Natus Vincere has denied that it paid $1.35 million to acquire Ivan “iM” Mihai and Justinas “jL” Lekavicius from Cybersport.
Ahead of the next Counter-Strike season, Natus Vincere surprised the FPS community by moving from a totally Ukrainian-Russian roster to an international one. This included a rumored trade with Apeks and GamerLegion that cost the organization $1.35 million, something that NAVI has since denied.
Natus Vincere recently released Denis “electroNic” Sharipov and Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy , who ended up on the Cloud9 roster after a reported $2 million trade. Natus Vincere used that money to acquire iM and JL, according to a report from Cybersport, which read that NAVI paid $900K for iM and $450K for JL. This seemed possible since iM was very desirable after his performance at an earlier Major.
But NAVI recently accused the reports of having falsified information. JL also took to X to share his thoughts about the report.
After seeing the report from Cybersport, NAVI told Dust2.us that the numbers were inaccurate. The amount for iM was specifically a lot higher in the reports than how much NAVI paid in reality. The total amount was “two times greater” than what Natus Vincere actually paid for the two players, according to Dust2.us.
Only time will tell if the investment was worth it. Natus Vincere still have to adjust to their newly English-speaking team. The new squad got 4-6th at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups and 7-8th at IEM Cologne 2023.
The next big tournament is Gamers8, and then the ESL Pro League Season 18. Hopefully, the team has improved their communication and gelled a bit more by then.
Olivia Richman
About Olivia Richman
Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.
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