NAVI: the flagship of Ukrainian cybersport

Representation of Ukrainian culture on the world stage has become especially important due to the tragic events of recent years. It has become clear to many people that in order to solve problems it is necessary to seek help from the world community, and it is important that the world community knows who it is dealing with. You may ask: what does cyber sports have to do with it? The point is that Ukrainian cybersports athletes like Oleksandr Kostylev and businessmen like Maxim Krippa influence the perception of Ukraine in the eyes of a multi-million dollar audience.

Global audience of cybersports

In order to understand what kind of potential resource we are dealing with, we should pay attention to some figures. The global audience of cybersport fans in 2020 increased to 475 million, in 2021 the audience grew to 524 million, and by the end of 2023 amounted to 574 million. At the same time, experts estimate the volume of the global cybersports market at almost $2 billion in 2023 and forecast growth of over 20% to $2.4 billion in 2024.

As we can see, the global cybersport market is developing rapidly, it has not reached its peak yet, but it is at the growth stage. It is not easy to jump on this train, which has gained good momentum, but, fortunately, Ukraine does not need to jump on the train. We already have strong players, clubs and organizations.

For example, the cyber sports organization NAVI was created in 2009 for the Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Dubai. The latter was successful, but it was remembered by the fans of Ukrainian cybersports because a professional cybersports organization was created under it, which began to gain momentum and the next year received three championships at three major world tournaments.

Ukrainian cybersport "before" and "after" full-scale

Ukraine got involved in cybersport quite quickly, good reaction to trends and opportunities led to the fact that today the country is considered a real forge of cybersport stars. The history of the Ukrainian cybersport community can be seen in the history of the formation and scaling of NAVI.

Over the years from its founding to 2024, the cybersports organization “born to win” has grown with new teams and divisions. Some areas, such as DotA and FIFA, turned out to be more promising, others, such as StarCraft II and League of Legends, less so. However, in 2011, NAVI became the winner of The International tournament, with a then-record prize pool of one million dollars. In 2014, “born to win” created the American division of Dot, but sport is sport and failures happen here. A few months later, the leadership of the organization decided to disband NAVI.US.

In the next few years, NAVI had new divisions and teams, and naturally, prize funds, sponsorship contracts and the number of awards won grew. But all this happened within the framework of the so-called CIS-cybersport. Before certain events, the cybersport community of the former CIS countries was quite united and was perceived as a monolith in the world arena.

The beginning of the full-scale war put a final end to this positioning. The reaction of Ukrainian cybersportsmen to the active military actions throughout Ukraine was unambiguous - withdrawal from cooperation and crossing out any possibility of joint games. NAVI was among the first Ukrainian cybersports organizations to abandon Russian as the language of broadcasts. Despite the obvious patriotic motives, this decision was not easy, as it was connected with the restructuring of well-established processes and the prospect of losing part of the audience and part of the money.

The start of a full-scale war for NAVI coincided with the arrival of a new owner, Maxim Krippa. Other clubs and teams were not so lucky, but the luck of NAVI was pure coincidence. The fact is that Maxim Krippa made the decision to acquire a cyber sports organization long before the tragic events. And although the details of the deal are not disclosed, but we can conclude that “long before” should be understood as several years. After all, according to the contract Maxim Krippa had to fulfill a number of conditions and only then become a full-fledged official owner of NAVI.

The arrival of a new and experienced owner was a boost to NAVI's development and support during a full-scale war. Decisive management actions helped the organization not only to survive, but also to set another very important record in all senses. The broadcast of the match between Monte and Natus Vincere drew 59,000 viewers at its peak. The figure is impressive primarily because it was a Ukrainian-language broadcast.

Why does Ukraine need cybersport?

Another important feature of Maxim Krippa management style is that the entrepreneur is focused on building a socially responsible business. And the war, however sad it may be, clearly demonstrated the orientation towards supporting society in action.

NAVI is a popular organization, and the lineup of the Counter-Strike team is stellar and legendary. In the hands of famous players and opinion leaders, they have a resource that is hard to overestimate. They can draw attention to a problem and ask for help. Under the influence of Maxim Krippa and not without his participation, Ukrainian cybersportsmen did just that.

At the end of the first year of the full-scale invasion, NAVI organized a tournament in support of Vladimir Zelensky's UNITED24 Foundation. The BORN TO BE BRAVE tournament gathered 20 top players and increased interest from the audience. Final score: 400 thousand US dollars, which was raised for charity. Another $100,000 was donated by Maxim Krippa himself, demonstrating not only his love for round numbers, but also his patriotic stance.

NAVI's charitable initiatives don't end there. You may recall the victory of the NAVI women's Counter-Strike team. In 2023, the NAVI Javelins won the Gamers Without Borders 2023 Fe championship. Then the Javelins won not only the title, but also the opportunity to donate 1 million dollars to support healthcare in Ukraine.

However, do not think that Ukraine needs cybersports only for donations. Charity is only a part of the help that the cybersports community can provide. The main thing is to develop the market and earn a decent income with taxes. New economic clusters are an opportunity to earn money and attract investments. The warring Ukraine needs its own product, and it is good if it is not a raw material economy.