Yaroslav Kuznetsov

Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kuznetsov (September 24, 1988) is an esports player, a DotA player. Also known by the nickname NS. He started his career in 2005 as part of the SAY_PLZ team. On November 30, 2013, he announced his retirement, but on January 9, 2014, he resumed playing as part of the team Virtus.pro .

Website dota2.ru he calls him a legendary Dota 2 veteran in the CIS, one of the most experienced support in the world, and Сyberfight.ru he calls him one of the best support players in Russia.

The third player of the DTS team, who ended his career at the end of 2013

Ten-time champion of the ASUS Open tournaments, four-time champion of the MYM Prime Defending tournament, silver medalist of ESWC 2010.

Career history

According to his own words, Yaroslav got acquainted with the game by chance when his friend invited him to the Soyuz club on Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow. Such players as Sergey "Smile" Revin, "M.Admiration", "GET-LOST" started in the same club. There he played the Warcraft 3 DotA map for the fifth version for the first time. And his professional career began as part of the SAY_PLZ team, where he was called "HAN" and "Pro". There were very few tournaments at that time, and in one and a half to two years Yaroslav took part in the ASUS open Moscow tournament. The team became the winner only in the MYM Prime defending 1 tournament.

After leaving SAY_PLZ, Yaroslav joins the ranks of the maGe team, which ranks first at ASUS Winter 2007. Due to problems with sponsorship, the team changes its name and goes under the wing of the organization Virtus.pro .

Game transfers

For participation in the organization Virtus.pro Yaroslav earned five first places (2 of them at the ASUS Open) and one second place. In the summer of 2008, due to budget cuts, the dota division of the organization Virtus.pro it was disbanded, and Yaroslav moved to the Rush3D team, where he played until the fall with a star cast ("NS", "LighTofHeaveN", "pgg", "drag13", "qwerty"). In this line-up, they won all the ASUS open tournaments where they took part.

In 2009, Yaroslav leaves Rush3D and goes to China as part of the Platinum Sports team together with "Vigoss", "Smile", "PGG" and "Vein"). Soon after returning to Russia, the team broke up, and "NS" joined the Aeon.ru, and having won ASUS Autumn 2009, he goes to the RoX.KIS organization to participate in the monthly league in China, to which the dota division of the organization was going to go. In this competition, he meets Andrey "DreadisBack" Golubev. At the end of 2009, "NS" became the captain of the Russian national team and performed in MYM Nations, where the squad won. In addition, he participated in the Russian national team at ENC 2009, where Vladislav "blowyourbrain" Morozyuk was the captain, as an invited player together with "pgg" and "vigoss", but after reaching the playoffs they were disqualified together with the Danish team.

In 2010, Yaroslav joined the strongest, at that time, DTS team, where, at that time, there were only three players: Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, Ivan "ArtStyle" Antonov, Dmitry "LightTofHeaveN" Kupriyanov. "NS" offered its former "teammate" Andrey "Dread" Golubev. After problems with sponsorship, the team breaks up. "NS" as part of Garaj Gaming goes to the OSPL Spring 2011, where it takes first place.

In 2011, Yaroslav joined the Moscow Five team. Soon, the team is invited to The International 2011, where they take 5th place. Immediately after TI, due to conflicts, "NS" goes to Darer, where, together with the team, it does not achieve any results.

At the beginning of 2012 , Yaroslav moves to Virtus.pro , creating a new line-up from scratch and playing with Nikolai "AZEN" Belyakov, Alexander "Santa" Koltan, Kuro Salehi "KuroKy" Takhasomi, Andrey "Dread" Golubev. A little later, among a succession of changing players, he becomes the captain of the team, as the most experienced player, he himself repeatedly declares that he does not like this position. In September 2012, left alone with "Santa", they invite three young players: "kSi", "Illidan" and "Crazy". After replacing "Santa" with "Smile", they win at The Defense 2013 and after a while receive an invitation to participate in The International 2013, where they took 13th-16th place.

At the beginning of season 8 , StarLadder organization Virtus.pro , on its website, announces the end of the career of the player Yaroslav Kuznetsov. But already on January 9, 2014, a press release was released, telling that the fifth player of the team Virtus.pro becomes "NS".

Nickname

According to Yaroslav, NS is an abbreviation of Night Snaiper. And the nickname itself appeared 10-12 years before the release of "prodota" while playing Counter-Strike.

In addition, when Yaroslav played against Alexey "Solo" Berezin in a non-professional game, a curious case occurred: the "Solo" player killed Yaroslav in battle, and he wrote in response to the general game chat that "Solo" was "sweaty" (that is, meticulous in the game, playing well), he did not like the wording itself (although, later, it was often used by him and his entourage, for example, in streams on the site twitch.tv ) and he replied "with what first came to mind", calling him a Jack. After that, Yaroslav began, sometimes, to say goodbye, saying not "NS was with you", but "Jack". And in one of the invitation videos, they played a scene with blowyourbrain in the entrance, at the end of which a jack playing card gets into the focus of the camera.

Progress

Twice he took first place in the support nomination according to the GOSU Gamers website in 2010 and 2008.

Impact on esports

Shoots a lot of video guides.

I recorded an audio podcast on the topic: "How to get into esports". I wrote an article about how to play for support characters in the Dota game[68].

Repeatedly published on various websites with criticism and reviews of versions of the DotA and Dota 2 game scenario. In particular, he explained that Roshan causes an imbalance in the game by his position in the territory of darkness, or by the fact that he is reborn after death in 10 minutes.

In March 2013, Yaroslav was part of Virtus.pro He was supposed to play a match with the RoX.KIS team as part of the EMS Raidcall Cup, but due to the long delay of the latter, he announces a decision that failure to attend the match will mean (according to the rules) a technical defeat. At the same time, RoX.KIS did not come to the match because they were busy playing with the mousesports team in the framework of the low-prestige Ritmix RDL league and had to leave the game urgently because of the announced ultimatum.

Before the VIII season of the StarLadder tournament in a blog on the organization's website Virtus.pro he wrote a critical article about the tournament, where he pointed out that organizations with their teams and the tournament organizers themselves need to work more closely, because some cannot exist without others. And he compared the tournament itself with the now-defunct ASUS open cup, noting that if nothing changes, then StarLadder will face the same fate.