After the 2-1 win against FaZe at the Copenhagen Major, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen was interviewed on the stage after NAVI had lifted the trophy. Here the Finnish in-game leader praised his teammates and the coach of NAVI, Andrij "B1ad3" Ghorodensjkyj, who won his second Major with the win.

[twitchClip:IncredulousStrangeSageAMPTropPunch-kdC-QSuMFV1Wgl3g]

Aleksib

Natus Vincere

Facing a packed Royal Arena, NAVI continued their impressive campaign in Copenhagen, where they were initially considered outsiders. However, during the playoffs, NAVI demonstrated their ability to thrive under pressure, securing victories against Eternal Fire and G2. Against the seasoned FaZe roster, NAVI elevated their performance yet again.

FaZe opted for Ancient as the opening map, yet they never managed to gain a lead. Finn "karrigan" Andersen's squad consistently trailed NAVI, with NAVI's in-game leader Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen excelling in both shot-calling and fragging. Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy, the sole remaining member from NAVI's 2021 Major Champions team, and Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, the standout performer of the event, contributed significantly, culminating in NAVI securing the map.

Moving to Mirage, NAVI secured the pistol round, but FaZe struck back, seizing momentum and dominating NAVI's map pick with ten consecutive round wins. FaZe's 10-2 lead at halftime transitioned into a resounding 13-2 victory, forcing the match onto Inferno as the final map.

Inferno, renowned as the ultimate decider map in Counter-Strike, set the stage for the historic conclusion of the first CS2 Major. NAVI swiftly amassed seven rounds, overturning the narrative once more. FaZe's dominance on Inferno waned, allowing NAVI to dictate the pace. A pivotal 1vs3 clutch by FaZe's newcomer, David "frozen" Čerňanský, momentarily halted NAVI's momentum. However, NAVI's proactive approach, exemplified by Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, ensured they maintained control, thwarting FaZe's comeback attempts. The first half concluded 9-3 in favor of NAVI.

The pistol round in the second half proved decisive, as NAVI capitalized and won all rounds in the second half to emerge victorious in Copenhagen. A first Major win for Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, Ivan "iM" Mihai, and Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov, while Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy won his second Major with impressive win in the Royal Arena.

NAVI takes home the title alongside the first prize of $500,000 and the honour as the first Major winner in CS2.

NAVI - FaZe 2-1 | PGL Major Copenhagen Grand Final

13-9 (Ancient) | b1t - 1.55 Rating / 19-12 K-D / 98.1 ADR

2-13 (Mirage) | ropz - 1.91 Rating / 16-4 K-D / 109.1 ADR

13-3 (Inferno) | b1t - 2.16 Rating / 23-7 K-D / 131.6 ADR

Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy - 1.52 Rating / 51-34 K-D / 104.0 ADR

w0nderfu1

B1tGOD

FaZe

NAVI will field their new lineup for the first time at BLAST Premier Fall Finals in Copenhagen, where Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov is set to fill the shoes of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev. A big task for the young Ukrainian, who joined the team three weeks ago.

- I think w0nderful fits the team really well. He is Ukrainian and so is NAVI. He fits personality-wise. We match together really well, and I get along with him really well, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen tells Pley.gg before the start of the BLAST Fall Finals in Copenhagen.

NAVI’s new AWP’er was brought in to replace s1mple. The CS superstar shocked the world of Counter-Strike by announcing a break from competitive CS. A tough message for the players of NAVI, who were caught by surprise with the announcement.

- I found out about it in Sydney actually. It came out of the blue kind of. But it’s not my first rodeo in something similar, so you just need to start looking forward and start the process with someone else. If you dwell on all the “what if and what not” I don’t think it helps you at all, Aleksib explains on the Media day at BLAST.

The BLAST Fall Finals in Copenhagen will be the first chance to see Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov in action for NAVI. It will also be a big test for the young AWP’er, who has some big shoes to fill.

- Anyone would have some kind of pressure to replace s1mple. But I just think that the way he handles it, he wants to show himself, and he want to make his country proud, and as a player, I think he can do it, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen says.

NAVI and their new roster will take on Cloud9 in the opening round of BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023 tomorrow. The final two days of the event will take place in the Royal Arena in Copenhagen.

You can see the full interview with Aleksib below.

Huge news broke today with Natus Vincere confirming the rumors about their move to an international roster.

Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, and Mihai "iM" Ivan are the new faces on the team joining Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and Valerii "b1t" Vakhovskyi on the team.

