Perfecto joins Natus Vincere; GuardiaN benched

Natus Vincere have signed Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy from Syman, with the 20-year-old rifler replacing Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács on the lineup.

The announcement follows previous reports about of Natus Vincere looking to replace GuardiaN, with their first target being Evgeny "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev from forZe. As the deal fell through, Natus Vincere turned to Perfecto who averaged a 1.10 rating over his last six months with Syman.

Perfecto is Natus Vincere's newest signing

The signing of Perfecto marks Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's return to primary AWPing, while GuardiaN is placed on the bench and is open for offers. Natus Vincere's coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy explained that the squad did not have the synergy that was expected, pointing out the language barrier as a cause:

"A few days after Epicenter, we spoke with the players and agreed that the squad did not have the synergy we expected to have by the end of the year. Everybody tried very hard and progress was noticeable but in critical moments of the match, we lacked the coherence where we would react to the opponent's actions as one unit.

"One of the reasons is the language barrier, which was especially noticeable in the game against tier-1 teams, where quality and speed of communication is of great importance.

"That's why we decided to replace Ladislav, and s1mple returns to the AWP role, because he is simply the best in that field.

"A huge thanks to Ladislav for his persistence and effort. He was very worried about every bad result and always worked on improving himself. He's a world-class player, I'm sure he'll prove himself in future. His place will be taken by Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy, who established himself playing for Syman Gaming. Despite his lack of experience, Perfecto fits our team perfectly by his personality, the way of thinking and playstyle. He is a young, talented and dedicated player.

"I would like to express my gratitude to Syman Gaming for the utmost constructive approach to negotiations." - B1ad3

After their third roster change in a year, following departures of Ioann "⁠Edward⁠" Sukhariev, Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko, and now GuardiaN, Natus Vincere have one of the youngest squads at the top level, with Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev at 22 being the oldest member of the team. Natus Vincere will debut on LAN eight days from now, at the ICE Challenge in London.

Natus Vincere are now:

Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev
Denis "⁠electronic⁠" Sharipov
Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov
Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev
Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy

Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy (coach)
Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács (benched)