NAVI opens the youth roster
Ukrainian club NAVI announced the opening of the youth Dota 2 roster. Coach of the team is ??Ivan "Artstyle" Antonov. The information appeared on the official website of the club.
Ivan "Artstyle" Antonov NAVI's Junior Dota 2 Coach:
"Young players in Dota 2 have always been on the radar, but no one wanted to commit to their development professionally. It is well known that the change of generations within the pro-scene can happen quickly.
Together with NAVI, we realized that it is important to think long-term, so we started searching for players. It has always been my dream to develop young talents and to share my knowledge with them. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to take part in making this story come true.
We were looking for candidates for nearly three months. The final roster was made up of five 15-17 year olds, each of them is at top 300 global ranking. They have no experience on the pro-level, but they're mechanically gifted. I like that the guys don't have fixed patterns. They want to play and develop their skills, always open to new ideas. Cheer for NAVI Junior!"
As the announcement makes clear, the team includes only young players who haven't previously appeared on the professional Dota 2 scene but are high in the rankings.
In addition to ??Artstyle, the youth team will also be handled by NAVI's sports director ??Amiran "ami" Rekhviashvili. He helped the organization create a CS:GO youth roster that uncovered some talents over the years, including ??Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, who was bought out by G2.
Junior roster:
- ??Taras "gotthejuice" Linnikov;
- ??Richard "Ri4man" Kalninsh;
- ??Yuri "pma" Prots;
- ??Tamir "daze" Tokpanov;
- ??Stanislav "Riddys" Mitroshkin.