Vladislav Lays or laise plays in third position on the roster of the Navi esports club, which plays in the Dota 2 discipline. Currently, in August 2022, he is 21 years old.
By modern standards, Vladislav reached the professional level quite late, at the age of 19, i.e. in 2020. However, the very next season, Lais greatly improved his skills in playing the offlane role and achieved impressive success with his former team: he won the Champions League competition. Thus, he attracted the attention of Natus Vincere scouts and received an invitation to join the Navi Dota 2 team if he successfully passed the test. Lays passed the test with dignity, and since February 23, 2022, he has been a full member of the Navi club.
Vladislav’s favorite heroes:
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Tidehunter;
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Mars;
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Pangolier.
Semi-support
Let's move on to the representatives of Russia. The first of them is swedenstrong, also known as Georgiy Zainalabidov, a 19-year-old seven-support or, in other words, position 4 support.
He, the only one of the five, does not yet have a permanent place in the base, because Georgiy plays as part of the Navi Dota 2 team instead of ALOHADANCE, whom he replaces during the second season in the DPC EEU.
Navi swedenstrong received an invitation to join the roster in April 2022, having played on the pro scene for less than 1.5 years. The strength of Georgiy in his position is confirmed by his inclusion in the top twenty players from the European region.
The only major success of the promising player so far is the achievement of excellent personal indicators for his age in the 9th season of the Champions League.
Favorite heroes - Pagna and Enchantress.
Full support and part-time captain
This position in the Navi Dota 2 team is occupied by a veteran and the most experienced gamer under the nickname Solo. His real name is Alexey Berezin, he is 32 years old, and is from Russia. Just like No[o]ne, his best years were spent in the “golden” era. Virtus.pro, when he won eSports competitions organized by ESL in New York in 2015 and in Hamburg in 2017, and won the Major in Kuala Lumpur.
Alexey met Dota at the age of 13 and at first perceived it solely as a hobby and entertainment. He dreamed of becoming a lawyer and following in the footsteps of his father, who worked as an investigator. However, instead, he went to university to become a certified specialist in applied computer science in the economic field, simultaneously polishing his skills in Dota and moving from one low-paying job to another. This continued until he signed a contract in the early 2010s and began playing Dota professionally.
He was accepted into the Navi Dota 2 team on September 2, 2021.
Interesting facts about Navi
First. The actions of the current club captain, Solo, in 2013 caused a huge scandal in eSports, which almost cost him his career as a pro player. And all because of one fake match, which Alexey persuaded his teammates to play in the hope of making money on a bet against his team.
Solo, of course, started working. $322. And he ruined his reputation for about 2 years when they found out about his action. During the forced suspension, he made money from donations from streams and knocked on various organizations, asking to be included in the team. It is clear that everyone refused, because no one wanted to get involved with a gamer with a tarnished reputation.
Well, the number “322” became the object of numerous jokes and memes.
Second. A gamer with the nickname SoNNeikO (Akbar Butaev), playing in the position of full support, played for the Navi Dota 2 team 5 times with breaks. This is an absolute record among all players who have ever donned the “Born to Win” uniform.
