Natus Vincere Exclude BoombI4

The Ukrainian organization Natus Vincere has announced a significant change in their CS:GO roster – the club decided to exclude the 23-years-old Russian player Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov, who used to be the team’s in-game leader.

In the official statement the organization says that this decision is not related to the team’s results. Instead, they decided to exclude the player due to “high reputational risks for the club”. Earlier the organization’s CEO Yevhen Zolotarov revealed that they were going to cut ties “people who live in Russia and who pay taxes to the Russian Federation”, as their response to the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Even with Boombl4’s departure, the roster still has two Russian players – Denis "electroNic" Sharipov and Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy, their future remains unknown. Earlier the club said it was ready to help the Russian players to relocate.

Boombl4 is a 23-years-old player who joined Natus Vincere in 2019, taking the reins from no other than Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko in 2020. Under his leadership the team managed to win their first major ever, PGL Major Stockholm 2021, and emerged victorious at a number of premier events in 2021, among which were two World Finals of BLAST Premier, two Intel Extreme Masters events, as well as the 14th season of ESL Pro League. Recently the team also finished 2nd at PGL Major Antwerp 2022, losing to FaZe Clan (2-0) in its grand finale.

NAVI:

• Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
• Denis "electroNic" Sharipov
• Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy
• Valerii "b1t" Vakhovskyi
• Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi (coach)