Natus Vincere are yet to have announced a permanent solution for their fifth and final member of the roster. After benching "Boombl4" a spot within the already impressive NaVi roster was left open. Filling the shoes of "Boombl4", at least for now, is the Ukrainian rifler Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev. The 25-year-old player played with NaVi at the recent BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022 event, a performance that can only be said to be succesfull seeing that NaVi won the entire tournament with "sdy" as a part of the roster. It has now been confirmed that "sdy" will also be playing for NaVi at the upcoming IEM Cologne event.

Having received praise from the perhaps greatest player of all time, and for now, also teammate, "s1mple", NaVi seem in no rush of getting a new fifth member to their roster. Whether or not he will remain in the NaVi ranks after IEM Cologne is, of course, unknown. However, if he puts up yet another great performance and NaVi goes ahead and wins the entire event, it is safe to assume that his position within the roster could very well become of a more permanent character than it is at the moment. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"s1mple-about-sdy-he-is-ready-learn","isNewTab":true}]

The current NaVi roster, going into the IEM Cologne event, looks as follows: 

somedieyoung

Natus Vincere

Another victory and another trophy have been added to the trophy room of Natus Vincere as they have just beaten Vitality in the Grand Final of BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the Ukrainian superstar "s1mple" has managed to acquire yet another MVP title, marking his 20th. so far at big events. 

We spoke with the star of NaVi just after their victory against Vitality. When asked about the victory and how it feels to lift the trophy in Lisbon he said the following: 

The great performance of NaVi comes off the back of the somewhat shocking news that the CIS giants had chosen to bench "Boombl4", their in-game leader. To fill his shoes was "sdy" who had very little time with the roster before being tried and tested on the big stages of Lisbon. In regards to the future of NaVi and "sdy", "s1mple" had the following to say: 

"s1mple" followed up by praising the new addition to the roster: 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/somedieyoung_juv1xs","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

When asked more in-depth about the NaVi future, and whether or not this could be the start of a new era for the CIS giants, he makes sure to explain that it is too early in the process to say: 

To hear the exclusive interview with "s1mple" in its entirety, you can watch our talk with the Ukrainian superstar down below: 

s1mple

Since the shocking news was released that "Boombl4" was benched at the Natus Vincere camp and that he would not be participating in the big upcoming events for the roster he had spearheaded toward success for quite some time, many people have been wondering who the fifth and final player of the iconic NaVi CS:GO roster would become. With BLAST Premier Spring Final right around the corner, the CIS giants, that is NaVi, were in dire need of a fifth player to complete the roster. 

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Whilst it is still unsure as to who the permanent solution for the benched "Boombl4" will come to be, their issues regarding BLAST Premier Spring Final have been solved. To fill the shoes of "Boombl4" is the Ukrainian MAD Lions player Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev. The 25-year-old will be joining NaVi on loan for as long as he is needed as a temporary stand-in. 

Whilst "sdy" is just announced as a stand-in for know, Natus Vincere have explained that dependent on his performance in Lisbon for the upcoming event, his future at NaVi could hold more than just a stand-in role for the Ukrainian player. 

Not known for his capabilities as an IGL, "sdy" will not be taking the role as the primary caller of NaVi. Instead, it has been announced that "electroNic" will seek to transition into the role of Natus Vincere's new primary caller. 

The NaVi roster for the upcoming BLAST Premier Spring Final event looks as follows: 

MAD Lions fans can look forward to an exciting 2022 with their two latest signings.

Viktor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev was benched at the end of 2021 on Team Spirit after having spent almost four years on the team. The 24-year-old Ukrainian joins Michał "MICHU" Müller on the MAD Lions roster just a day after the Polish player was signed.

With the two new signings in place, MAD Lions will consist of:

{cflag:LT} Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius 

{cflag:PL} Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller 

MAD Lions

The third legend spot from the Challenger stage belongs to Virtus.pro. The CIS roster won their third match in the opening stage of the Major to qualify for the next stage with a narrow 2-1 against Team Spirit.

