After a rather short stint, SoNNeiKo has decided to part ways with Vega Squadron and has rejoined his former team, Natus Vincere.
An announcement today on Vega Squadron’s website confirmed that Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev, their support role player, has decided to take his leave from the team. After a five months stint with the team SoNNeiKo took a break shortly after the Kiev Major qualifiers and was replaced by a substitute. The official statement from Vega's esports director, Georgy Faleev, states the following:
A short history of SoNNeikO
In early November 2016 SoNNeikO parted ways with Natus Vincere after over two years with the team. Even though Na’Vi had seemingly a “return to form” after he helped them win their first tournament in nearly two years, it was not enough to keep him on board. With that, mid-way through November 2016 he was picked up by Vega Squadron – looking to bolster their ranks. During his time with Vega, SoNNeikO had once again joined forces with Ditya-Ra, and they helped their team to a 1st place finish at Royal Arena #2. But a string of sub-par finishes saw three players departing at the beginning of April 2017, including SoNNeikO who felt that it was a break that he needed. However, with Vega filling their roster during this break it left him as a substitute and thus today he announced that he would be taking his official leave from Vega Squadron.
SoNNeikO is back in the yellow and black
Almost instantly we have received news that SoNNeikO has been re-instated into Na’Vi. After the departure of Roman, “rmN-” Paley today, Na’Vi quickly announced that SoNNeikO’s return was on the cards as the team are about to enter into a long bootcamp to practice for EPICENTER 2017 qualifiers and The Summit 7. According to their website, the team’s first match together will take place tomorrow, April 21st at SL i-League Invitational Season 2 as Na’Vi take on Effect. It will be interesting to see how they fair with SoNNeikO back on their squad.
A statement from Igor “caff” Syndorenko, the Na’Vi Dota 2 team manager states the following:
SoNNeikO also stated how grateful he is to the Na’Vi squad for still trusting in him and believes that they can achieve success together. And we hope that they do perform to their best once more and look forward to seeing the team performing at all upcoming events.
Vega Squadron roster:
Ilya 'Alohadance' Korobkin
Sergey 'G' Bragin
Vasily 'Afterlife' Shishkin
Airat 'Silent' Gaziev
Semion 'CemaTheSlayer' Krivulya
Natus Vincere roster:
Per Anders Olsson 'Pajkatt' Lille
Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin
Viktor 'GeneRaL' Nigrini
Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev
Malthe 'Biver' Winther