Natus Vincere have decided to pull out of the Development League for ECS Season 2, the team announced on Aug. 23.

Na`Vi's eSports director Eugene "HarisPilton" Zolotarev gave a statement in the team's press release. "Unfortunately, due to the busy schedule and significant load on our CS:GO team Natus Vincere have to decline the participation in ECS Season 2," he said. "Nevertheless, our squad will participate in many other tournaments in autumn."

Na`Vi forfeited ECS Season 1 to take a competitive hiatus to recover from playing a large number of events, and as a result were forced to play in the Development League to qualify for ECS Season 2. However, it looks as though they will be missing out on Season 2 for similar reasons.

This is likely a blow to the league, as Na`Vi are one of the higher-profile teams that were set to play, especially now that they have acquired Ukranian star Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.

Open Qualifiers #1, #2 and #3 have been completed for the ECS European Development League, and six of the eight berths are now filled:

Invited Qualified GODSENT Gambit eSports Team AGG Team X FlipSid3 Tactics TBD Tricked eSport Open Qualifier #4

Further details on ECS Season 2's schedule are expected in the coming weeks.