jL's energy is infectious.

It's easy to tell why he's so well-liked by his teammates in the brief window time we got with him, as he bounces from question to question with the boundless energy of a puppy, and basically forces you to smile along with him.

What's perhaps most likeable about the Lithuanian is his honesty - he never shirks a question, and always tries to tell you exactly what he thinks, pretty unfiltered.

"I think we're better than ENCE and Cloud9, so we can top two this group for sure," he responded, after contemplating for a second, to a question about how NAVI stack up here in Abu Dhabi. After spending a few seconds remembering who else was here at the event, he remarks "okay, we're better than Heroic, I think we're also better than MOUZ".

Credit: Michal Konkol

He admitted that he wasn't sure how good G2 are, or FaZe for that matter, but settles on "top three or top four".

Given that, it's not too surprising that jL would be "happy with semi-finals", a phrase he repeats to affirm his thinking, but explains that the manner of the journey there matters more than the result.

"It also depends on how we get there. If we beat our opponents 2-0 2-0 then we get to the semi-final and we lose 0-2 without even a single chance of winning a map, that will be disappointing, but if put up a good fight, we have some information to analyse and we really try, it's a close game, they were just better because they had more preparation, more time together, then we are fine with the result."

He continued with his typically off-beat sense of humour: "if you play a similar level team and then you bomb out, then you're really disappointed, because you think that you're worthless. You're not, but that's how we think."

Credit: Michal Konkol

It's clear from talking to jL for any length of time that he really values progress over nearly anything else. When asked about he reflects on a crazy year, he immediately looks at how he's improved as a player.

"I feel like I've progressed a lot, not just in my career but as an individual. I think I've improved on my game a lot, learnt some mental stuff and how to take care of things better," before adding, with his typical outlook: "I'm just happy to be here!"

When we spoke to him about his time at NAVI, he again brought up his own improvement and how he's grown.

"I feel like I joined NAVI still as a rookie. Now I can comfortably say I'm not a rookie any more - I'm not one of the best players for sure, I still have a lot of work to do, a lot of progress, but I feel like I've built the foundation to build upon and become a much better player than I am now."

Credit: Michal Konkol

After that self-reflection, he near-immediately snapped back into his bubbly self, excitedly laughing at his own misremembering of the question.

When it comes to that progress, he thinks that NAVI are getting there. He believes they just need "some time" and to fully understand the system that Aleksib and B1ad3 are putting in place. How much time, exactly?

"Ooh" he smiles, as though he was begging for that question. "I think we have enough time until the Major, so I think that's the time period I'd give. I think we're gonna be just right at the Major."

The loss of s1mple has set NAVI back a little bit, and "of course, it was a surprise" to jL too, who didn't expect him to take a break - but he does think NAVI are adjusting well.

"I feel like we're good at adapting to the situation as if we're not shocked or disappointed really. We just understand that it's our job to play the best we can, improve the fastest way possible and we're just putting the hours in at work. We believe that even without s1mple, we can achieve even higher results than we have done before."

Credit: Michal Konkol

His replacement is the unshakeable w0nderful, who has been excellent in the stead of probably the best CSGO player of all time, and jL had plenty of kind words to say about him too.

"I expected him to be not as mature as he is, so props to him for that. I feel like he's fitting the vibe of the team really well. I like him, and I think all he needs to is improve on his understanding of the game, because he's an individually very skilled player." jL smirks, before adding "That is not normal!" and chuckles away.

"The copypasta just popped into my head."

He was similarly impressed with how w0nderful adapts from practice to official games.

"With w0nderful it's a bit strange. In practice he likes to practise, I mean that's what I've noticed, I don't know if he likes it or not, but he tends to just play the stuff we spoke about and practise those things. But then at BLAST Fall Finals, he was taking a lot of initiative, he was vocal, he was just a completely different player from practice. To answer that, in official games he takes a lot of initiative, takes a lot of space, but in practice I think he just practises."

Credit: Michal Konkol

At the end of the interview, we asked jL what he hoped to achieve both as a team and individually next year, and once more he looked towards becoming the best version of himself. Praising the "very smart" b1t and the "good people" around him to help him elevate his game, jL has high hopes for 2024.

"For the team I think we're going to hit our groove, I think at least we can be contenders for titles. We have a lot of tournaments to participate in, and we will truly be able to show what we are capable of, so I'm looking forward to 2024. And for me, I think I'm ready to progress to the next level.

"I'm not sure how real it is, maybe I'm delusional but I think I can really step up my game."