Love him or hate him, you'll now never be able to deny that Aleksib is a Major winning in-game leader.
Of course, it hasn't been an easy road for the NAVI captain to lift that Major trophy, and the setbacks along the way have led to him having his fair share of doubters.
But how does he feel about the criticism that has come his way throughout his career?
We caught up with Aleksib following the Major win to discuss silencing those doubters, whether some of their criticism is justified, and the evolution of NAVI going forward.
Now we've had some time since you won the Major, how are you feeling? Are you still riding the high?
The first week was just riding the high and going day by day understanding what we'd just achieved. But now we're back on the ground with the team and it's already passed us.
We still haven't played a tournament after that and we're still aiming high. We know that there were many different things that happened in order for us to win and that it wasn't easy. If something went wrong it could've gone the other way so we're not thinking that we're going to win every event from now on.
It just proved to us that the hard work we've put in gave us the result - and we still need to keep working hard in order for us to play at the same level or if we want to win another tournament.
You mentioned the things that happened for you to win the Major. Can you elaborate on that at all?
We played well when it actually mattered, we won our decider games. Before that, we kept losing in the Legends Stage when we were allowed to lose still.
Our individuals were peaking at the right time and some of us, like jL, had the best tournaments of our whole careers and he was crowned as MVP as well which is huge for him.
A lot of these things went the correct way which means that now we know it's possible, you know?
Did winning the Major change how you all look at the team internally in terms of any roadmaps you may have had for the team's progression and when you wanted to be able to win tournaments?
It's just an amazing thing overall. Because not only is it reassuring for us all.
But B1ad3 and b1t trusted the project and stayed with the international squad despite NAVI's changes and s1mple leaving after.
It was a major hit for them and I can't imagine how that must have felt because they played with him for such a long time. And if you lose a player of that calibre you might be asking yourself 'Is it all over now? Do we even have a chance to make a deep run?'
Overall, I feel like it just gave us a huge boost as a team and we've all reached our dream. It's every player's dream to win the Major and we actually made it happen and we did it in a good fashion as well. Now we just need to face the reality and not let it get into our heads too much.
Over half of the team had already been in a Major final before and had either won or lost those finals, what were the conversations like before this final within the team and what did you say to each other with those past experiences in mind?
We treated every game in the playoffs the same way. But even when we reached the quarter-finals our mental coach sat us down and she was going through all the different feelings we might have had during that playoffs that would be different to before.
I feel like from that game on we treated every game the same way. So when we reached the final I don't think anything was different in terms of how we prepared or how we acted together.
There's a chance that individuals, including myself, were thinking something to themselves, but as a team, we were treating it like any other match.
You're one of the more divisive IGLs in the world because of experiences with past teams. Do you think winning the Major might have won around some of the doubters?
I don't really care if I shut down the doubters because I feel like I made peace of mind for myself.
I've been very self-critical throughout my career, particularly during the past four or five years without winning major LANs, even with really good pieces in G2. It just made me question everything in terms of why I wasn't winning and why this or that happened.
And the overwhelming amount of community opinions, both good and bad, led me to doubt myself
I feel like this win gave me peace of mind in that I am capable of making it work and I am capable of winning, so I'm proud of myself that I never gave up when it came down to that.
I don't really mind what people say after the fact. In the end, no one can take this win away from me and that's what I'm happiest about.
Although everyone on the team seems happy with these five players, even after winning the Major, people were still talking about how good the team could be with s1mple. What do you think about those opinions still existing even after proving the team is working?
It's hard to say because now that we've won and we're doing this interview it makes me think to myself that maybe I'm now biased in answering the question. Let's say we lost instead, maybe I'd be thinking about it differently.
With that said, I don't want to think about it too much. But the thing is that we just need five players who trust each other and who buy into the system we're playing in.
At the end of the day, we are all highly skilled individuals and we all trust each other, we've just moved forward with this team, we've had a couple of boot camps, played a lot of tournaments, and we always made solid progress that enabled us to win this trophy.
Maybe in the future, something will be different and we require something else or B1ad3 will have a different vision, who knows, right?
But at the moment I just can't answer that question. Right now, everything is clicking and we're getting the results for all the hard work we've put in.
You mentioned B1ad3 then and his vision for the team. He did in an interview recently where he spoke about making iM into a full-time second voice on the team by Pro League, how has that been progressing?
Everything is easier said than done. When it comes to the system we have, everyone needs to be able to communicate important info or make important calls when they see certain things happening on their screen.
Because he plays so many active positions, he might see the most out of all the players so it's just natural that a player in those roles might need to shift the team.
Alternatively, he could see something and I can be calling something that he might then know won't work, or we need to make a small tweak to what I'm saying like going in dry instead of doing a full execute because he knows that there are X amount of people elsewhere on the map.
