On April 9, Na’vi announced they were signing former Quake players Alexei “cYpheR” Yanushevsky and Nikita “clawz” Marchinsky to their Apex Legends roster.
We are extremely excited to announce our @PlayApex Legends roster! Please, welcome the newcomers: @cypherrrino & @clawzzzy!
📰: https://t.co/RmAu1C2rgo#NAVINATION #ApexLegends pic.twitter.com/1tjolpqqxe
— NAVI (@natusvincere) April 9, 2019
The organization’s roster currently only has two players, but their blog post mentioned that a third player would be announced later. Aleksandr Kravchuk, Na’Vi’s Apex Legends manager, commented, “The near future is not going to be easy: thanks… for their faith.”
Alexei “cYpheR” Yanushevsky has won $149,655 in prize money over his career and has been active in the Quake competitive scene since 2006. CYpheR won the QuakeCon 1v1 tournament four times – in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014 – and played under organizations like Fnatic and Virtus.pro.
Nikita “clawz” Marchinsky most recently played for Myztro Gaming at DreamHack, but represented Blind Trust at QuakeCon 2018, and Team 2z at Quake World Championships 2017. One of his most notable tournament winnings was at the Quake World Championship Sacrifice and Duel tournaments, where he won a total of $175,000 in prize money.
The Apex Legends esports scene
Recently, several esports organizations have all signed Apex Legends rosters. However, Respawn Entertainment has not created an official competitive league yet. Code Red, Twitch Rivals, and T1 x FACEIT are some of the recent tournaments hosted by third-party communities.Â
Many of the recently signed professional players are prior members of H1Z1‘s Pro League, which shut down suddenly in its first season. Despite a large prize pool, the game had a declining concurrent player base, even after transitioning into a free-to-play model. The league’s esports live streams featured a lackluster viewer count and not much fanbase interest.
On the other hand, Apex Legends racked up over 50 million players after one month of release. Although the game is suffering from a viewership decline on Twitch, as long Respawn puts out consistent updates, the game should be here to stay.
Na’Vi’s newly signed Apex Legends roster will debut at the European TwitchCon competition from April 13-14.
Want to keep up with all of the latest Apex Legends news? Keep track on our Apex Legends page!
