npl: "Maybe two years ago I could only dream about this, but now it is a reality"

20-1-2023 10:32

Natus Vincere begin their road to the Spring Final against Ninjas in Pyjamas on Saturday.

Natus Vincere arrive in Copenhagen armed with Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi, yet another product of the NAVI Junior academy to break into the tier-one scene. The 17-year-old made his debut for the main team as a sixth player at the BLAST World Finals last year and played three maps.

npl replaced sdy in December

While he didn't have the best performance in Abu Dhabi, he did enough to convince Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy and company to give him a permanent spot on the roster.

HLTV sat down with npl before his debut as a full-time member of the main team to reflect on his feelings in the team so far, as well as his clash with ex-teammate Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov in the opening match of the tournament.

You've had some time to process everything, how are you feeling now about making the permanent move to the main team?

It feels amazing, I don't know what else to say. Really amazing feeling.

How does it feel coming into a practice server with names such as s1mple, electronic, and b1t? How is practice in general?

Maybe two years ago I could only dream about this, but now it is a reality. Now I'm just learning from them and getting experience. Practice is good, I am learning a lot. Sometimes I make a mistake, sometimes a lot of mistakes, but I'm trying to fix them.

You are now coached by B1ad3 who knows how to develop talent, how is it like working under him?

He is helping me not to make mistakes. He also helps me with macro situations, what I need to do when something on the map happens and how to react to information. He also watches demos with me.

Does seeing b1t, who came into the academy and now proved he is one of the best rifles in the world, motivate you to follow in his footsteps?

I mean we are different people, so it shouldn't give me confidence. Considering we are different players, his story doesn't matter to me, I need to make my own.

You stood in at the World Final for sdy on Inferno and Mirage. How did it feel to play at that tournament?

I was only feeling nervous at the start of matches, when I was on the server it was a lot better, I didn't feel pressure, maybe a bit (laughs).

You are meeting headtr1ck, your ex-teammate from NAVI Junior, in the first round of a really stacked group. How will that feel?

Of course I want to win against him, I will do my best in the game and help my team to get the victory.

And finally, what are the aims for NAVI this year?

Of course we want to win titles during the year, and also I want to put up consistent performances for my team. I'm also very excited for the first Major, we will see if we can make it.

will be kicked like SDY in few months

2023-01-20 10:33

11 replies

Facts

2023-01-20 10:35

agree.. this was such a bad move :(

2023-01-20 11:09

2023-01-20 11:17

if people dont perform for a long time i think its fair to kick them wtf

2023-01-20 11:20

3 replies

kick b1t

2023-01-20 12:15

2 replies

hes been getting better and he was always better than sdy

2023-01-20 12:21

1 reply

I remember so many matches latelty which sdy was performing well enough while b1t was underperforming. He wasnt always better than sdy. He was beast in his first year and first half of 2022 then he started to play like a random t2 player. B1t last 3 months stats : hltv.org/stats/players/18987/b1t?startDa.. (getting worse) They dont kick b1t because they hope maybe he can play like in 2021 again.

2023-01-20 12:48

Sdy was bad

2023-01-20 11:36

sdy wasnt that bad, but npl is very bad

2023-01-20 12:59

Future Bymas, i cry sometimes thinking about that

2023-01-20 11:51

or sold for 600k

2023-01-20 12:22

straight outta top 10

2023-01-20 10:34

no worries buddy, s1mple gonna kick you in no time

9 replies

blad3 calls all the shots ma man

2023-01-20 11:19

6 replies

and how do u know it xd?, navi literally historically kicked all the players s1mple didnt like to play with, weird correlation

2023-01-20 11:30

5 replies

Edward said S1mple was against his kick but Navi kicked him.

2023-01-20 11:37

4 replies

zeus, guardian, sdy

2023-01-20 11:39

Zeus retired wtf And sdy was too bad, should have been kicked earlier. And guardian kicked himself by lying to the team for more free time

2023-01-20 11:43

dude literally every player he ever dissagreed with has been kicked from the team and its a fact, i am not saying its a bad thing, since as navi i would want to have my best player in the world playing with ppl he wants, but lets not rewrite history and act like s1mple has not been kicking players, half of is family is working in navi, are u saying he has no words in roster changes?