The action started on Inferno with a close first half, but from there on everything fell apart for Team Spirit. It started with a stupid mistake by Victor “sdy” Orudzhev who accidentally stabbed his own in-game leader  Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov in the back, leaving his teammate with little health in the pistol round in the second half. Virtus.pro won the pistol round and the next seven rounds to win the map.

[twitchVideo:pgl/clip/CarelessIncredulousJuiceTwitchRaid-ceUyYSTJMhiDyeiE]

Team Spirit had chosen Ancient as map number two. But quickly they had to realize, that Virtus.pro came well prepared. Nothing seemed to work for Team Spirit, who could see Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev go 12-0 in K-D before finally winning a round at 0-7 down. 

Spirit was trailing for the rest of the first half trying to catch up. On their CT-side the Russian roster managed to make the game much more even, and through some very solid defensive plays, they destroyed Virtus.pro. Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev went 20-5 in the second half alone!

Overpass was set as the decider. Here the two teams started by trading rounds until the halftime break. In the second half, it became evident, that it was Spirit, who had found themselves a momentum. In-game Dzhami 'Jame' Ali had a rough time on the map, where he was outgunned by Abdul 'degster' Gasanov, who finally after two slow maps had started to heat up. Despite multiple rounds of opening kills going in favor of Virtus.pro, they could not convert them to round wins and went behind 14-8. Two-round wins separated Team Spirit from a ticket to the Legends stage, but then they froze. Virtus.pro managed to tie the game up at 15-15 and forced the match to overtime. 

Here Virtus.pro was finally able to get the better of Spirit, who seemed to have lost their momentum again. VP won the match 19-15 and is through to the Legend stage at PGL Stockholm. Team Spirit will have to win tomorrow against another 2-2 team to make it to the next stage.

Team Spirit - Virtus.pro 1-2 | PGL Stockholm Major Challengers Stage

7-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:LV} YEKINDAR – 1.36 Rating / 19-13 K-D / 86.1 ADR

16-12 (Ancient) | {cflag:UA} sdy – 1.36 Rating / 21-14 K-D / 92.1 ADR

15-19 (Overpass) | {cflag:KZ} buster – 1.40 Rating / 31-20 K-D / 99.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:KZ} Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev – 1.31 Rating / 69-50 K-D / 88.0 ADR

qikert

chopper

Virtus.pro

Spirit

The second day of the PGL Stockholm Major has commenced with the Challenger Stages continuing its Swiss-style format. In the first match today, Spirit and TYLOO stood in front of each other, as they both posted a 1-1 record going into this round.

The difference in level and performance between TYLOO and the European side was very obvious from the very start, as Spirit quickly established momentum in the bo1 battle on Overpass. Their captain and IGL Leonid “Chopper” Vishnyakov managed to set up a solid CT defence, which caused a lot of problems for TYLOO.

After going up 12-3 before the switch, Spirit closed out the battle on Overpass by a swift T-side where they sustained their dominance.

Spirit – TYLOO 1-0 | PGL Stockholm Major Challengers Stage

16-3 (Overpass) | {cflag:UA} sdy - 1.73 Rating / 21-8  K-D / 104.9 ADR

TyLoo

With Fnatic and MOUZ already having captured the first two spots at IEM Winter, there's only one ticket left for the upcoming LAN tournament. Today the remaining four teams at the closed qualifier will battle each other for the last spot through two initial matches, followed by a lower bracket final which is going to be the deciding match.

Pinnacle Fal Series 1 is about to reach its dying stages of the tournament, with the semifinals being held this Wednesday. The four semi-finalist Spirit, Virtus.pro, Virtus.pro and SKADE, with the latter team being the only side that has played in the group stage of the event. The superstar trio in Spirit, VP and FaZe are all playoff invites, that entered the tournament in quarter-finals, and therefore only has played one match so far.

In the first semi-final between SKADE and Spirit, the Bulgarians have a big task in front of them with Spirit being ranked 10 spots ahead of them in the world ranking. It will be exciting to see whether SKADE can maintain their five-match win streak at the tournament. The match will go live at 12.00 (CET) and can be seen on the following channel. 

