Natus Vincere have announced that Yegor "markeloff" Markelov has left the team.

The news comes as a huge surprise as Markelov had been a vital part of Na´Vi since the creation of the team in December of 2009, when two players from HellRaisers decided to merge with three former KerchNET members.

In the space of months, and with the backing of Kazakh millionaire Murat "Arbalet" Zhumashevich, the team became a big hit, winning events like the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship and the World Cyber Games.

In November, Na´Vi decided to try CS:GO out, but it took them a lot of months to be able to reach a top level, as every other big team had already been playing the game for almost three months at that time.



markeloff exits Na´Vi

Earlier in the month, things seemed to be finally going their way as they finished runners-up to Ninjas in Pyjamas at the SLTV StarSeries finals, but they failed to impress at Prague Challenge last weekend, losing the Czech event to the Nostalgie mix.

Tired of all those disappointments, Markelov has decided to put an end to his time in Na´Vi, suggesting that he already has a new team lined up.



"Leaving Na´Vi was an incredibly difficult decision, because I have been with these guys since the beginning," he said. "Together, we created this team and we won a lot of things thanks to our work, but it is time to change something. I want a radical change and therefore decided to take this step. "I cannot put to words how grateful I am to these players. I only you will accept my decision and move forward, as Na´Vi have always done."

Arseny "ceh9" Trynozhenko admitted to being surprised by his team-mate's decision, but stressed that the team will find a replacement for the highly-rated AWPer.

"It is hard to say goodbye to a man who put to waste all the things we have achieved over the last three-and-a-half years," Trynozhenko added. "Despite this, I want to express my gratitute to him for all he has done for me, the team and the fans. "It is very unfortunate that we will not be able to play together anymore, but o not despair! We will go ahead! Good luck to everyone!"

Na´Vi now have the following team:

Sergey "starix" Ischuk

Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko

Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko

Ioan "Edward" Sukharev

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