Sdy Will Play For NaVi At IEM Cologne

On Thursday, June 23, Natus Vincere confirmed that Viktor “⁠sdy⁠” Orudzhev will stand in for the team at the upcoming IEM Cologne. The Ukrainian rifler will continue his journey with NaVi after a successful run at BLAST Premier Spring Final.

Natus Vincere announced on Thursday that the team would continue playing with sdy. The 25-year-old Ukrainian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player will remain with the team after a successful stint during the BLAST Premier Spring Final where he helped the team claim a gold medal.

“The esports club NAVI has approved the CS:GO roster for the upcoming IEM XVII — Cologne. The Ukrainian player Viktor «sdy» Orudzhev will once again represent Born to Win,” read the announcement.

The decision, however, is hardly surprising. Although sdy joined NaVi just recently and has initially been announced as only a stand-in, he has performed well. Due to his performances, NaVi also decided to continue with him, trusting sdy that he could potentially become a permanent member of the team going forward.

In the announcement, NaVi also stated that the team’s final decision about sdy and his chances to continue competing with the team in the future would heavily rely on his performance in Portugal. And considering the team star player Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev has praised his new teammate in an interview after lifting the trophy, it seems like sdy is well on his way to securing a permanent spot on the team.

“I hope sdy will play in Cologne,” said s1mple.

“I think he played really great. He had a lot of key rounds against OG and against Vitality today, a lot of multi-kills. He is a really calm guy, and he is ready to learn; he knows how to listen to other people.”

Sdy is a 25-yeasr-old CS:GO player who started his carer in 2017 with 5FRAGS.ORG, having later joined Spray n’pray and competed with other lesser teams in Dream and EL’quvet. At the start of 2018, sdy got picked up by Team Spirit, which officially launched his esports career. And he did not need long to make a name for himself.

With Team Spirit, sdy remained for over three years and has achieved reasonable success, leading the CIS CS:GO squad to numerous titles.

Most notably, sdy won DreamHack Open January 2021: Europe and placed top-four at Intel Extreme Masters XV – World Championship.

The streak of strong performances continued until April 2021, with Spirit winning UESF Ukrainian Cup 2021 and reaching semis at Pinnacle Cup I and BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2021.

Over the next eight months, Spirit lost some traction and were not as efficient as early into the season, but still picked up a tournament title here and there. But even though Spirit were not as efficient as early into the year, sdy continued impressing with his performances.

The 25-year-old remained with Spirit until the end of 2021, when he left to join 01 Esports. With his new team, sdy has appeared in just one tournament – Saudi eLeagues 2021: Champions Cup – before leaving to join MAD Lions for the 2022 season.

At MAD Lions, the Ukrainian has struggled to achieve much, eventually leading to roster disbandment midway through the year. Still, despite spending the last couple of months as a free agent, sdy did not need long to prove his worth as NaVi stand-in.

At BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022, he helped the team claim the coveted trophy while averaging a 1.02 performance rating.

Due to the team’s success in Portugal, NaVi decided to continue playing with sdy, who will be the team’s fifth member for IEM Cologne. The tournament is slated to kick off on July 5 in Cologne, Germany, and it will mark the final big event ahead of the player break.

The event will welcome 24 of the world’s best teams who will compete for the lion’s share of the $1,000,000 prize pool and BLAST Premier Points. NaVi will kick off their journey in Group A, where they’ll face off against one of the winners of the Play-In stage.