The Rush B Media awards are chosen by our staff members in a number of categories and next up is Coach of the Year. In a year where his side began their era, there can only be one winner: Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi.
B1ad3 has always had one of the best minds in Counter-Strike. And in 2021, two years after becoming NaVi’s Head Coach, he finally has his reward – his team won all four LAN events they attended this year, adding two more online. He is quite simply the perfect brain for NaVi’s brawn.
Natus Vincere had come second at three Major finals but under B1ad3 they have finally broken their duck, taking PGL Major Stockholm 2021 without dropping a single map. B1ade3’s players get most of the fanfare, and for good reason – Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi, and Denis “electronic” Sharipov make up the scariest trio in CS:GO history – but superteams have been created before, and none of them have looked as well oiled as NaVi’s machine.
NaVi’s raw firepower is obvious, but you do not win as often as they do without exceptional fundamentals. Under Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, NaVi was known for their hit-and-miss brand of CS, deploying their signature gamble stacks and last-second executes offered. Now, they are much more varied in their attacks, using that firepower to its full potential.
To show the impact of B1ad3 – and it is notoriously difficult to show the impact of a coach – here’s what he had to say in 2019, shortly after becoming Head Coach:
“We’re trying to give [Navi’s players] more knowledge about CS because they make mistakes in fundamentals, they’re trying to play a lot of important situations individually, not relying on each other, not relying on teamplay and what the game gives them. Before I came, they didn’t utilize everything the game can give them. Every detail of the game, nades, team play, map control, tactical depth, we need to get all the aspects of the game on the top level. We will be really strong in the future if we do that.”
B1ad3 to HLTV’s Striker in October 2019: | HLTV.ORG
He has managed to achieve this, all whilst maintaining freedom for his superstars to make the plays they are known for.
Another clear indication of B1ad3’s impact is how smoothly b1t was transitioned into NaVi’s starting roster. B1ad3 and Amiran “aMi” Rehviashvili were the ones to find b1t among the 1900 applicants to NaVi Junior, and they let his talent develop organically, making sure he was ready before promoting him in 2021 initially as a 6th man before replacing Egor “flamie” Vasilev in April.
Other coaches might have rushed the development of such a clear talent, but not B1ad3. We all can see how immune to pressure b1t appears to be, but we should not underestimate the impact of B1ad3 in his development to one of CS:GO’s best-ever rookies.
As a coach, B1ad3 has reached the heights he never could as a player. His unquestionable expertise of the tactical and leadership side of the game has been instrumental in turning s1mple and NaVi from bridesmaids to kings of Counter-Strike. That is why he is Rush B Media’s Coach of the Year.
2021 RBM Awards:
Coach of the Year: B1ad3
Golden Gun: Coming soon
Silver Scope: Coming soon
Sasha Award: Coming soon
