Natus Vincere officially signed Sprout’s former AWPer Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov on Oct. 31 to take s1mple’s place in the team’s active lineup after the latter stepped down on Oct. 26 to take a break from competing.
Though w0nderful was last seen playing for Sprout, he has been regarded as an exciting prospect since his Team Spirit days between 2022 and 2023. The 18-year-old Ukrainian AWPer has averaged a superb 1.23 rating this year, according to HLTV, and now will have his first chance to prove his worth against constant tier-one teams after spending three months with Sprout’s roster.
W0nderful said on NAVI’s official website he recognizes he has a big task in filling s1mple’s spot but is determined to try his best.
“I’m excited to join such a legendary organization as NAVI,” w0nderful said. “It was my biggest dream ever since I started playing CS. It’s obvious, right? I know that it’s hard to fully replace a player of s1mple’s caliber and fulfill everyone’s expectations, but trust me, I’ll do everything in my power.”
It’s unclear how long s1mple will remain inactive, but considering that NAVI has signed w0nderful on a permanent basis, we can expect the newcomer to be NAVI’s AWPer for some months at least. Though s1mple didn’t say when he plans to return, he confirmed he’ll be hearing offers from other teams in the meantime.
W0nderful’s debut with NAVI will take place at the $425,000 CS2 tournament BLAST Premier Fall Finals between Nov. 22 and 26 in Copenhagen, Denmark. This will only be NAVI’s second event in the new game and its first with a full lineup as coach Andrij “B1ad3” Ghorodensjkyj had to stand in for s1mple at IEM Sydney.
