As expected, NAVI have promoted donk 3.0 to their main roster.

For the uninitiated, donk 3 is makazze. He’s been tearing shit up in tier 2 for a while. We think you’ll like him.

It’s a move that we expect will go well. The standout academy stars have tended to effectively carry over their performances into tier one, but we are sad about the loss of the man he’s replacing.

Although original reports suggested that it would be iM who made way for the youngster, jL has instead decided to step down as he looks to take a break from competition and focus on other things in his life.

Seeing as he just got married and he mentions that a lot in his announcement video, the good Christian men in us are pleased by this, but we will miss one of Counter-Strike’s most lovable characters.

What’s the deal with iM then?

There’s definitely some role overlap with him and makazze, so was he meant to still be on the team? We reckon he probably wasn’t, and it seems like OverDrive thinks he wasn’t meant to be either. Or at least that’s what we’re taking from this report.

If NAVI were after frozen, this almost definitely means they were looking to make two changes.

They were never going to let a star like makazze go. Not without giving him a chance in the main team, and that doesn’t bode well for the team heading into the new season.

The fresh face could turn NAVI’s fortunes around, but their problems in the first half of the year looked like they ran deep. More than just a firepower issue, the chemistry between the players had also seemingly evaporated, and we’re not sure an 18-year-old Kosovan will change that.

At least, if our FACEIT pugs are anything to go off.

So, despite the firepower upgrade that should come with the roster move, we’re expecting much of the same from NAVI for the rest of the year. But we might be entirely wrong, and maybe they’ll stake a new claim for the top in 2026.

After this change, NAVI are:

🇫🇮 Aleksib
🇷🇴 iM
🇺🇦 b1t
🇺🇦 w0nderful
🇽🇰 makazze