While Aleksib has been a household name during the last couple of years in CS:GO, it was at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, that Justinas "jL" Lekavicius (Apeks), and Mihai "iM" Ivan (GamerLegion) made quite an impression with several outstanding performances.

There is no news yet about the future of Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy, and Andrij "npl" Kukharsjkyj. The two Russians have been connected with a move to Cloud9.

Natus Vincere will play with this lineup at BLAST Fall Groups from July 10th.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have ended the speculations about the future of the roster with the announcement of Hampus "hampus" Poser's return to the lineup.

The 24-year-old Swede will take over the reins as the in-game leader for the team replacing Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen. The Finn joined the roster in September 2022 but will now be moved to the bench after just nine months on the team.

Earlier this month Hampus "hampus" Poser announced that he was ready to return to competitive CS:GO after spending time on the sideline due to health reasons since January. 

The return of hampus marks the ninth roster move that NIP has made since Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz joined the team in April 2021.

Timeline of roster moves in NIP since April 2021:

April 2021: Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz joins from Astralis - Tim "nawwk" Jonasson benched

June 2021: Linus "LNZ" Holtäng joins from Young Ninjas - Erik "ztr" Gustafsson returns to Young Ninjas

November 2021: Patrick "es3tag" Hansen joins from Complexity - Linus "LNZ" Holtäng returns to Young Ninjas

January 2022: Love "phzy" Smidebrant joins from Young Ninjas - Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz benched

April 2022: Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin joins from Fnatic - Love "phzy" Smidebrant leaves NIP

September 2022: Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen joins from G2 - Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora benched

January 2023: Danyyl "headtr1ck" Valitov joins from NAVI Junior - Patrick "es3tag" Hansen benched

January 2023: Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke joins from Astralis - Hampus "hampus" Poser benched

June 2023: Hampus "hampus" Poser returns to the lineup -  Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen benched

hampus

Ninjas in Pyjamas

The first qualifier for the main event at IEM Katowice was found today at the hall of heroes’ venue in Katowice, where the initial stage of the tournament is held.

NIP was the first team to book their place in the main event after two solid wins. Firstly, they won against MIBR on Nuke. In the second match, they had to deal with Team Spirit. Surprisingly enough NIP had no issues winning against Spirit. 16-7, and 16-8 was the score after Nuke and Mirage.

The Swedish Ninjas won all four pistol rounds in the four halves to give themselves the edge in the match, where especially in-game leader Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen shined through delivering both firepower and excellent calls during the match.

Team Spirit will get a new chance to qualify Friday in the lower bracket, where they will hope to see a better version of their two starplayers, Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov and Igor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov, who both fell through in today's match.

NIP – Team Spirit 2-0 | IEM Katowice Play-in Stage

MVP: {cflag:FI} Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen - 1.31 rating / 35-26 K-D / 80.4 ADR

Spirit

Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen is back on the Faceit server for the first time since November 29. 

The 25-year-old took played against FPL players on Anubis. A map that Ninjas In Pyjamas haven't played on during an official match. Despite no official matches on the map was the Ninjas In Pyjamas IGL on fire with the dealge. Behind 3-1 on the T-side, With crisp headshots, Aleksib took down three opponents to secure his team the fifth round of the game. 

Watch Aleksib click heads with the dealge in the video below:

Aleksib and Ninjas In Pyjamas will be back in action when BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023 kicks off on Jan 19th - Jan 29th. The Swedish team goes into the tournament with roster changes as their newest signing Danyyl "headtr1ck" Valitov will put Patrick "es3tag" Hansen on the bench.

Scope.gg has once again revealed some fascinating facts from the BLAST Premier Fall Final event in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Heroic’s stavn got the highest number of wallbang kills throughout the event. A total of 15, as well as 17 kills through smokes. Should his PC be checked to see if there’s any ‘third party software’ running?

FaZe Clan’s ropz became the most accurate rifler of the event with an accuracy of 59.3%.

NiP’s REZ was the fastest sniper of the tournament with TTD (Time to Damage) of 199 ms. Meanwhile, s1mple was the slowest with TTD of 237 ms. TTD is basically the average time it took you from seeing the enemy player to dealing damage to them.

Heroic’s newest addition to the roster, jabbi, admired his skins for 47 minutes! Some players just can’t get enough of looking at their skins.

Aleksib died 13 times with a grenade in his hand or while reloading. For you guys out there, don’t let you self be caught off guard!

