https://www.cybersport.ru/dota-2/articles/perekhod-no-o-ne-i-sonneiko-v-navi-eto-bezumie-tak-my-nikogda-ne-vyigraem-the-international

NAVI, once – accident, four – madness

SoNNeikO returns to NAVI for the fourth time. The phrase itself sounds somewhat absurd. How not to recall the quote of Vaas Montenegro from Far Cry 3: “Madness is an exact repetition of the same action. Time after time, in the hope of change. ” Moreover, Butaev’s most successful entry into NAVI was precisely the first time, when he, together with Dendi, ArtStyle and GeneRaL, took second place at ESL One Frankfurt 2016, won SL i-League Season 2 and qualified for The International. It was then that SoNNeikO made a name for itself: Butaev was perceived as one of the strongest supports and captains in the CIS. However, since then, over the years, SoNNeikO has not been able to create a single solid team. His appearance in the lineup often gave a short-term positive effect, this happened more than once: in NAVI, NiP, Chicken Fighters and Live to Win, which was later signed by Gambit. However, all these stories ended in the same way – a series of rearrangements and the departure (or kick) of SoNNeikO. Why the management of NAVI decided that this time everything will be different is a big question.

However, the problem is not even how SoNNeikO left the teams earlier, but how he acted specifically in this situation. A captain who, after three defeats, declares that he does not believe in the success of the team and wants to leave it, is a dubious reinforcement for any roster. The ability to take a punch, to take responsibility in difficult situations are the qualities that define a true leader. Pro players often say that the most important ingredient in a successful roster is teammates’ faith in each other. However, where does this belief come from if there is a possibility that one of the team members may spit on the lineup after the first setbacks?

If NAVI sees Butaev as an exclusively temporary option in order to patch up the gap in the lineup before TI, then I would like to know why the choice fell on him, because now the roster is a kind of budget version of Just Error. Working and managing star players is not an easy task, especially in the realities of the CIS. And the experience of the same Elephant shows that such roasters will not necessarily show decent results. SoNNeikO, about which professional players often spoke very controversially, noting its complex nature, is probably not the one who can extinguish the conflicts inevitable in any team and reason with the stars who won millions and, of course, now have an inflated ego.

There was not enough time to play

Transfers SoNNeikO and No.[o]ne raises even more questions if you look at the situation from the side of the esportsmen themselves. Both players claim that their main goal is to get to The International 10. They do not believe that Gambit could reach the final of the Major and get a slot. Therefore, we chose NAVI because with the team they will have more chances to qualify. However, let’s remember what are the main reasons esports players usually cite for unsatisfactory results. Three points come to my mind: lack of match due to lack of time, bad atmosphere within the team, pressure from outside. Do not you think that SoNNeikO and No[o]ne subscribed to an option that (potentially) includes all of these points?

Now NAVI will not have tournament practice, the team will be able to hone team interactions only in training. Moreover, most of the possible top opponents for the clanwar will compete in the Major in the near future. In addition, NAVI did not just replace two players in terms of positions – the team expects a redistribution of spheres of influence. After all, we remember that RAMZES666 came to the team as a caller, and now the potential captain SoNNeikO and No[o]ne, who took over as the leader and drafter at Gambit at the end of the season.

It sounds confusing, but in reality it can be even more difficult. And with all this in mind, the team will need to find a suitable play style and hone strategies within a limited time frame. At the same time, in the qualifiers for The International, the team will have to play against teams that have been playing together for a long time. With this in mind, I believe that SoNNeikO and No[o]ne would be much more likely to overcome the qualifications with Gambit, having, in fact, only one powerful competitor in the person of Team Spirit (and even that is not a fact, suddenly a miracle will happen and the roster will reach the final of the Major).

The second point is bad atmosphere. Even after the first season, NAVI players vied with each other about the spoiled atmosphere within the team. Judging by the results of the second season and subsequent replacements, the situation has not improved since then, while Gambit should have been on the rise after a successful second half of the season and reaching the Major.

