jL: "Our understanding of the game is below the top teams"
2025 may not have been kind to NAVI so far, but jL is feeling confident as the team prepares to play their final event of the season, the BLAST.tv Austin Major.
Speaking to the Lithuanian at their bootcamp prior to the Major, we spoke about the results so far this year, his own individual form, and if the criticism from the community effects the team at all.
"Looking back at the bootcamp before PGL Copenhagen, it was feeling pretty much the same"
How are you currently feeling heading into the Major, given all the results so far this year?
It really depends how you want to look at it. Right now, I'm feeling optimistic and looking into the future because we're undergoing a bootcamp. It's currently our fourth day at the bootcamp, and it was looking pretty stiff at first, but now we're getting some maps polished.
It feels good. It gives me a lot of confidence. Looking back at the bootcamp before PGL Copenhagen, it was feeling pretty much the same. We didn't have a lot of hopes, but we're doing good preparations and I feel like we're doing great now. So if we keep at it, we do have a chance.
You guys have always said that bootcamping is something that you really benefit from. Have you just not had the opportunities to bootcamp as much as you would have liked to this year to freshen up the map pool and the stratbook?
Yes, for sure. We didn't have a lot of opportunities. And I don't think it's all about the bootcamp, to be honest. I mean, we were not heavily reliant on bootcamps for our tournament wins in 2024.
Of course, it's nice to have them. It's a lot better than practicing online. But it's not just due to the lack of bootcamps this year that we're not playing as well as we did previously.
Photo: Michal KonkolSo what are the things holding you guys back at the moment?
I don't know. There's a lot of stuff, of course. Understanding of the game is below the top teams for sure. I mean, it feels easy outside the game, but once you join the game, you have to do those things and it's a bit different. All of us fell off in terms of firepower, but it comes down to our team play. I don't know, there's a lot of reasons.
Synergy naturally improves when things are going well, because you get that momentum and chemistry with each other. So when things aren't going well, what can you do to build it back up when you're at these bootcamps?
I feel like the number one thing is working together and making sacrifices, because to be a great team, a team that's winning tournaments, you have to make a lot of sacrifices. If you see another person sacrifice their free time for practice, that gives you trust in the person and boosts you to do extra work. Even though you have like 12 hour days with the team, there's always some extra things that you can do. I feel like this helps a lot because you're all here.
A teammate would not like to be seen playing FIFA or relaxing when there's other players working, grinding, reviewing demos, playing FACEIT and doing something towards a common goal.
So, instead of playing FIFA, that guy might go and play an extra FACEIT game. You know what I mean? It's kind of peer pressure, in a sense, but in a good way.
You mentioned the firepower earlier and that everyone on the team has dropped off in a way. What factors are contributing to your ratings not being as high?
I feel like a rating is a very subjective thing. I'm not sure of my rating this year. Of course it fell off, but I feel like rating is a subjective thing, and it kind of correlates with the team's performance. And all of us dropped [in rating] for sure.
But, if we're winning tournaments, I don't think it really matters what rating you have. I feel like people overrate the rating a little bit too much. I don't know, it's hard to explain…
Photo: Michal KonkolIn that case then, would you say that you're having less impact individually on games? If so, what do you think the reason for that is?
I don't know, maybe there's not enough openings, maybe I'm not understanding the game well enough. If I'm a lurker, for example, and my team dies while taking mid control and I'm in a 2v5, obviously there's not much impact I can have. Even if I get two kills, it's low impact. You just got two kills, and it's kind of impossible round to clutch. I mean it is possible, but it's highly unlikely.
For players to have high ratings and have impact, the team has to play well. Like even if you check star players like ZywOo and donk. donk maybe not so much, donk is the impact player. He's going forward and he's creating those openings for them. But I feel like if ZywOo had a team who was not creating openings, he wouldn't perform as well because he's very good in the late round.
I'm not saying he's bad in the early game, but he does shine in the late round scenarios like 3v3s, 4v4s. That is an opening. Someone got to kill or someone got to trade. I feel like those things we need to work on.
How do you work on creating those openings as a team? Is it just improving the individual level or is it the things that need to change within the tactics?
Individual level is always nice because even if you make a mistake or you don't play the tactic well, you can always forgive yourself if you do make the kill. So if you read the round wrong, or you don't remember it correctly or you don't understand the situation, but you still get the kill, it's still going to do damage to the opponent.
If you don't understand the tactic, I feel like most of the time, individual skill will not save you. And if you're like that as a player, it's really hard to win rounds.
In a broader sense of the team, there's been some clips that have gone out on streams throughout the year that look bad without context. You guys as a team have explained the context behind them, but it still leads people to wonder whether the chemistry and the synergy within the team is as strong as it was last year. Would you say that it has taken a hit?
No. I'm 100% sure every single team has those moments and it's not like there's anything personal in those clips. I'm not sure what leaked and what didn't, I don't watch the VODs.
But for me, it's all out of context. I don't know. It's stupid to look too deep into those clips. I I know people want to talk about it or want to create some sort of drama, but there's nothing in those clips that are that bad. Like I've seen the clip with iM and Aleksib, and it was also nothing bad. I don't look into it. For me, it's a very normal team. We are playing a game, your adrenaline is running high, sometimes you say negative things, sometimes you don't.
Photo: Michal KonkolIt sounds like you've still got a lot of confidence in the team then. There are a lot of supposed experts online that like to say that they don't have faith in this team.
The level 4 experts on FACEIT.
Yeah, those ones, exactly. Do you feel like the magic is still there then? Do you feel like you can recapture what you guys did last year?
Of course we can. I mean, we've shown it, and we show a lot of good rounds in the tournaments that we've played previously and if we did it once, we can do it again.
Of course, it's not going to be as easy, but we still know the way, and we just have to grind it out. And to the level fours that are commenting, I don't know, weird stuff, why would you even listen to them? Sometimes I do see them, sometimes I get tagged on Twitter, or even occasionally I go onto HLTV. I don't know, it just makes me cringe that people actually put out this opinion when they have no idea what they're talking about. They just create random stories, and give their opinion. They have no idea what's going on.
People talk a lot about how it's hard to avoid the negativity, so is there not a point where when you've been tagged so many times and you've seen so many of these comments that it does create that little issue in the back of your mind?
No, I don't think it matters what they say. It only matters what you think. If you think poorly about your team, think the public comments will only reinforce those emotions. But if you're confident in the team, you feel like you're working towards a better goal, and you're improving together, I don't think it matters.
The Major is the next tournament you guys are going to play, and it's clear you're still very confident. Maybe you haven't hit goals or expectations that you would have set out at the start of the year, so has that changed the goals or expectations of the Major at all? What are you guys looking for when you get there? Is it just to return back to winning?
I mean, for every tournament, that's the main goal. Of course the goal is still to perform as well as we can. The main point of the bootcamp is doing as much as we can to prepare, and to make sure we have no regrets afterwards. So even if we get to the semi-finals or finals, knowing we played our best, ensuring if we lose, we got outplayed, and we didn't lose to ourselves. So maybe that's the goal.