Jabbi

s1mple

ropz

stavn

When Ninjas in Pyjamas last month announced the signing of Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen it resulted in a demotion for Hampus “hampus” Poser, who saw his in-game leader role be taken away from him and placed on the shoulders of the newly arrived Finn.

Something that would seem like a negative thing for some people - But not in this case, hampus explains in a [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE6kgvRVv5k","isNewTab":true,"text":"video"}] on NIP’s YouTube channel.

- Having Aleksib join the team feels super nice. It means that I’m not the in-game leader anymore, which I’m very happy about. I mean I want to be an IGL, but I also do not want to be the IGL. I’m just happy that after being at NIP for two something years, it feels good to try something new.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"iem-rio-major-preview-ninjas-pyjamas","isNewTab":true}]

NIP teammate and fellow Swede, Frederik “REZ” Sterner is also pleased with Aleksib’s arrival, pointing towards his leadership approach, which is commonly known as a very structured style with Aleksib micromanaging his troops.

- I think Aleksib is going to bring a lot of stability, structure and a lot of protocols, like really set in stone in how we are going to approach and play the game. I really like that, REZ says in the video. 

Aleksib, REZ, hampus and the rest of NIP are set to start their Major campaign next week after qualifying as Legends for the Rio de Janeiro-located tournament. You can find today's schedule for the Major down below.  

[slugORMA:{"slug":"today-iem-rio-major-monday-31th-october","isNewTab":true}]

{cflag:SE} Ludvig ”Brollan” Brolin - 1.13 rating in 2022

{cflag:SE} Frederik ”REZ” Sterner - 1.11 rating in 2022

{cflag:FI} Aleksi ”Aleksib” Virolainen - 1.07 rating in 2022

{cflag:SE} Hampus ”hampus” Poser - 1.04 rating in 2022

{cflag:DK} Patrick ”es3tag” Hansen - 0.97 rating in 2022

Ninjas in Pyjamas arrive at IEM Rio Major in fine form, with the Swedish squad having experienced an impressive start with their new-look roster. After the former G2 IGL Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen joined the pack, NIP has won five matches in a row only giving up one map against Cloud9.

What to expect from Ninjas in Pyjamas at the Brazilian Major is a tough question to answer. If they could field their superstar AWPer Nicolai “device” Reedtz, things would look a lot different for the Ninjas. With Frederik “REZ” Sterner on the AWP instead of his usual rifle, NIP have to rely much on their star player in Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"nip-acquire-aleksib-from-g2","isNewTab":true}]

NIP’s best result this year is their first place at Global Esports Tour Dubai where they defeated MOUZ in the Grand Final to secure the $100.000 1st price. That is the only Grand Final appearance from the Swedes in 2022, if you take away their recent win at the lower-tier Svenska Cuppen.

Brollan

es3tag

The act of run boosting involves you running on top of another running player, allowing you to jump farther than a regular jump would. When doing a run boost, this should be done on flat surfaces, but as you are getting more comfortable in your run boost, you can start doing it with the guns out and in different places.

If you take a closer look at the clip, you can see him and hampus decide to run boost Aleksib on the box mid-site, which gets him through the smoke. The aspect of surprise is the key factor here. The CT´s do not expect a T-player coming over the smoke and landing on the site. The moment Aleksib takes the first contract, hampus is going to swing to take the duels with the new IGL of NIP. By doing a run boost, the three players of NIP take down the B-site defenders of Lilmix. 

[twitchClip:SourMuddyAntelopeM4xHeh-ZlTBfLEVH_xP8sfc]

Ninjas in Pyjamas took on Astralis in the Opening match at the IEM Road to Rio 2022 European RMR. The game against Astralis was the first match for Aleksib doing his time in NIP.

NIP decided to make a video of the voice comms doing his first game against a worthy opponent. Throughout the clip, you get to listen in on how the machinery works insight the engine room of NIP. You get to hear how well the ninjas are communicating, as well as the way they hype each other up doing these games. 

The new IGL of NIP  Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen played a great match delivering some good stats despite being an IGL. 1.37 Rating / 24-20 K-D / 100.8 ADR.

Some people consider the Galil one of the worst weapons of the game, but that should not be the reason to make such a miss as Aleksib did in the second round of the European RMR. 

