Aleksib on roster rumours: "Sometimes people are right, sometimes they're completely out of touch"
Despite a strong end to 2025 at the StarLadder Budapest Major, very few people would have expected NAVI to announce themselves as the second-best team in the world as we approach the first Major of 2026.
However, NAVI have been in fine form thus far in 2026, winning ESL Pro League Season 23 and placing second at BLAST Open Rotterdam.
With NAVI now awaiting FaZe in the semi-finals of BLAST Rival Fort Worth, we sat down with Aleksib to discuss their matches against Vitality, makazze, and the roster rumours that are always circling the team.
“[Vitality] just seem unstoppable at the moment”
It feels like this year has been better than a lot of people were predicting at the start of the year for the team. How are you finding it? Has it beaten your expectations?
In a way, yes, but the grand final and the rematch against Vitality, I don't think we performed in a way we hoped to perform, and that's something that we'll always go back and think about what happened. I think we can do so much better, but they just seem unstoppable at the moment.
It's tough to think about it in a way, but we tried our best, and everything else in the season has been going to plan.
In terms of the final, Elmapuddy put out a video afterwards about how good some of the reads were, but the rounds still just didn't go your way. Did you feel like you had all the reads and the right game plan? If you did, what is the gap that you think exists between yourselves and Vitality?
Definitely, especially Anubis. We had so many rounds that, on paper, and if you were to watch it in 2D, where you can overview the map and positioning, you would think that we could win some of them, even though we lost like four situations like that, that we would win even one or two of them.
It was pretty ridiculous how bad we played them, but at the same time, how good they played them. Their individuals are bringing them out of these bad moments, and that's why they don't seem to drop maps.
After that game, we tried to analyse and do our best, but in the rematch, they outmanoeuvred us even better. In that game, I don't think we had the upper hand, so it's tough to say.
We already tried to do everything we can to learn from those games, so it's a case of just always thinking about the next time we play them, but overall, they're just a hard team for us to play. We have those teams that are under control, and sometimes it feels like no matter what they come up with, we always come up strong. It's something that we need to still work on, and understand that we need to keep believing and not lose hope.
Throughout your career, you've had some younger players play under you. sergej on ENCE, m0NESY on G2, headtr1ck on NIP, and now makazze on NAVI. makazze takes everything in his stride, especially when it comes to big games, what makes him different to players you've had in the past, where you've said at times those players weren't ready?
I think he has a strong voice, at least now compared to when he joined the team. But that's obvious, he was coming from tier three experience, and obviously, they played well at the end of NAVI Junior and could've beaten teams we wouldn't have expected them to even then, but at the same time, none of them at that time had played a tier one tournament and knew how it felt.
Now that he has experience, I think everything boils down to confidence. He's filled with confidence, especially when he's on stage, and that's a super nice sign from a rookie because it's highly likely that he can keep it up, and that with more experience, he can do even better.
For him, everything is pointing in the right direction, and he understands situations. He's not afraid to speak, he's super vocal in-game in terms of communication, and he always has a good mood and never argues. He's a perfect puzzle piece in our team.
In that sense, especially with arenas and dealing with the pressure of that environment, the FUT guys are also dealing with it well, but when you look at MOUZ, who have a choking narrative, and now kyousuke who is getting one, too, do you think makazze has some natural thing that helps him deal with that pressure? Or do you think NAVI Junior were perhaps doing something differently to MOUZ NXT or Spirit Academy?
I think that he just has it naturally. One of his first events with us was Cologne, and we ended up reaching the playoffs, and he was overwhelmed with how it felt for him. After those games, he was just saying that it's the atmosphere he wants to play in; he didn't want to wait to get on the stage again.
I think that some players just have it in them. I've played with plenty of players, sergej was the same back in ENCE. He was a quiet guy, but when we got on stage it felt like he was playing from home. He was super calm in every tough situation and put up the numbers we needed. Some players just have it naturally, and I think makazze is one of them.
What about the FUT guys? You have a very interesting position with them, considering they were previously your academy team. Do you feel any sense of rivalry or a feeling that you can't lose to them?
I wouldn't say there's a rivalry; it's just an interesting match-up. makazze was really happy to play against them at EPL, and overall, it's something exciting. We are good friends, we practice against each other and joke around with each other, makazze spends a lot more time with them than the rest of us.
But a rivalry? We've only faced them once, so there's still a long way to go there, but if we face them a few more times and it goes back and forth, maybe then I could see it as one.
Right now, it's just a very interesting match-up when you think about the history, but it's also something where, if I put myself in their shoes, they would be super eager to play us again and get revenge.
Right now, NAVI looks to be in a very good place, but there are always conversations about the team making changes. Is that frustrating to have to deal with when things are picking up for the team?
I don't think it's frustrating; it's just the name of the game, really. It doesn't matter if you're doing good or bad, if people talk about you, it usually means that you are where you want to be.
Okay, there are some examples of legendary orgs not making it to tournaments or maybe their fans are frustrated because of some results, that's another topic, but for us, as you said, we're picking up some momentum, and people are talking about changes. I think those people need to understand it's hard to change during the season, especially with our system which is a bit more complex.
But I would say that everyone understands that we also want to win. We don't want to be the second or third best team; we want to win trophies. I'm glad that we ended up lifting one this year, but the competition we played against, it wasn't against Vitality, for example, and we want to be the team that beats them.
If we understand we need to make changes at some point, especially after the season ends, it's much easier to do so since you have more time to analyse everything.
Sometimes people are right, and sometimes people are fully out of touch. But you need to face reality, it's something that happens in every sport so you need to get used to it.