B1ad3 just wants this consistency and I know from previous teams I've played in where the style is somewhat similar in terms of playing defaults out.
It just makes the process easier and means it doesn't all fall on one guy. There are more people with voices and responsibility, and the other people who might have less responsibility will still have the responsibility to say things when they need to based on their positions and making sure people are in the right positions.
You mentioned iM playing the active roles, and you also play in a lot of active roles too. HLTV recently put out an article regarding the spots IGLs play on CT sides. What are your views on why that shift has happened in the meta that we're now seeing these kinds of 'supportive rotator' IGLs?
Especially in international teams, communication is one of the biggest benefits because that's one of the weaknesses of being in those teams.
That's why national teams were a trend for so long, and although it's still viable, sometimes it's hard to find five players from certain countries who are all on the same level. Or they might not be able to get on a team together because people might be stuck in contracts. So some of these national dream teams might never become a reality.
I think in international teams, communication is key and it's really natural that your IGL, no matter who it is, is going to be one of the most talkative people on the server. And it's way easier to read the game and move your pieces when you are in spots that mean you move around and see what is happening more.
When you are an IGL as well, you're going to be more likely to offer flashes or setups or a good situation for a player doing the playmaking. Or, they might also want to throw themselves into the mix of doing the fighting in the middle of the map so you can see what the opponents are doing and you get a better read of it because of the preparation you have done and what you're seeing.
Everyone has their own style and while I think many others would agree, on some teams it could also just be that they're taking whatever spots are left over too.
I think that it's not a bad thing at all though, because as long as everyone has trust in what you're doing in the server then it can work no matter what.
After you won the Major you said that B1ad3 has made you a better IGL, can you elaborate on that?
He keeps you in check, and I'm not saying that my other coaches didn't. But I also think I did a lot of self-reflection before joining NAVI and everyone was saying that I was failing upwards and they were right.
I was doing really badly on G2, I was doing really bad on NIP and the results weren't there in terms of where I set the bar myself and I wasn't reaching that necessarily. I might have been really close, but I could never get over the finish line.
Either way, B1ad3 still trusted me and now I think about it I'm really happy that he did. I've tried to take up things like a sponge rather than thinking that I have all this experience behind me and that I know the way, there's a lot for me to learn still.
You just saw karrigan have a birthday and he is one of the oldest people in the scene. He's still winning trophies! That just shows that I still have a long way to go if I can keep it up like he has.
I'm not comparing myself to a legend like him but I'm still kind of young, I only just turned 27 and I have experience leading international teams. But after a win like this I feel like I have a lot more to give as long as I have the motivation to keep going.
It's hard to say that he didn't make me a better leader when I've now won a Major trophy and I hadn't before, I need to give credit to someone [laughs].
'Failing upwards' is often the criticism that is levelled towards you so it's interesting to hear you say that you agree with it. Why do you think you have?
It's not necessarily what I think or don't think, because obviously I think with the amount of work I've put in and how much I believe in myself, sometimes I have had some unlucky situations and there are a lot of things the community doesn't know.
There is no right or wrong about it, it's just the way life is and the way my career has gone.
The main thing is that there have been moments where I was starting to self-doubt, when I heard comments about failing upwards or when I heard that something else was happening I didn't necessarily believe it.
But after a long time of not winning anything significant and failing to reach the Major playoffs with NIP when we were so close, you start to think about the comments and wonder if they're right.
Now I think that everything that happened previously was all the stars aligning and everything that has happened in my career was meant to be in order for me to be in this place that I'm now in. I'm looking at everything in a different light now.
BLAST has just announced that all the finals at BLAST Premier events will now be BO5, with MR12 in mind, what do you think about this change? Should all finals be BO5 in CS2?
I honestly don't mind. I actually think it's good to have a mix of everything.
Famously, I'm known for losing a lot of BO5 finals and I know it myself [laughs]. But the thing is, when it was MR15, BO3 finals were decent and now it's MR12, BO5 finals make a bit more sense. There could be a map where one team wins both pistols and an important gun round and you don't actually know if the other team had the chance to show what they're capable of.
I think it's good to have a mix of BO3 and BO5 finals. I don't think it should be set in stone because it differentiates the tournaments.
When you go to a tournament and you know there is a BO5 final coming you set yourself up for a longer match and you might get two finalists with deep maps pools and you know it will be exciting.
But because the calendar will be more hectic next year, it will be good to have some BO3 finals in there as well because when it goes to all five maps the final can still go for five or six hours if you give the players a food break and that obviously isn't the most ideal thing because there are then other factors that come into play and it isn't the nicest for spectators either.
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