Before the start of Group B at ESL Pro League Season 18, we had a talk with Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev about the team and his own role as an in-game leader. Or so we thought. During the interview, the former NAVI-player revealed, that the team has switched the duty of in-game leader to Volodymyr "Woro2k" Veletnjuk, who will be calling the shots from the get-go on Monte.

- We change in-game leader for this tournament and maybe for further. We will get Woro back to calling start rounds, and I will mid-call, and we will try to work this way combined together, so it will be easier for all of the team, sdy explained to Pley.gg

The departure of Mohammad "BOROS" Malhas has left the team with too few aggressive players, which is the reasoning behind “freeing” up Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev.

- As Boros left the team we were missing aggressive players who were taking space, so I will focus on that and on my individual game more in the start of the rounds. It will be a bit easier for me in the start, the 26-year-old Ukrainian explained.

We have had problems with our health. The same players got sick. There is no room for preparations is all I can say. Right now, we will prepare our game here in Malta, Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev said.

The situation in Ukraine with the war against Russia has not helped Monte either. The three Ukrainians on the team are obliged to follow the martial law that are currently in place in Ukraine, where men aged 18-60 who are deemed fit for combat are restricted from leaving the country. Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev, Volodymyr "Woro2k" Veletnjuk, and Serghij "DemQQ" Demchenko all need special permission to leave the country to play in tournaments.

- We can only travel with the permission of our government which is basically for the tournaments. We get permission for two weeks, and we go out for the tournaments and then in time we need to be back to the border to sign papers that we are back.

The situation has so far prevented the team from bootcamping, but that might change in the near future.

- In bootcamps it is much easier to fix our game and get better. But we will have it a bit later, maybe before IEM Sydney, because we should have longer permission, Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev says.

Monte will face BIG in the opening round of Group B in ESL Pro League 18 later today. In the full interview below, you can hear more about that match and also more about the change of in-game leader.

[youtube:IYnozeEJWPc?si=ss71Bpr1SQX1BWwm]

Monte

Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev did not hold back when he went on Twitter this Tuesday accusing the Polish team PALOMA of cheating. Something he did right after sdy and Monte had defeated PALOMA in the Grand Final at European Pro League Season 6.

- If you analyze their demos it’s obvious to any reasonable player that they are cheating. It’s a disgrace to our Counter-Strike scene, and I will not be silent. You should use any anti-cheat, doesn’t matter which tier the tournament is it, sdy wrote on Twitter.

The team sdy is accusing is the former Permitta lineup that was released from their duties at the start of this month. Following their farewell, the Poles went back to play for PALOMA until they will find a new banner to represent.

At the newly-concluded European Pro League Season 6, PALOMA/Permitta managed to take down the likes of MOUZ NXT, Astralis Talent, and Nexus. They were also featured in the play-in stage at this year's IEM Katowice where they took on Complexity and the Brazilians from FURIA.  

We have reached out to PALOMA and other individuals from the roster to get a comment from them.

Permitta

PALOMA

The renowned Counter-Strike mastermind, Andrij "B1ad3" Ghorodensjkyj, has been scratching his head for a long period of time due to the evident and quite obvious problems at Natus Vincere.

Before the start of the 2023 season, NAVI revealed that they were promoting academy player Andrij "npl" Kukharsjkyj to the main squad, which meant a farewell to the more experienced Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev.

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A decision, NAVI’s head coach has opened up about in a recent [link:{"url":"https://players.com.ua/news/eksklyuzyv-andrij-b1ad3-gorodenskyj-pro-prychyny-porazky-v-pivfinali-pik-formy-sdy-ukrayinskyj-kibersport-i-vijnu/","isNewTab":true,"text":"interview "}]with players.com.ua. Here B1ad3 explains that they saw no “prospects” in sdy despite him wanting to sign a longer contract.

