B8 sign npl

The Ukrainian youngster has a new home after spending just nine days on Natus Vincere's bench.

Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi has signed with B8, the Ukrainian organization has announced, with the 17-year-old joining the squad after being on Natus Vincere's bench since June 30.

npl's addition sees the youngster take the spot on the roster that was previously occupied by Altair "⁠kAlash⁠" Askarov, who parted ways with the organization on July 5.

npl joins B8 after spending the past seven months as a part of Natus Vincere, first acting as a sixth-man for the team before fully replacing Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev and earning a spot on the starting lineup at the beginning of 2023.

The 17-year-old struggled to adapt to tier-one competition in that time, however, with npl averaging a modest 0.92 rating across 63 maps before he was moved to the inactive roster. What's more, npl sat in the red in all but one of his tournament appearances in a Natus Vincere jersey, with a surprisingly strong 1.34-rated performance at the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR being in his biggest highlight during his seven-month stint with the Ukrainian-majority outfit.

Regardless, B8 will be hoping that the addition of npl and the experience he nows brings will be enough to help the Ukrainian ensemble reach the next level of their game.

B8 previously made it to the IEM Rio and BLAST.tv Paris Major RMRs and hit the ground running with surprising wins in the opening best-of-one phases. However, Arseniy "⁠cptkurtka023⁠" Derevinskiy and company were unable to translate these strong starts into actual Major berths, with the Ukrainians instead bowing out just shy of a Major appearance when play transitioned to best-of-three bouts, something the organization duly noted in their announcement post.

"We're thrilled to announce Andrii 'npl' Kukharskyi's entry into our CS:GO team from Natus Vincere, coming onboard for a long-term period with a priority buyout," read B8's announcement on Twitter.

"This is a big boost for our team, filling a gap we felt in our recent two RMRs. Anyway, building a strong team and perfecting our gameplay can take some time, but we're committed to working hard to achieve this as fast as we can."

B8 now have the following lineup:

Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz
Arseniy "⁠cptkurtka023⁠" Derevinskiy
Denys "⁠amster⁠" Liashenko
Mykhailo "⁠OWNER⁠" Lymar
Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi

Ivan "⁠maddened⁠" Iordanidi (coach)

Alexey "⁠alex666⁠" Yarmoshchuk (benched)