Na’Vi, in a move that has been rumored since earlier in the week, has made a change to their CS:GO lineup. AWPer Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács has been benched, with rifler Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy set to replace him.

Since rejoining the Ukrainian squad in September of 2019, GuardiaN has struggled to perform. In that three month span, he was the only player on Na’Vi to average below a 1.0 on HLTV’s match rating system. Worse still, many pointed to him taking the role of primary AWPer from Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev as having further contributed to the teams lack of success towards the end of the year. Since the start of 2020, there have been a number of rumors linking different players to his spot on the team.

According to the report on HLTV.org, Na’Vi’s first choice for GuardiaN’s replacement was forZe player Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev. However, they were unable to make that move happen and instead signed Perfecto, who has averaged a 1.10 rating over the past 6 months, from CIS team Syman.

With Na’Vi bringing in a rifler, s1mple will return to being the team’s primary AWPer. In regards to the decision to bench GuardiaN, coach Andrey “B1ad3” Gorodenskiy had the following to say:

Following this change, Na’Vi will go into the new year with the following lineup:

  • Egor “flamie” Vasilyev Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev Denis “electronic” Sharipov Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy

This move makes perfect sense for Na’Vi. The team brought in the veteran to improve their performance after the prior squad had fallen from #2 to #10 in the world. Unfortunately GuardiaN, whose performance had been inconsistent for most of the year when he was with FaZe clan, was unable to bring the desired impact as Na’Vi were unable to win any events after he joined the team.

Furthermore, GuardiaN’s position as primary AWPer presented some issues from a team composition standpoint. s1mple is considered one of, if not the, best players in the world, and while he is no slouch with a rifle, he’s better known for his work with the sniper. GuardiaN is the type of AWPer that struggles with other weapons, which means that he essentially held a monopoly over the big green gun even when he wasn’t performing well. Because of this, there really wasn’t a reliable way to get the AWP into s1mple’s hands without removing GuardiaN from the roster.

Perfecto is a young player at only 20 years of age, but has proven himself on a tier-2 team. He likely will be playing a supportive role at first as he gets to grips with playing against top-tier opposition. If anything, his presence at least allows s1mple to return to AWPing full-time. Perfecto, and Na’Vi as a whole, will face their first test of the year at Ice Challenge 2020 which begins on the 1st of February.

Source: HLTV.org