Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev was not featured on Natus Vincere's roster during the group stage of BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 for personal reasons. Now the star CS:GO player heads to Denmark for the finals.
Young player Daniil "headtr1ck" Valitov was featured on NAVI's roster instead of s1mple, as the group stage was not a knockout procedure and only determined which stage of the playoffs teams would start from.
NAVI played well in the group stage with headtr1ck
Fans were worried when NAVI lost to Complexity, seen as the weakest team of the group B, in the first match of BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022.
While there was talk of NAVI starting play-in stage from the quarterfinals due to s1mple’s absence, they did not get a comfortable win against G2 Esports in lower bracket round 1 as well. With a score of 16-14, NAVI barely got away with a win.
After that, NAVI started to perform much more spectacularly. They won 16-3 against Complexity, against whom they were defeated in the upper bracket round 1. In the group's grand final, they easily defeated Team Liquid with a score of 16-4.
In short, headtr1ck was certainly not a weak link in NAVI's roster. However, of course being s1mple is not simple. According to NAVI's coach Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi, although headtr1ck performs very well, he is not ready for top tier competition. According to the coach, the 18-year-old performs well for his age. However, he still emphasizes that the NAVI Junior player is not ready for this level of competition.
In the play-in stage of BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022, do you think NAVI will be able to eliminate their final opponent without difficulty? You can watch all the matches of Fall Groups 2022 on Luckbox and place bets on your favourite teams. Moreover, you can enjoy the tournament with our Free Bet special for BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022.
Here is B1ad3's comment on headtr1ck:
“I think that he is not ready to play versus tier one comfortably enough. I see how passive he is sometimes because he doesn't know what to do, because he's afraid to do something, for example. Or he doesn't know how to do this, for example.
It's like you get experience, you go higher and higher on a hill, and from the hill you see more, you know what I mean? A metaphor. It's like this. At the moment, he has some potential, but he's not on the hill, he doesn't see what is going on there.
When he understands the macro, how it works on the map, I think it will be much easier for him to compete.”
Although the young player performed quite well, with the return of s1mple, known as CS:GO's GOAT, NAVI will definitely have a much more relaxed play-in stage. Do you think the same way or should headtr1ck have completed the tournament?
Excitement is at the top on the play-in stage of BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022. Don't forget to follow the tournament on Luckbox and be informed about the latest news with us.