SKADE

At Pinnacle Cup II we have reached the playoff stage. Here four teams have entered the tournament in the Quarter-Finals. Among them was Team Spirit who was paired with the Bulgarian team Fiend in the Quarter-Final. Team Spirit was without their normal AWP'er "degster", but that did not stop them from winning the match.

Victor “sdy” Orudzhev took matters into his own hands and defended B-site on Dust2 with a beautiful ace. We have selected the play as our Pley of the Day.

You can see our previous Pley of the Day for the month of July here.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"pley-day-juli","isNewTab":false}]

An intense and entertaining clash of titans ended once again with Gambit on top yesterday. 

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A victory that sets the number 1 in the world up for a match against K23 in the first of the two semi-finals from the CIS RMR event.

Gambit Esports

After two strong victories for EPG Family and fnatic, it's time to find the third semifinalist. It will be determined between the two Russian teams in Spirit and forZe, who both possess some very interesting and talented rosters. 

You surely don't want to miss this thrilling matchup!

forZe

Today’s first matchup from BLAST Premier Spring Showdown featured two strong in-form teams in Spirit against Extra Salt. Two teams that both are coming into the match with great records, and both have presented stellar levels so far in 2021.

However today on the server, the difference between the Russian dragons and the North Americans were enormous. It was quickly displayed that Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov and his troops were quite the superior factor, as Spirit took home the first map on Train with a comfortable 16-10 win.

On Dust2 Spirit’s Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev presented two outstanding pistol rounds where the Ukrainian showboated his insane aim by tapping numerous Extra Salt heads. The strong performance by sdy and chopper on their own map pick, led the strong CIS team to a much-needed win, while Extra Salt suffer an early exit from the event.

Spirit – Extra Salt (2-0) | BLAST Premier Spring Showdown

16-10 (Train) | degster – 1.70 Rating / 28-13 K-D / 93.6 ADR

16-8 (Dust 2) | chopper – 1.62 Rating / 22-17 K-D / 80.4 ADR

Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov – 1.52 Rating / 42-28 K-D / 89.1 ADR

[twitchClip:BadDistinctSwallowTBTacoRight-PewqcoupgvPcMbti]

degster

Extra Salt

Pinnacle Cup 2021 is back with its thrilling playoff campaign where strong teams like Gambit, BIG, NIP, and Spirit has entered the competition.

In the first match today, it's the latter team in Spirit who will try to grab a semifinal spot against their countrymen from Gambit. The strong Russian dragons will take upon Nemiga in the first quarterfinal at 10:00 (CET)

You can watch the match on the following channel:

Nemiga Gaming

The strong Russian side from Team Spirit has qualified for the upcoming BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, after they today defeated 1WIN in the Grand Final at Winstrike CIS Spring Cup.

The newly concluded event worked as a qualifier for the prominent BLAST Premier tournament, which holds a strong $165.000 worth of prize money.

Spirit displayed their utter dominance in the Grand Final against 1WIN, where they dismantled their opponents and took no prisoners throughout the match. Their superstar AWPer Abdul "degster" Gasanov dominated the server, especially on the last map where he presented a staggering 2.10 Rating with a following insane 129.5 ADR. 

Spirit – 1WIN (2-0) | Winstrike CIS Spring Cup

16-8 (Nuke) | degster – 1.47 Rating / 22-11 K-D / 90.3 ADR

16-6 (Overpass) | degster – 2.10 Rating / 30-10 K-D / 129.5 ADR

BLAST Premier Spring Showdown | Atending list 

Astralis – Liquid – Gambit – Vitality – Heroic – G2 – FURIA – OG – MIBR – NASR – Spirit

Spirit has been phenomenal so far at IEM Katowice, and the Russians are only continuing their strong form from the Play-In stage and their impressive victory at DreamHack Open January. The Dragons have now taken down the superstars from G2 and also the strong Danish side in Heroic. 

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/strong-russians-take-down-heroic-iem-katowice/","text":"Read more: Strong Russians take down Heroic at IEM Katowice"}]

Spirit’s longest-standing member Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev has in a post-match interview, talked about their great form and how the upcoming matchup against the mighty Astralis won’t scare them.