- We didn't see prospects in him, we see prospects in young players. (…) He can get a little better somewhere, but he doesn't fit our style or skills in the game, we still need something else.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/b1ad3_navi_vpzvuw","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

B1ad3 sitting behind his two superstars (electronic and s1mple)

Further on in the interview, B1ad3 comes along why NAVI decided to pick up sdy as a stand-in following the departure of Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov in May last year, saying that NAVI won’t take a player a player who has turned 25 on a permanent contract.

- It was the best option at the time, B1ad3 said. 

- Everything is simple here, there should be no illusions. We would never take a player who is 25+ on a permanent basis. Of course, he had a chance, if he played incredibly well and everything was great, he made no mistakes and everything was great, of course, we would have kept him.

B1ad3 then continues to talk about NAVI’s strategy on the breeding of young CS:GO talents and how to implement them on their star-studded main team – alongside the likes of s1mple and electronic.

- The organization and we in the team realized that we need to have a very strong player in two years, for example, and we decided to give this chance to young Andriy [npl], who will be able to progress.

- In general, NAVI works in such a way that we give young players a chance. First it was Valeriy [b1t], it could have been m0NESY if we hadn't dominated, but we really dominated and there was no room for him.

You can read the entire interview with B1ad3 here (in Ukrainian).

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Natus Vincere

Natus Vincere is miles away from owning and occupying the CS:GO throne.

That seems to be a fair assumption to make here at the beginning of 2023 after yet another struggling showing so far at BLAST Premier Spring Groups.

Going into the new season, NAVI revealed that Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev were to leave the team which assured the 17-year-old Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi’s spot on the renowned CIS squad. But that would not have happened if it was up to Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy, he revealed in an [link:{"url":"https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1718922190?t=3h22m19s","isNewTab":true,"text":"interview "}]with James Banks.

- I was expecting these [struggles] because, in my plans, I still wanted to play this event with sdy and npl. I knew that if we removed sdy we will struggle with the map pool, because for a young player it's hard to play all the maps in such a short time and in new roles. I knew that it's better to still play Katowice and BLAST and then to see what we have.

B1ad3 then spoke about npl and the criticism of the teenager following his arrival to the team.

- After Abu Dhabi, there was scepticism like not a lot of players were really confident in him. But in my opinion, we must always give a chance to young players and we must not criticize and judge them from one event. It's too early for them.

At the moment, I like the dynamic of npl. If he keeps going like this, after Katowice he will be a different player. The dynamic is really good for such a young player, if we compare it to what it was in Abu Dhabi.

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We got the chance to speak with npl himself before the event, where we asked him about his first time on the team.

- It was a couple of rough matches [at BLAST Premier World Final in Abu Dhabi]. But I’m playing better and here at BLAST Spring Groups, I probably will play better because we’re working on my mistakes with b1ad3, where I’m trying to be more helpful as I said before and more experienced, npl said to us. 

Question: What does it mean for you that you’re not on trial anymore and you’re not fighting for your spot with another player?

- It means a lot to me. But it doesn’t mean that I should stop progressing or something like that, in fact I need to practice more and more so I can be a better part of the team – because we haven’t known each other for so long. This time I’m getting more and more comfortable, so I just have to practice more so I can be more helpful to the team.

NAVI will play their next match at BLAST Premier Spring Groups tomorrow at 18:30 (CET). Here they are set to go up against Complexity or Evil Geniuses in the battle for a spot at BLAST Spring Finals later this year. 

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nipl

25-year-old Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev signs for Monte on a permanent deal. Former Natus Vincere player somedieyoung has since December been a free agent after he parted ways with the Ukrainian organization. 

sdy believes that Monte is the right place for him to show his full potential, and he also believes that the project fits him well. 

The Ukrainian rifler played under the Natus Vicere banner for six months where he managed to reach his first trophy as a pro player at BLAST Premier Spring final 2022. A year with ups and downs for the Ukanien organization, sdy saw himself leaving the roster to create space for their upcoming rifler Andrii "npl" Kukharskyi who played as their six-man during the BLAST Premier World Final. 

somedieyoung played his first game as a Monte player during the European Pro League Season 5 back on 13th January 2023. The next time we get to see sdy and monte in action will be against BIG Academy in the Elisa Invitational Winter 2023 Contenders on 19th January. 

Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke {cflag:DK}

The Danish rifler has been consistently synonymous with controversy over recent months, yet the prevailing opinion still remains that he deserves further shots at the big time, and I couldn't agree more.  I doubt that a top 20 team will pick him up before the roster-locks of the new season continue to slam doors shut but if a team like NiP perhaps don't make as many waves as their plans for the year would hope for, he would be an outstanding pickup. Who knows he could even be in line for a sensational return to Astralis if their fortunes don't improve. If I’m a team like OG or ENCE, I am immediately enquiring about the possibility of signing the Danish superstar at earliest convenience.

The Ukrainian rifler didn’t have the easiest time during his stint with Na’Vi, never fully being given any job security, but he deserves to be mentioned here, having by no means hampered their pursuit of greatness and even securing the trophy at BLAST Premier Spring Finals. Now, do I think that he is entirely suitable for a team containing the greatest of all time? No, but he is clearly a serviceable support player and any top 20 team would surely be enriched by his addition. Due to the ongoing political situation, there sadly aren’t many options for the Ukrainian to pursue within his region, so a team like OG could be a solid shout moving forward.

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Mateusz ‘mantuu’ Wilczewski {cflag:PL}

The Polish AWPer has been inactive for a while but absolutely deserves another shot at the big time. While a little inconsistent, it’s hard to see how he hasn’t found another team since being benched by OG back in July. Once again the names of ENCE and NiP reappear as potential candidates for his signature if their year gets off to a less than ideal start, or perhaps a hop across the pond to save NA with the ailing Evil Geniuses.

The Danish hybrid hasn’t made the best of life choices since abandoning Heroic while his ex-teammates now sit atop the HLTV rankings as the best in the world. With underwhelming forays into North America under his belt with Cloud9 and Complexity, the ‘brightest star in the Danish night sky’ has since been benched again by NiP. Role turmoil and a change in IGL did nothing to help the Dane but yet another relative failure has left him with very little option moving forward but a team like Sprout might benefit from his experience.

k0nfig

mantuu

es3tag

Towards the end of 2022, NAVI announced that Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev won’t get a permanent contract putting their faith in the talented youngster Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi instead.

Today sdy played his first official match since his departure from the CIS giants as he featured in a Bo3 series for the Ukrainian team Monte. It was in a group stage match at European Pro League Season 5 against Viperio, which ended up in the favour of sdy and Monte presenting a clear 2-0 victory.

Monte currently has a roster spot open for sdy as they decided to place Frederik “FESSOR” Sørensen on the bench yesterday. Whether or not sdy will be his replacement is not known or something the two parties has confirmed – however his performance today was quite impressive.

1.18 Rating / +7 K-D difference / 77.8 ADR

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S1mple and co. have been known for competing for every trophy they got their eyes on. But in recent months, the team hasn't been performing at its top level. After some bad results at the IEM Rio Major, and a lack of firepower at ESL Pro League season 16, a few rumors are now circulating around the NAVI roster. This got the super team to rethink their current roster, leading to a six-man roster going into the BLAST World Finals, with Andrii "nipl" Kukharskyi coming in from the NAVI academy roster to play some maps doing the Worlds Final. 

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Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev is NAVI´s newest edition to the team, the rifle first played under the leadership from B1AD3 back at IEM Cologne, and since then has become a permanent part of the team. sdy is the main man when talking about roster changes, but in an interview with HLTV, he didn't seem to let the rumors prevent him from showing a great performance against the Brazillian team Fluxo who NAVI played and beat 2-0 yesterday doing the BLAST Fall Final. 

What has been said to you about bringing nipl in, has it been said that you are fighting for your place?

