On the eve of the start of the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 15 it became known that Kirill «Boombl4» Mikhailov from Natus Vincere will miss his first matches due to a positive test for coronavirus. Thus, NAVI will have to start the tournament without an ingame leader.
Boombl4's place in the team will be temporarily taken by Daniil «headtr1ck» Valitov from NAVI Junior, who was officially listed as a substitute player in the team's application. At the same time, he will be isolated from the other participants during the matches, as he arrived in Düsseldorf only a few days ago and must be in quarantine.
The start of the year for Natus Vincere was not very successful, especially compared to the achievements of the previous year. She finished 4-6 at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022, and at IEM Katowice 2022 she lost to G2 in the semifinals. Nevertheless, there is still a possibility that the group stage of ESL Pro League will be favorable for Natus Vincere: most of the teams with which it found itself in the same group are unlikely to be serious opponents for it. Heroic may be an exception.
The first match of the tournament will be played on Wednesday against Polish AGO, which is in the second hundred of the world ranking.