And finally, outside pressure. The failure of NAVI in the second season of the DPC can be justified by the wave of hate that hit the players due to the kick of GeneRaL. However, the team had to understand that such a reaction was inevitable, and therefore, take it into account. Now the situation is unlikely to change: leaving Gambit a week before the Major is unlikely to add fans to SoNNeikO and No[o]ne. NAVI have set themselves a target for the entire community, which is already being targeted by thousands of viewers and even media personalities. And all this shortly before qualification. It is unlikely that such pressure will be a plus for the team – was the transfer worth it?

Gambit is a victim, but there are questions to her too

In this situation, AS Monaco Gambit is a human pity. The team, after three defeats in a row at the start of the second season, managed to qualify for the Major, albeit to the Wild Card stage. As SoNNeikO himself said, he transferred the duties of coordinator and drafter No[o]ne, and under his leadership, the roster began to win. That is, it turns out that a week before the start of the major AS Monaco Gambit lost not just two players, but also the leader who controlled the game.

Despite the assurances of AfterLife that the substitution team’s morale was not affected in any way, it is clear that the departure of two participants is a weakening at least in terms of play (although, I am sure, psychologically too). AS Monaco Gambit made it clear that it did not want such a development of events, but the club had nothing else to do. And here the statement of the Alliance manager Maria Gunina about these transfers is excellent.

Sometimes it seems that organizations are simply held hostage by the players. Ecosystem, contracts, agreements, commitments are just a bunch of words. At the top of the cybersport pyramid, there is still a capricious child stamping his foot. I sincerely empathize with Navi and Gambit

– Marie Gunina (@gunina_ok) May 25, 2023

In the CIS, everyone is accustomed to the thesis that the players should steer the process of creating and managing the squad. Sometimes such an approach can bear fruit, as in the case of Nigma or even Team Secret, in which the captains themselves created an organization around themselves and their power, if I may say so, is justified. However, the situation in which e-sportsmen signed by a third-party club want the same powers looks strange. And it’s good if the organization itself decides to put the transfer issue in the hands of the coach and the captain of the roster – this is at least a conscious choice, although, as the story with NAVI after the first season has shown, it is not always successful. However, if the players can afford to “lose faith in the team” in the middle of the season and calmly leave before the most important tournament, substituting the team at the same time, it means that the established system of relations “club – cybersportsman” is broken.

Hello Valve

It would seem, what does Valve have to do with it, if we are talking about local transfers in the CIS? However, there are more global prerequisites for what is happening. We have only two Majors, but their share is so small that the players do not even see the point in participating in them if they do not expect to win. And the behavior of e-sportsmen in this case is understandable.

Dota 2’s dependence on The International has been talked about a hundred times already, but perhaps this season the gap between TI and all other tournaments has become really frightening. We got a situation in which most teams simply didn’t need a second Major – some had already guaranteed themselves a slot at TI, while others had lost almost all chances of earning it. But, again, we are talking about the SECOND Major of the season – not the sixth, as it was a couple of seasons ago. All this is due to the strange distribution of DPC points … and, of course, the modest prize money – it is 80 times less than that of TI. All this together gives rise to situations such as with SoNNeikO and No[o]ne, simply devaluing the last six months of the competition. Which, in turn, probably goes against Valve’s original idea of ​​streamlining the season and transfer market with regional leagues.

We barely mentioned ALWAYSWANNAFLY and Iceberg, who were left without a team at the end of the season. FlyToMoon’s story is a tragicomedy. The players who created their team so that they would not be kicked are thrown out of the box three months before The International, although until recently it seemed that the roster would surely play in the main tournament of the year. The incident went negative for everyone: Gambit, NAVI, ALWAYSWANNAFLY, Iceberg and GeneRaL. And the main problem is that, again, we are talking about the largest organizations in the region, and not just stacks of friends, which means that a similar situation may still happen – and more than once. We will continue to lose line-ups, and therefore the chances to show ourselves worthily on the international arena. Against this background, one cannot count on the progress of the CIS.