NaVi director on goals for the future of the club: “Right now it is important for us that we are perceived in the world as a Ukrainian club”

In the latest series of interviews with Oleksiy 'xaoc' Kucherov, the topic of the future of the Ukrainian club is raised, as well as the importance of the academy in various disciplines and Natus Vincere's attitude towards signing foreign esports players.

Xaoc talked about the future of NaVi in the next few years. It is very important for him that in the world the club is perceived primarily as a Ukrainian organization, and not a CIS club:

How do I see the future of NaVi? Good question. I would like to name something specific here, but everything depends on the war and when it will end. How do I see it now? Right now, it is important for us that we be first and foremost a Ukrainian club and be perceived in the world as a Ukrainian club, and that the Ukrainian flag flaunt at international tournaments. If you look at the distance of 3-5 years, then, frankly, I don’t know how it will be. Perhaps in some disciplines we will go completely to Europe and completely reshape the squads.

Alexey expressed his gratitude to HLTV for the fact that the editors of the portal made concessions and changed the Russian flag to the Ukrainian one:

I talked to HLTV a year and a half ago about changing the Russian flag to Ukrainian. During the war, we wrote to them again and they violated their policy and met us halfway and changed the flag to Ukrainian, for which we thank them very much.

Kucherov expressed his thoughts on the development of Ukrainian eSports in general. He believes that academies are a very important part of the esports industry:

The very first thing is the academies, which I have repeatedly spoken about. Secondly, this initiative should come not only from NAVI, but also from other Ukrainian clubs. Thirdly, there should be some kind of platform where academic teams should perform and show their strengths and themselves as a whole. We communicated with various publishers and tournament operators and ask that Ukraine in esports be referred not to the CIS region, but to Europe. We want Ukrainian players to play with European teams and fight with European players. On the other hand, I do not want propaganda regarding Nazism to be confirmed in this way.

The COO of NaVi also spoke about the situation with foreign players:

We are considering the option of signing foreign players. Especially if you look at the signing of the female Polish roster (CS:GO — NAVI Javelins). We wanted to go to Europe because we couldn't find suitable players from Ukraine or Russia. For those squads where we cannot assemble a combat-ready squad in the CIS, of course, we are looking towards Europe.

Alexey spoke about the future of Natus Vincere outside the main disciplines and Amiran's departure from the post of coach of the academic CS:GO roster:

We want to make a Valorant Junior roster. We know that most likely we will not be able to find five normal players from Ukraine. With a high probability, if there is a youth team, it will be an English-speaking roster. But if we want to assemble with the participation of Ukrainian players, then it will be more like five Ukrainians in the Valorant roster. We have long been thinking of creating several academies in different disciplines. We wanted this especially after we saw the results for CS:GO. It is important for us to see the progress of B1t and how he now carries the Ukrainian flag in LAN tournaments and represents his country in international tournaments.

Amiran will no longer be limited to the CS:GO discipline. He will share his experience with players in other disciplines as well. He has a good rich experience, which will now be directed to the improvement of esportsmen from other disciplines.