Aleksib: " I've learned my lessons and gained my experiences with these young players"

What else is there to say? I think we feel really good as a team. Yesterday was tough playing two BO3s in one day, but we managed to win. We had a two week long bootcamp in Barcelona beforehand getting to know the new guy, and now it's just playoffs time.

Yeah, I'm super happy. I think he's surprised us all with how he can communicate and take space on the map and not be afraid to take duels, that's a really good sign and soon he'll get his first stage experience as well, so that's really good for him.

I think I've learned my lessons and gained my experiences with these young players, but the thing is, makazze came from NAVI Junior. He kinda knows the NAVI culture, and he's had people from the NAVI staff to guide him already, so in some sense he's not coming completely out of the blue.

I think that no matter who it would be, we would be sad. We played together for two years, and there's obviously going to be some shoes to fill no matter who it would be, but ever since jL left we all need to step up when it comes to mental stuff, because he was a big piece towards us having a good mood and cracking jokes.
But I think that makazze has a very nice personality, we were laughing with him and enjoying spending time together and that's very important, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to CS and we're trying our best to evolve as a team now.

[laughs] The thing is, he played lights out, and I knew at one point that he was having a really solid game compared to others when I was pressing tab, but after the game I realised that he hit a 30 bomb, and none of us had even reached ten, so in a way it was a funny game.
Other than that, I don't really know what to say, it felt like we had our chances, but no one really stepped up and after the game I told him maybe next time he should kill 40 instead of 30 and we laughed about it. He played an insane game and he's played an insane tournament thus far, I hope he continues in the playoffs.

I get it, and I think that he was on top of his game and the rest struggled, but at the end of the day, I don't think he would feel that way. Maybe if it happens all the time it's a different question, but obviously we needed to step up and we couldn't.
He was trying to guide us in the direction that day, so now we're hoping for a rematch and maybe the rest of us can do a bit better.

I just think that the fact that we were a team for that long, it's pretty rare in esports. It's inevitable.
We had a very deep playbook compared to the previous year where we did well, so it wasn't about that, it was more about the team synergy and how we can play off each other and have a fun time together, we were lacking that and sometimes it's only natural to bring some new energy to the team.
I think it's always bound to happen at those points, and you see other teams do it and most of them are doing it even earlier than we did, so I'm glad that we got to play with each other for such a lot time and understand when we peaked as a team and that there was no other choice.

That's a tough question, we have a lot of tournaments this year and we didn't speak about it too much, but we understood that we had a good chance to make it all things considered. Now we understand that every game is going to be super tough, and we need to play even better to make a decent run here.

I think it's early days to think about the evolution, but I do think we need time. It's much easier to say things in a couple of events or months time, we're still going into the map pool and doing things from scratch, learning positions and all that. It's just about gaining experience now.

I think it's the best thing to have it earlier than later, no matter the tournament, and I'm also glad that he's getting arguably the best stage there is on his first tier one event. That's a very nice thing. But we all need the experience, and he needs it, too.