Noone and SoNNeikO Decide to Join NAVI Despite Missing WePlay AniMajor

Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko and Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev have left AS Monaco Gambit to join Natus Vincere. In the team they will replace Bogdan "Iceberg" Vasilenko and Andrii "ALWAYSWANNAFLY" Bondarenko. Meanwhile, Gambit will play at the upcoming major with two stand-ins.

Both SoNNeikO and No[o]ne started playing for Gambit this February. Soon after joining the team, SoNNeikO lost his faith in the roster due to poor results and expressed his desire to leave. However, the organization insisted that the team should finish the season together and passed the in-game leader role to Noone. Despite placing third in the regional DPC league and qualifying to the major’s Wild Card stage, the players felt like they did not have a chance to qualify for The International with this line-up and decided to leave.

Last month NAVI made a controversial decision to replace Viktor "GeneRaL" Nigrini with Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev. Later the members of the team explained that for a long time the team had been close to disbanding due to poor results and a lack of a strong captain, and a change was needed. The updated roster participated in the second season of ESL One Eastern Europe Upper Division, where they placed 6th and failed to qualify for the major and almost dropped to the lower division. Now the team will practice to prepare for the qualifiers for The International.

To perform at the upcoming major, Gambit have recruited a 18-years-old Artem "Lorenof" Melnick from Gambit’s second roster and a 28-years-old Stanislav "633" Glushan from Fantastic Five. The team will start competing in the Wild Card stage, where they will fight with Nigma, Secret, Vici, IG and Exectration for two spots in the group stage.