Headtr1ck Might Replace S1mple on NAVI for BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2022

NAVI star player drops a tease about 'Big Announcement' on social media.

Aditya Singh Rawat
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<div class="paragraphs"><p>Headtr1ck Might Replace S1mple On NAVI For BLAST Fall Groups</p></div>
Headtr1ck Might Replace S1mple On NAVI For BLAST Fall Groups

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Highlights
NAVI star player, s1mple, might not be able to compete with the team at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022. He also teases an upcoming announcement.
NAVI Junior rifler, headtr1ck, is the likely candidate to replace s1mple on NAVI's active CS:GO roster for the tournament.
If true, this will be the second time that headtr1ck plays for the main NAVI lineup after ESL Pro League Season 15.

Natus Vincere (NAVI) might not be competing at full strength in the upcoming BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022. This comes amid heavy speculation that its star AWPer, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, is likely to miss out on the tournament due to reasons yet unknown.

This comes following a tease from s1mple via an Instagram story where he has conveyed the following message without any context, "Big announcement soon".

The 18-year-old NAVI Junior rifler, Danyyl "headtr1ck" Valitov, is the potential candidate to replace s1mple on the team's active roster, according to the Instagram stories exchanged between them.

If true, this will be his second stint with the main NAVI lineup after having previously stepped in as a replacement for the former captain, Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov, for three matches during the ESL Pro League Season 15.

S1mple to drop a big announcement soon

S1mple could miss out playing with NAVI at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022, headtr1ck likely to step in

NAVI always has a contingency plan, in case something goes down at the very last moment. Though six days still remain for the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 to kick off, the Ukrainian organization is still in a pretty comfortable spot despite s1mple competing in the tournament being doubtful.

With two NAVI Academy players being registered as substitutes by the organization, headtr1ck and Andrii "nipl" Kukharskyi, there is little that the team needs to worry about except for the fact that they could be facing a hard time in the absence of its star player.

According to the exchange that took place between headtr1ck and s1mple via their respective Instagram stories, the young rifler who is part of NAVI Jr is likely to step in for the side.

Response from Headtr1ck to S1mple

No official statement on the matter has been made by NAVI so far, but the players have exchanged a few words publicly. Further, a report from Dexerto states that headtr1ck will bootcamp with the main NAVI roster and is traveling to the practice location.

Meanwhile the fans are busy speculating what could be the 'big announcement' teased by s1mple, with many believing that it has something to do with Valorant because of the below-mentioned post made by NAVI a few days back on 11th August.

These are just mere speculations right now because no party involved has said anything concrete related to this till now. Stay tuned to see how this story further unfolds!


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Aditya is the in-house CS:GO writer at AFK Gaming. While his understanding of the esports space is not restricted by geographical borders, his current focus lies in the Asian region. Understands and follows almost all major esport titles.