Natus Vincere bench Boombl4

Natus Vincere on their blog website have announced the exclusion of Kirill “⁠Boombl4⁠” Mikhailov from their active CS:GO division citing hardships faced due to Boombl4’s nationality and due to the latter paying taxes to the Russian Federation, which indeed triggers “high reputational risks for the club”. The CIS club did mention that the benching of Boombl4 is not a result of his performances across the recent tournaments. 

“We are not going to work with people who live in Russia and who pay taxes to the Russian Federation,” said Yevhen Zolotarov, CEO Natus Vincere in a press release as he hopes “that the Russia-based players are going to relocate.” The context behind this roster update is the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict which has yet to determine the status of the said political fiasco.

Under Boombl4, Natus Vincere bagged their first-ever Major Championship in Stockholm, Sweden hosted by PGL which followed their previous successful runs at the ESL Pro League Season 14 alongside the prestigious Intel Grand Slam title which scooped them total prize money of USD 1,000,000. Boombl4’s most recent appearance under Na’Vi’s banner was at the recently concluded PGL Antwerp 2022 major where they were denied yet another major title by FaZe Clan.

With the exit of Boombl4, Natus Vincere will soon announce their lineup for the forthcoming BLAST, Premier Spring Final, as suggested on their website. 

Natus Vincere are now:

• Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
• Denis “electroNic” Sharipov
• Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy
• Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi 
• Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (Head Coach)
• Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov  (Inactive)