NAVI players and management quickly deny w0nderful benching rumor

NAVI's head of esports and one of its star players have both quickly responded to and denied rumors that the organization is consdering benching AWPer Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov.

According to @harumi on X, NAVI is, or was, close to benching w0nderful. Harumi, who was correctly posted some later confirmed moves in the past, claims that coach Andrij "B1ad3" Ghorodensjkyj was previously pursuing NAVI Junior AWPer Nikita "cmtry" Samolyotov.

PGL Copenhagen Major MVP Justinas "jL" Lekavičius replied directly to harumi's post, saying "these 'insiders' post the most random ass leaks just for the views LOL." NAVI's head of esports Amiran "ami" Rekhviashvili also addressed the rumor, stating clearly that the organization is "not considering changing w0nderful."

Since winning PGL Copenhagen, w0nderful has had a number of good to great event performances, with only IEM Dallas and the BLAST World Final serving as negative outliers. He has had some bad match performances since the start of 2025, but virtually all of them have come against Team Spirit, the reigning Major champions.

Is w0nderful guaranteed job security with NAVI because jL and ami have said so? Not necessarily. Is replacing him essential for NAVI? Perhaps.