- For now basically he is just watching how we play, he is learning by spectating, but in the near future he will play some maps, sdy told [link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/35138/sdy-on-fighting-for-his-place-if-i-couldnt-handle-these-things-why-should-i-stay-in-the-roster","isNewTab":true,"text":"HLTV"}] doing an Interview.

Watch the full interview with HLTV right here:

With the IEM Rio Major 2022 being done it dusted, lots of CS:GO teams are in the process of deciding what their team card of players should look like in the upcoming year.

At NAVI, Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev got acquired back in June as a temporary stand-in for Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov, and has been a part of their roster ever since. The IEM Rio Major 2022 was a rather disappointment for NAVI who had to settle for a 5th-8th place finish after they got eliminated by the home-town favorites from FURIA in the quarter-finals of the event. Here at the IEM Rio Major, sdy finished off the tournament with a 1.01 Rating across a total of 10 maps. The question is now, will sdy stay on the NAVI roster? Or will the organization search for another 5th man?

Well, if you ask the 24-year-old former Astralis player, Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen, he thinks NAVI should take a look at the Entropiq camp, where 22-year-old Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy is currently to be found. Bubzkji thinks Forester would be a perfect match for NAVI and deserves the chance as he’s playing a lot of the same positions sdy is.

The Russian talent is currently signed to the Entropiq organization, who last month decided to put all their players up for sale on the transfer list.

Bubzkji

Forester

Entropiq

It was a Friday night in Rio filled with tension and excitement before one of the most anticipated matches of the year took place. In Jeunesse Arena the crowd had found their way to the brawl between FURIA and NAVI.

On paper NAVI were the clear favorites, but what would 18.000 screaming fans do to the equation?

We quickly got the answer. On Nuke, NAVI’s map pick, the match was much closer than expected. FURIA kept up, and even had a golden chance to steal the map away in the end, but lost to an eco buy from NAVI to effectively hand NAVI the map.

FURIA did not take the flat ending to the first map with them to Ancient. On their own map pick they dominated the T-side leading 10-5 at the half. The Brazilians won the map 16-11 to put the Arena into ecstasy!

But it was not the noise level or the fantastic atmosphere that stood out the most. It was s1mple! The Ukrainian mastermind was lowest on the scoreboard after the two first maps! A 0.84 rating told the story of a superstar that had missed a couple of sitters. Was the crowd getting to him?

Mirage was the third and final map of the game. Normally a good map for both teams. It was FURIA who took an 8-7 lead to the second half. In a nailbiter of a second half the two teams fought each other in the inferno of Jeunesse Arena.

At 10-10 the match took a turn. For the first time on the map, FURIA created a gap. Everything went in the way of FURIA! The Arena erupted while all the kills went in the way of FURIA. FURIA won 16-10 and is ready for the Semi-Finals, while NAVI and s1mple are out of the tournament after a lackluster performance.

FURIA will now go up against Heroic tomorrow.

FURIA - NAVI 2-1 | IEM Rio Major Champions Stage

14-16 (Nuke) | {cflag:UA} sdy – 1.23 Rating / 21-16 K-D / 76.6 ADR

16-14 (Ancient) | {cflag:BR} KSCERATO – 1.68 Rating / 24-15 K-D / 107.4 ADR

16-10 (Mirage) | {cflag:BR} drop – 1.65 Rating / 29-14 K-D / 102.7 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BR} Kaike “kscerato” Cerato - 1.37 rating

Lowest rated: Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev 0.87 rating

s1mple

KSCERATO

drop

FURIA

IEM Rio will be the second CS:GO Major of 2022 and the first-ever Major tournament to be held in Brazil. The Challenger Stage of the Major will kick off on October 31, with the Grand final of the event set to be played on November 13. Once the Legends Stage kicks off, a total of 16 teams will be competing for the lion’s share of the $1.250.000 prize pool, with the winner walking away with a Major trophy and $500.000.

