THE DREADED fountain hooks from Danil "Dendi" Ishutin in Dota 2 and the lethal AWP mastery from Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs in CS:GO, are the usual images that fans would associate when talking about legendary esports organization Natus Vincere, or Na'Vi.
But with the decision to venture into Mobile Legends: Bang Bang might perhaps produce more epic moments for Na'Vi.
In an online Zoom interview organized by Moonton, Na'Vi chief operating officer Aleksey Kucherov explained why the CIS-based org ventured into the MLBB scene.
“Na'Vi have right now more than 16 teams, 16 different gaming titles, 18 rosters, and Mobile Legends is one of them. To be honest, we started investing into Mobile Legends a few months ago and this happened because of the right communication with gaming publisher (Moonton)," said Kucherov.
What Moonton did to attract Na'Vi's attention
While the communication with Moonton has given Na'Vi the confidence needed to venture into the mobile gaming scene, Kucherov explained the value that publishers bring in the survivability of esports.
“So first of all, [the] ecosystem of every gaming title is very important for every club. [S]ustainability of [the] ecosystem means that every club should see some return of investment into the game, and they should seek [a] big audience, and they should see interest from gaming publishers," said the COO.
And what must these game publishers do? "Communicate with the teams and release plans for the next year. Because the long term planning is important topic for every club," opined Kucherov.
"If we don’t have any information about the future, it’s hard to plan anything."
The possibility of other European teams joining the MLBB scene
The Na'Vi COO also speculated on how the MLBB scene could flourish in Europe, which is currently underdeveloped compared to its Southeast Asian counterparts.
"If we’re talking about European region, it’s essential to have a franchise league which can attract other teams," he said.
He did hint that the bigtime European esports organizations might venture into the scene, and he remains hopeful that he'll witness an upward trajectory in the game's development in Europe, especially with Moonton's support.
"Since we don’t have this franchise league, then it’s hard to predict. Although Secret and Liquid will enter into Mobile Legends right now," he mused. "However, I feel that development of the game is pretty is good, the communication with game publisher is also good, so we kind of need to see and develop Mobile Legends in the European and CIS region."
He then expressed his optimism about MLBB's growth.
"I see that this development in the right way because communication with game publisher is in a high level. The gaming publishers are interested with the teams as well as the development in different regions. So I would say that ML will grow a lot in the next years."
He added: "We hope it’s all going to be good for all sides, Moonton, Navi, Players, and region overall, and players will see that the most interesting brand has expanded into Mobile Legends, they’ll see that there is a good ecosystem regarding tournaments, plans, and prize money, and we should build a career here.”
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