It’s official: Sergey “ARS-ART” Revin has left the Na’Vi Dota 2 squad and has been replaced by Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov from Team Empire. Meanwhile Dmitriy “LighTofHeaveN” Kupriyanov will take a some time off to be replaced by Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi from Mousesports. We knew of the changes a couple of days ago thanks to various tweets from Na’Vi CEO Alexander Kohanovsky. Rumours were in abundance over who was getting the axe and who Na’Vi might be picking up, resulting in some very educated analysis from some of Dota’s most prominent figures.
Read below for the full statement.
Na’Vi have always been on shaky ground ever since they lost to Invictus Gaming at The International 2012. The Chinese team even coined Na’Vi as the “three man team” due to ARS-ART’s and XBOCT’s poor performance. ARS-ART was even reluctant to practice with the team prior to TI12.
It looks like that XBOCT’s close friendship with captain Puppey has paid off however, resulting in ARS-ART drawing the short straw. Here is what ARS-ART had to say about the decision:
“I would like to thank Natus Vincere e-Sports Club for this wonderful year and a half that I’ve been a part of it.” said ARS-ART. “Thanks to the guys for their your support and victories. Thanks to the staff for all their assistance in every aspect. Special thanks to ZeroGravity, of course, who asked me to join Na`Vi back in that days. I want to wish good luck and new achievements to the new team. See you soon, just in a new squad!”
Captain Clement “Puppey” Ivanov also has this to say:
“Today I announce that one of our players will be leaving the team, Sergey “AA” Revin. The presence of Smile in this team will always be remembered, because he was a part of what created Na`Vi.” stated Puppey. “Times have been different and conflicts have arisen. It has been an uneasy environment for a long period of time, we have been trying to fix this situation but have failed to do so. That is why we will bring new blood and friendship to the team. Funn1k, an old friend of XBOCT and a remarkable player will be joining us today to rebuild Na`Vi and create a new environment”
The replacement player, Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov, has shown huge progress in the competitive scene lately. Some are slightly shocked however that he is willing to leave his old team, Team Empire, while in the middle of several competitions. Funn1k had this to say regarding the switch:
“I feel sorry to leave my current team, but still Na`Vi is on top of the e-Sports and it’s worth trying to become the best.”, said Funn1k.. “I am very happy that I will be now playing with this team and won’t say smth like ‘we will become number 1 in the world’. I don’t know if we will, but I know that I’ll do my best to make it happen”
As for LighTofHeaveN, it would appear he just wants a break from Dota 2 and the tension of playing competitively. He gave this short statement:
“Thank you all for your support, I will go inactive for 2 months. Thanks to Na`Vi for our time together.”
The captain Puppey had a few more words to add:
“Today I announce that one of our players will be going inactive – Dmitriy “LighTofHeaveN” Kupriyanov. Dima is an extraordinary player and person who will be missed in Na`Vi. He will always be remembered for what he has done to this team. Once again we bring new blood and friendship to the team, I welcome you Na`Vi.KuroKy. Another remarkable player and a person that has been my friend for as long as I can remember playing this game. The time to prove ourselves has started once more.”
His replacement comes in the form of ex captain Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi from Mousesports. Kuro did not have a statement at the time of the announcement.
Finally to round all the changes off, Alexander Kochanowsk, the CEO of Na’Vi shared his statement:
“First of all I want to thank both Sergey and Dmitriy for their immense contribution to the team’s progress and all those victories we were able to achieve all together. These players deserve tons of respects from all of our fans because there would be no Na`Vi we know today.
Secondly I ask you to understand that we did not look for easy decisions. But sometimes further progress require some changes as the team stopped to move forward approximately a year ago. Some players lost their motivation, some did not want to practice. There were different reasons for that and everyone bears the same burden with no exceptions. This is how the situation looks like, no excuses.
Now let’s move forward to our new players: Funn1k and Kuroky. I am sure that they will help us not only to maintain the level of play we are used to we will improve even more. The team will treat the practice process and their matches differently which will eventually effect the end results.”
The new Na’Vi squad took on their first competitive match last night against 3DMAX. It didn’t look promising at the start, with newcomer Funn1k actually giving away first blood. Na’Vi quickly recovered however with Dendi showing us his skills with Windrunner and XBOCT attaining a lighting fast Radiance at nine minutes.