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Dota 27 years agoJarrad "Belandrial" Adams

SoNNeikO officially departs from Vega Squadron and rejoins Na'Vi

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: 


Later, it got clear that this roster will not be changed at the moment and a high-level player like SoNNeiko shouldn’t be ‘sitting on the bench’. So he already found himself a new team and the official transfer will be announced very soon.

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:

Each man has his ups and downs - that’s how we get our priceless experience, which we base on when turning the wheel of our life. I am sincerely grateful to Roman for the contribution he’s made for the team. I wish him good luck on his way. I hope that in the future he’ll manage to fully realize the experience he gained in Na`Vi. I don’t doubt that he’s got the rise ahead of him. I am also glad to see Akbar is back. I am sure that due to his playing skills we’ll be able to achieve the long-awaited victories.

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: 

Ukraine Ilya 'Alohadance' Korobkin
Russia Sergey 'G' Bragin
Russia Vasily 'Afterlife' Shishkin
Russia Airat 'Silent' Gaziev
Ukraine Semion 'CemaTheSlayer' Krivulya

Natus Vincere roster:

Sweden Per Anders Olsson 'Pajkatt' Lille
Ukraine Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin
Ukraine Viktor 'GeneRaL' Nigrini
Russia Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev
Denmark Malthe 'Biver' Winther

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belandrial-avatar
Jarrad "Belandrial" AdamsBelandrial has spent most of his years following Dota 2 closely, but now has found a new home in the complex world of Mobile Esports. When not watching nearly every possible esports title available, you can find me running around Azeroth or building strange bases in Valheim.

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