[twitchClip:PowerfulRelatedWallabyGivePLZ-OrBw8uC8jyUrv22i]

sdy also touches on the addition of the promising AWPer Abdul “degster” Gasanov from Espada, and the massive impact he brings to the team. The powerful Russian has averaged a stellar 1.23 Rating, since joining Spirit back in Januar. 

[twitchClip:LuckyDarlingBurritoPanicBasket-OCIBwikWM4F_KLNz]

Spirit will meet Astralis in the upper final at IEM Katowice, which is set to be played on Sunday at 19:00 (CET)

Heroic

The star-studded event of DreamHack Open January is at its end after four days of thrilling CS:GO from big and renowned teams as BIG, Evil Geniuses and Gambit. Yet, it was the two underdogs in Spirit and FunPlus Phoenix who yesterday managed to qualify for the Grand Final at the $70.000 event. 

Spirit has impressed everyone throughout the event, especially their new loanee Abdul “degster” Gasanov has shown strong performances with the Russian youngster proving his insane level of Counter-Strike. The 19-year old AWPer and his new teammate Nikolay “mir” Bityukov has stood out as two key players for Spirit, both averaging a strong 1.24 Rating at the event. 

Their opponents from FunPlus Phoenix are maybe the biggest surprise, owing to the newly established team ending in the same group as BIG and EG, with the Germans and Americans as heavy favourites going into the tournament. However, with a certain Dutchman in the lead and a well-playing AWPer in Asger “Farlig” Jensen, FPX grabbed their first Grand Final appearance.

You can watch the Grand Final at DH Open January here. (Kick-off at 16:00)

FunPlus Phoenix

As 2020 comes to an end, we take a look at the teams, that reached top 20 on HLTV's ranking.

Team Spirit is one of the few top teams, that has not had roster changes in 2020. The core of the team was gathered in late September 2019 and has since then climbed the rankings from almost being out of the top 50 in the world to continue being in the Top 20 since April 2020.

At ESL Pro League Season 12 Team Spirit made it out of the group stages to the surprise of many. They managed to secure wins against NiP, FaZe, mousesports, and Team Vitality.

In the playoffs, the Russians were handed a defeat to BIG and the later winners from Astralis, who eliminated them in the lower bracket.

The massive downfall in the DreamHack Open Final against Gambit. The Russians had taken the first map, but only managed to win 15 rounds in the next three maps in the BO5 Grand Final. 

The team is qualified for the IEM Katowice Play-in, which will be the first major goal for the roster. 16 teams will play for 8 tickets to the main event. The Russian side will have to find the same quality, as they found in mid-2020.

20: Godsent [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-godsent/"}]

iDISBALANCE

magixx

At DreamHack Masters Winter the Russian team Spirit managed to win against FaZe, before being KO'ed from the tournament by Heroic and Cloud9.

Their Ukrainian Riffler Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev had a good tournament, where he was among the highest rated on his team in the three matches.

On his Youtube-channel he has put out this frag movie from the event.

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	10	25
Maps count	25	59

somedieyoung

Player stats

Articles mentioning somedieyoung

sdy still with NaVi for IEM Cologne

s1mple about sdy: "he is ready to learn"

sdy join NaVi as stand-in for BLAST Spring Final

MAD Lions brings in somedieyoung to complete 2022 roster

Virtus.pro through to Legends stage after three map thriller

Strong Russians take down TYLOO at PGL Major

Today in CS:GO - Tuesday 19/10 - 2021

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Pley of the Day: Spirit player picks Bulgarians apart with Deagle Ace

Today in CSGO - Friday 2/7 - 2021

Live: Spirit vs forZe

Strong Russians batter Extra Salt at BLAST Showdown

Live: Spirit vs Nemiga (1-0)

Spirit qualify for BLAST Spring Showdown after 2-0 victory

Spirit rifler: We don’t feel pressured playing against Astralis

Live: Spirit – FunPlus Phoenix (Grand Final)

Spotlight on the Top 20: Spirit

Video: High pulse action from Ukrainian Spirit player

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