They had a close brush against The Mongolz that they closed on their home map.
NAVI have reached the playoffs in Paris, breathing a sigh of relief after a close series.
It would have been disappointing to struggle in groups [after a bootcamp].
Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen said that NAVI had a bootcamp after their failure at the IEM Cologne Major, not reaching the top eight there despite coming in as one of the favorites. NAVI’s coach confirmed that they were close to making changes this season.
While NAVI starts strong with a playoffs appearance, it conceals the stuggles beneath.
Lost on one of their home maps but had control of Mirage
While NAVI had a succesful first half of the season, they had trouble winning their own map pick. They had the same issue here, against a team which has just had two roster shake-ups.
NAVI came into this series by destroying The Mongolz 13-5 on Inferno, and then went into their map pick of Ancient. Normally Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri’s playground, they fell short this time.
The Mongolz, playing with two rookies on their team and without a coach, completely stifled NAVI’s attack over and over. They ended up winning the first half 8-4 dominantly with NAVI on the ropes.
DarkMeister styles on NAVI on Ancient
NAVI came in with the pistol round win and had economic control at 9-9, but The Mongolz were a step ahead. 18-year-old Dugarsuren ‘DarkMeister’ Ireedui came through with tremendous lurk timings, catching NAVI with their pants down and winning the map for his team.
As Aleksib admitted in the interview, NAVI were fortunate to have Mirage as the decider map. A close first half at 6-6 was dicey, but NAVI’s T-side was yet again phenomenal. Constant misdirection and a strong closing performance from makazze allowed for the win, but it was far from perfect.
Aleksib: “[The Club Championship] doesn’t add any extra pressure”
The EWC Club Championship is underway with organizations competing for a massive cash prize at the end of the event.
Falcons is practically guaranteed to win it, but there is a big prize in store for those who get high placings. NAVI is third on the leaderboard, but it doesn’t add much pressure to the CS2 team.
I wouldn’t say it adds any extra pressure […] we just don’t want to be the ones to mess it up.
While he said it was a “cool concept”, Aleksib was nonchalant about the Club Championship, focused on the CS2 tournament after a sour ending to last season.
