According to a couple of reports by 1pv.fr and HLTV, Natus Vincere are on the verge of signing Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov. The agreement between Natus Vincere and Winstrike is reported to be at a very advanced stage. 20-year-old will be replacing Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev on the lineup.
Natus Vincere will undergo this shuffle after a period of eighteen months. In this period, CIS squad triumped at ESL One: Cologne 2018, BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2018, StarSeries i-League Season 5 & 7, CS:GO Asia Championship and DreamHack Open Winter 2017.
However, with this lineup, they failed to conquer the most vintage CS:GO event, the major. And this could further suggest a possible reason behind this move. S1mple and co. are not satisfied with top five placements. They want to win and they want to win big.
Ioann “Edward” Sukhariev has been a part of Natus Vincere since 2009 when Na’Vi came into action. However, for a short period he played for another organization but the legend has dedicated rest of his decade to the ‘yellow-black powerhouse’. Since Counter-Strike 1.6 days, he is reckoned as a popular figure throughout the Counter-Strike scene.
On the other hand, Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov rose to fame backed by Quantum Bellator Fire’s (QBF) impressive run at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston and strong individual skills. Kirill picks up the AWP and is the IGL for Winstrike. It still remains unclear whether Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev would be the primary AWP or him. Eventually, Aleksandr could return back to being a hybrid.
This move, in turn, creates more space within the Natus Vincere lineup to replace Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko in future as the 20-year-old is a capable in-game-leader.
If the move comes in action, the Ukraine majority lineup will turn to a Russia majority lineup:
- Egor “flamie” Vasilyev
- Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko
- Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
- Denis “electronic” Sharipov
- Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov
- Mikhaylo “Kane” Blagin (coach)
TalkEsport had earlier published a Natus Vincere fantasy lineup. The article featured Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov.
