Natus Vincere decided to pull out of CEVO Gfinity Season 9 Finals to prepare for other tournaments and allow more time for Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács to recover.

Just before DreamHack Masters Malmö, Natus Vincere received a direct invite to CEVO Gfinity Season 9 Finals, which is set to take place in London, United Kingdom, from April 28 to May 1.

However, their attendance with the full lineup has been in question due to Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács's injury, and it seems that despite the Slovakian attending the playoffs of Malmö, Natus Vincere decided to skip CEVO Gfinity Finals.

The team's manager, Eugene "ugin" Erofeev, cited numerous issues to be the reason for them pulling out, such as being unable to fill out the necessary documents in time, preparing for other tournaments ahead, as well the Slovak's recovery:

"As much as we want to take part in all the tournaments, at times we just can’t do it physically. In this particular situation, we don’t have enough time to prepare the necessary documents to travel to England because the interval between the events does not allow us to. Besides, air travel can be extremely exhausting, and we have very important tournaments ahead, which require much time and preparation. So we decided to slow down a bit and miss CEVO Gfinity Season 9 LAN. Moreover, considering what’s been going on lately, our sniper Ladislav will also benefit from this decision." Erofeev said in a statement for navi-gaming.com.

With Natus Vincere pulling out of the $125,000 tournament, the team list for CEVO Gfinity Season 9 Finals now looks as follows:

Virtus.pro	OpTic	Dignitas	TBA
Tempo Storm	NA Bracket #2	NA Bracket #3	EU Bracket #2

As of writing this article CEVO and Gfinity have not made an announcement about Natus Vincere's replacement.

OpTic #29 William 'RUSH' WierzbaOscar 'mixwell' CañellasPeter 'stanislaw' JarguzKeith 'NAF' MarkovicDamian 'daps' Steele Natus Vincere #1 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' Vasilyev Dignitas #8 Ruben 'RUBINO' VillarroelJesper 'TENZKI' PlougmannMathias 'MSL' LauridsenMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeKristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács Age: 24 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 753 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62 Virtus.pro #7 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' Bieliński Tempo Storm #14 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesLucas 'LUCAS1' TelesRicardo 'boltz' PrassJoão 'felps' VasconcellosGustavo 'SHOOWTiME' Gonçalves