NAVI.GG.BET Dota 2 team changes the roster: the position 5 support Nikola “LeBron” Popovic is stepping down from the team. This decision was made after a string of unsuccessful performances by our lineup.



Nikola will be replaced by Fedor “velheor” Rusikhin, who will be taking the fourth position, while Lil is going to shift to position 5.



Also, we’ve made a decision to withdraw from ESL One Birmingham 2018 and pay more attention towards the training: very soon the new roster will gather on the training base in Kyiv. The main goal is to prepare for China Dota 2 Supermajor, which is going to take place between 2nd to 10th of June in Shanghai.



Igor “caff” Sydorenko — NAVI Dota 2 team manager:



“We've decided to replace the player now and withdraw from Birmingham, which was uncertain anyway due to visa issues. At the beginning of the next week we will gather for a short bootcamp in Kyiv, after which we'd go for a 1-week bootcamp in China for the full-fledged Supermajor preparation. Upon the return from China we would return to the training base in Kyiv again, and will be playing TI8 open qualifiers from there.



I would like to thank Nikola for the time and effort dedicated to the team. He is a great person and a teammate to work with. It might not be obvious to many, but he was contributing a lot to the team. However, we did not manage to get to mutual understanding between the support and core players. One could say LeBron sacrificed himself in this tough moment to save the team”.



Yevhen Zolotarov — CEO Natus Vincere:



“We have very slim chances left of getting an invite to The International, which is why we decided to go for a roster change right now so we have enough time to practice with a new support. I want to thank Nikola for his dedication and unwavering positive attitude. Good luck, Lebron! I am also glad to welcome Fedor and wish him luck on the team”.

NAVI.Dota 2 roster:



Danil “Dendi” Ishutin

Viktor “GeneRaL” Nigrini

Vladyslav “Crystallize” Krystanek

Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk

Fedor “velheor” Rusikhin



Igor “caff” Sydorenko (manager)

Oleksandr “XBOCT” Dashkevich (coach)