NAVI TI 2025 team profile: The rite of passage

Andreea "Div" Esanu

18.08.2025

Yes, they are back and ready to surprise everyone!

Any Dota 2 fan has at some point in their life stated with “utter certainty” that NAVI is back! And if they didn’t, they most surely have heard it at least a couple of times.

Natus Viincere (NAVI) is one of the oldest organisations in esports and a true legendary name in the Dota 2 scene. However, the past several years have been rough for the Ukrainian outfit. Although they made sporadic appearances at TI now and then, they’ve been extremely far from matching the success that put them at the top of the world back in the early years of Dota 2.

For the past three years, NAVI had patiently developed a new generation of players at their academy team. Three of the qualified TI 2025 players under the NAVI banner have already played 247 official matches at NAVI Junior. They joined NAVI Junior back in 2022, and about a year later, they were joined by Artem "Niku" Bachkur, who was just 14 years old at that time.

A new generation takes over

Niku is the youngest player to compete at The International 2025. He is now 16 years old, and just 45 days older than Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan was when he made his debut on the TI stage. Growing together as a team helped the players connect and create a powerful bond. But at the same time, playing in the same formula and with the same coach for more than two years got them to a point where they felt stuck. They were strong enough to dominate the tier 2-3 tournaments, but couldn’t power through the tier one scene. Hence, a change was needed. This is how NAVI brought in Baqyt "Zayac" Emiljanov at the end of 2024.

Zayac is the only veteran on the team now and the one tasked to help NAVI Junior take the next step in their development. With him in the captain role, NAVI Junior surpassed the main team this year by qualifying for several LAN tournaments, including Esports World Cup 2025 and TI 2025. Once they brought the NAVI flag to the two biggest events of the year, they’ve been promoted to the NAVI main team and will head now to Hamburg, Germany, to live their biggest dream, The International.

NAVI roster

Taras "gotthejuice" Linnikov
Artem "Niku" Bachkur
Yurii "pma" Prots
Baqyt "Zayac" Emiljanov
Stanislav "Riddys" Mitroshkyn
coach: Maxim "TheHeartlessKing" Fadeev

“Younger players are easier to work with,” said Zayac in an interview during the Esports World Cup. He emphasised on their capacity to assimilate new strategies faster, to develop wider hero pools and overall to listen and take into account what he and the coach are saying.

Niku has also talked about Zayac and what has changed in the team since he joined. “He brought discipline, a ton of experience, new strats and a better focus on things that didn’t seem that important before, but now they are game-changing for us,” said Niku about his new captain in an interview at PGL Wallachia Season 4.

Niku has all the chances to become one of a kind, and regardless of where NAVI will land in the TI 2025 final standings, we will for sure see more of him in the coming years. Some compare him with Spirit’s prodigy carry, who is now on loan at PARIVISION, Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov. Some compare Niku with Sumail, which makes more sense as both are mid laners and both made their competitive debut while being extremely young. It might be the attribute of a young age, or it might simply be the way he looks at the game, but at 16 years old, Niku is a player capable of bringing the element of surprise in the NAVI drafts with truly unusual picks for mid lane. He has already shown he is not afraid to play a Grimstroke in a decisive game five of a grand final this year, or to pull a mid lane Undying at a 3 million dollars tournament (EWC).