2023-01-20 11:58

zeus (or it was kane, i dont remember but they are still buddies so who cares) told that they could acquire sdy back in 2019 but instead they chose boobmla

2023-01-20 12:45

Ofc ch0k0 fan thinks s1mple controls everything in NaVi lmao. s1mple respects the whole structure and B1ad3.

2023-01-20 15:09

what niko has to do with this topic xd

2023-01-20 16:17

Time will tell for how long but gl

2023-01-20 10:40

He is pretty much saying 2 years ago playing in NaVi was a dream :D Now it is a casual thing that no one cares about, cause the team is at their worst :D

2023-01-20 10:43

they've been worse before

2023-01-20 11:01

It's also my dream to be mid

2023-01-20 10:47

Will flop

2023-01-20 10:48

character developmint

I'm also very excited for the first Major, we will see if we can make it. Bro What ?? No way NAVI will be next G2, right ?

The game has such meta, that you can change any player (except simple and zywoo mb) for any 4k elo player with 10k hours and you won't see any difference. Feels sad that experience doesn't play a crucial role these days.

2023-01-20 10:52

8 replies

true, if experience was a thing we could have roster with zeus edward lmbt johnta ange1 and other 50yo grandpas

2023-01-20 10:55

I believe they are 70 yo already, no?

2023-01-20 11:04

30-35 yrs old but 1. zeus doesnt want to play, he just lives his own life and brings up his daughter 2. edward was playing with bondik (whose is searching an awp player for one unknown but fully ukrainian team) in cossacks but then it disbanded very fastly 3. lmbt is working as caster on maincast and as coach in monte 4. johnta is doing both coach work in some ukrainian valorant stacks and also casting some (looks like there will be more and more) valo tournaments 5. ange1 is playing valo for navi and imo things could be slightly different if hr werent naming big price for ange1/lmbt wasnt kicked from mousesports

2023-01-20 12:53

it does play a crucial role. if the newcomers can't hold their nerves in a big arena full of screaming people, then they crumble and have 0.2 rating. the effect that lately has been referred to as onliners.

2023-01-20 11:05

Interesting, can you detail more? Was thinking that, now with all the structured plays, setups and stuff, room for freedom and use of experience and brain is much lower nowadays (early and mid rounds). Paradoxically, more structure, more advanced meta and stuff could have favored young aimers instead of players relying on their brain/experience

2023-01-20 11:56

what did i just read haahhaha

2023-01-20 13:06

this is the most stupid take i've seen in a while

2023-01-21 08:59

Well, now you can understand maybe. 2 players from 162 team by ranking play on the same level as "tier-1" players. Of course there are a lot of factors, but Hippzz upper wrote how this works.

2023-01-21 17:25

blade system too good navi back to top1

2023-01-20 11:21

You’ll be back to dreaming if you keep being a bot

won't be there in 5-6 months

2023-01-20 11:25

Good luck, but I don't think this guy is the solution to anything. NaVi needs a real igl. Could be a trophyless period for them for the forseeable future until they realise the error of their ways.

2023-01-20 11:31

Don't forget the fact that a majority of the players still have an ongoing war in their home country, i know by now it shouldn't affect them much, but it obviously still does

2023-01-20 12:13

Sure he seems like a nice kid but it’s sad Navi was satisfied with his performances in the recent tournaments. Only benefit from them kicking sdy is that they have no scapegoat anymore.

2023-01-20 11:42

+1 sdy was never the real problem

toxic hltv npc above

2023-01-20 11:44

QUALITY CONTENT.

2023-01-20 11:49

gl to him

2023-01-20 11:54

n1pple?

2023-01-20 12:12

this kid wont be even decent and navi will waste him just like sdy

2023-01-20 12:38

"Considering we are different players, his story doesn't matter to me, I need to make my own." this line feels weird?? i mean he could've just said yes but he was kinda rude towards b1t

2023-01-20 13:07