“We now have a real in-game leader” Seized and s1mple talk about Zeus return

A year after Natus Vincere started doing poorly in international events, the most accomplished team in Ukrainian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive seems to have finally regained some of their confidence after Zeus returned.

With Danil “Zeus” Teslenko back in the roster, Na`Vi put on a solid performance at DreamHack Malmö from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3 where they made it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by NiP. Despite their result in Malmö, both Oleksandr “s1mple” Dashkevic and Denis “Seized” Kostin are optimistic about the team’s future, as they showed during a press conference prior to the now-airing ELEAGUE Premier.

“It was a great experience for us in our first tournament [DreamHack Malmö],” s1mple said.

Zeus comeback came almost one year after he was removed in order to get s1mple. Despite leading the team to several top two finishes, Na`Vi seemed to be doing slightly worse than before. On Aug. 4, 2016, the team brought on s1mple as a replacement, shifting the in-game leader over to Seized. Less than two months after the roster change, Na`Vi won 2016 at ESL One New York against Virtus Pro. The team was expected to become one of the best in the world, but instead, they proceeded to put on worse and worse performances—which finally culminated in a top 14 finish at the PGL Kraków Major in July. This means that Na`Vi will have to re-qualify for the Valve Major circuit for the first time in three years.

Meanwhile, Zeus gradually improved his new team, Gambit, to such a degree that they took home the PGL Kraków Major. On Aug. 9, Na`Vi announced that Zeus would once again be wearing their famous black and yellow colors, something that had s1mple excited. “We have a lot of potential in our team,” s1mple said. “I believe in a couple of months, we will become much stronger. We just need time.”

“Of course Zeus is a better in-game leader than I am,” Seized said. “He has much more experience than I have. The biggest difference is that Zeus works with a much looser style in his rounds—where I was a lot more focused on specific tactics,”.

The team now is competing at ELEAGUE Premier, where Na`Vi shares its group with FaZe Clan which acquired legendary players Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer and their former AWPer GuardiaN.

With Na`Vi’s first win against G2 Esports, the team looks to be continuing its upwards trajectory back to the top of CS:GO.