NAVI enter Valorant esports, first player announced

One of the best-known and most successful squads in the FPS genre will once again make its way into another esports discipline, now that Natus Vincere, also known as NAVI, has announced the creation of a dedicated team for Valorant.

The esport organisation fields teams in Rainbow Six, but it is in CS:GO where they made their name, for the past six years their roster has contained arguably the best CS:GO player in the world, Oleksandr Olehovych Kostyliev aka s1mple. With s1mple in their side, the team have consistently competed with the best with headline-grabbing victories in the past year in both the  Intel Extreme Masters and BLAST Premier.

NAVI will hope to continue that success in a game that has its fair share of crossing over with a number of CSGO professionals heading to Riot Games' rival shooter.

And they'll start that journey with Kirill “Cloud” Nekhozhin, a promising 17-year-old from Russia, winner of two VCT Challengers tournaments and finishing in the top four at the CIS Masters.

"Stand tall. We are #VALORANT, we are fighters!" Meet our first player — Kirill “Cloud” Nekhozhin!

📰: https://t.co/AR3ck3veLL#navination pic.twitter.com/PUlqmTpxYZ

— NAVI (@natusvincere) June 18, 2021

Speaking at the announcement, Cloud said he felt "honoured to be a part of NAVI and incredibly happy to get this chance."

“I have been given the opportunity to prove that I am a VALORANT player for a reason. I will do my absolute best,” added the player.

On the creation of this new division Aleksey “xaoc” Kucherov, COO of NAVI, said the following: “Valorant has developed greatly in the world since its launch. Although the discipline is still at an early stage in the CIS, things are looking promising. Therefore we want to develop the game in our region. Our goal is to bring as many top-ranked players to the world championships as possible."

(Picture: HLTV)

Likewise, xaoc revealed that over the next several months the team will hold tryouts and compete in Stage 3 qualifiers, after which they will make the decision on the final roster.

We are sure the entrance of NAVI into the Valorant scene will mark a before and after within the CIS region, the potential to dominate it is all too clear if you look at their past success.

• Read more: KAY/O unveiled as Valorant's 16th Agent

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