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{cflag:UA} Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev – 1.29 Rating in 2022

{cflag:RU} Denis “electronic” Sharipov – 1.11 Rating in 2022

{cflag:UA} Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev – 1.01 Rating in 2022

{cflag:RU} Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy – 1.04 Rating in 2022

{cflag:UA} Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy – 1.12 Rating in 2022

Is not that long ago since NAVI fell out of the Top 3 of HLTV’s World Ranking for the first time since they acquired Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy to the first team. Their last dip from the Top 3 dates all the way back to May 2021, so it’s not a secret that there have been some questions regarding the team who had a disappointing start to the second half of the season. This is the reason why the spotlight was sat on the new IGL, Denis “electronic” Sharipov, who many didn’t find as the right man for the job. However, after a rough 5th-8th finish at ESL Pro League Season 16, NAVI picked themselves up and made some clear changes in the way of approaching the game, which has helped them finish the rest of this year, until now, with podium finishes.

They succeeded in moving through the RMR Europe with ease, recording no losses at all to secure a 3-0 record. At the end of the event, electronic and s1mple were to be found on the top of the best-performing players with a 1.58 and 1.48 Rating, respectively.

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Many CS:GO fans would probably be pointing to Natus Vincere as one of the favorites alongside FaZe and Team Vitality to win the IEM Rio Major. They’re the second-most recent Major winner behind FaZe, and their coolness and individual experience on the big stage could get them a long way, even if they aren’t hitting their best day as a team. Our prediction is that s1mple and company from Natus Vincere will reach the semi-final of the Major. But, the only way to know for sure is to tune in to the Major when it kicks off on October 31, 2022.

 2nd at PGL Major Antwerp 2022, 1st at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022, 1st-3rd at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022, 1st at Intel Extreme Masters Road to Rio 2022: European RMR B.

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electronic

Perfecto

B1tGOD

The ongoing war in Ukraine is still creating chaos on all fronts for everyone with ties to the country. For one of the best CS:GO teams in the world this is certainly also the case with NAVI having three players and a coach from Ukraine.

One of them spoke out on Twitter after NAVI secured qualification for IEM Rio.

In the post Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev explains his state of mind.

- A lot of really shit things going on in my life, don’t wanna make it an excuse, but I have some anxiety about nuclear attack possibility and safeness’s of my loved once. Have to clear my mind and all be good. Much love everyone and thanks for support. Hard work pays off.

Previously Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev has explained how the war has caused him to relocate to another European country.

Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev ended the RMR tournament with a 1.01 rating. The 25-year-old rifler is still playing as a stand-in on the team after replacing Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov earlier this year.

A lot of people were impressed by Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev during the match in ESL Pro League match between NAVI and Team Vitality. It was especially his CT side on Inferno on the first map of the match that caught the attention of many. The newest addition to the NAVI roster was tasked with the difficult job of anchoring the A-site taking over the role of Denis "electroNic" Sharipov on the map.

Against Team Vitality the Ukrainian went 19-5 on the CT side to almost completely deny Team Vitality all of their A attacks during the map. 

Both Team Vitality and NAVI made it through the groups at ESL Pro League, and will be ready when the playoff stage begins in a couple of weeks.

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

sdy

Player stats

Articles mentioning sdy

sdy reveals: Woro2k will take over the IGL-role for now

sdy calls out Polish team of cheating: It’s a disgrace to our scene

b1ad3 reveals why NAVI picked npl over sdy going into 2023

B1ad3 on NAVI youngster: If he keeps going, he will be a different player after Katowice

somedieyoung joins Monte

Who are the most exciting players on the market right now?

sdy plays his first match following NAVI exit

sdy: We are still playing shaky, a lot of mistakes that shouldn't happen at all

Bubzkji to NAVI: Give this player a chance

NAVI out of IEM Rio!

IEM Rio preview: Natus Vincere

NAVI Ukrainian: I have some anxiety about nuclear attack

Video: Play Inferno Pit like sdy

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