In a match against Bad News Eagles NIP is trying to create space on-ramp "Vertigo". rigoN the BNE´s A defender gets a flash thrown in his face so Aleksib can push a try to kill him, but 15 bullets down and the IGL of NIP only managed to hit him once doing the play. 

Watch the candidate for miss of the year in the clip below:

[twitchClip:InnocentSavoryPlumageTakeNRG-JZ9bDCFPh8ILPlXy]

There's nothing better in Counter-Strike than outsmarting your direct opponents on the server. Whether it's with a genius call, a cool trick, or maybe a well-timed fake. The YouTube account Virre CSGO has compiled some of the smartest pro plays so far this year and made them into this exciting compilation. 

Watch Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov and the Russian prodigy's smart utility hacks, clever clutches from Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen and much more in the video below. Here are the smartest pro plays from 2022 so far. 

G2 has just come off a PERFECT ESL Pro League Season 16 campaign, securing the #1 spot in Group B and a first seed in the upcoming playoffs. Throughout the group stage, Nikola “NiKo” Kovac and co. managed to win every single map to go 10-0, as the first team in the long history of ESL Pro League, despite going up against tough competition such as FaZe, Outsiders, BIG and.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"jks-hooxi-signs-g2","isNewTab":true}]

Before the last day of play, NiKo spoke with ESL about the captain change on G2 swapping Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen with Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen. Here HooXi received a lot of praise from the superstar Bosnian.

You can see the entire interview down below. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"faze-ready-playoffs-group-b-concludes","isNewTab":true}]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"hooxi-most-people-talking-trash-dont-know-they-are-talking-about","isNewTab":true}]

HooXi

NiKo

G2 Esports

It has been said several times doing the last couple of years, that Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen is a master of micromanaging his teams. And maybe to a degree, where it has been too much. In a talk show with Duncan "Thorin" Shields, the former teammate of Aleksib, Valdemar "valde" Vangså explained why it could seem, that the Finnish in-game leader is talking and guiding his players a lot during rounds.

- We probably did not have the most vocal team back then (On OG) with Issa "ISSAA" Murad and Mateusz "mantuu" Wilczewski who did not say much. If you have a 3vs3 situation where Aleksi is dead and he is spectating. If nobody is saying anything, then he obviously feels like the round will be lost if he doesn't jump in and interfere and start micromanaging. But I don't think he wants to micromanage as an in-game leader. Let's say that he has three or four players who could actually talk a lot on their own, I don't think he would do this micromanaging style.

You can see the bit about Aleksib in the talk show here.

Since the interview went online Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen has been confirmed as a new player for Ninjas in Pyjamas.

valde

Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen will be the new in-game leader on Ninjas in Pyjamas with the Finnish captain joining from G2. To make room for Aleksib, the Swedes have decided to cut Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez from the active roster after more than three years of service. 

COO at Ninjas in Pyjamas, Jonas Gundersen explains the recent roster change:

- Ninjas in Pyjamas needs to be a team you can count on making deep runs and we’ve made good progress on this the past few years, but the road there is long and hard. When there’s sign of stagnation, new energy might be needed to keep progressing and we think the timing is right to make a larger change than usual: brining on Aleksib as IGL and moving our communication to English.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"Gamle billeder/NIP_skxirb","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg"}]

{cflag:SE} Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin 

{cflag:DK} Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen 

{cflag:FI} Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen 

{cflag:SE} Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic (coach) 

{cflag:SE} Nicolas "⁠Plopski⁠" Gonzalez Zamora (benched) 

{cflag:DK} Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz (on leave)

[slugORMA:{"slug":"g2-set-rebuild-aleksib-jackz-allowed-explore-options","isNewTab":true}]

Plopski

Justin “jks” Savage is reportedly on the way to sign for G2 according to sources gathered by [link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/news/142354-jks-to-join-g2-esports","isNewTab":true,"text":"1pv.fr "}]and [link:{"url":"https://www.dexerto.com/csgo/sources-g2-set-to-sign-jks-to-csgo-team-1885168/","isNewTab":true,"text":"Dexerto"}]. The profiled Aussie is therefore set to leave Complexity, where he has been benched since November last year.

The reports state that jks will replace Audric “JACKZ” Jug on the roster after the Frenchman was allowed to seek options outside of G2 nine days ago. 

jks haven’t played many official CS:GO matches here in 2022 following his benching on Complexity towards the end of last year. Yet, the 26-year-old has still managed to win a trophy when he stood in for FaZe at IEM Katowice, where he ended up playing a huge role for the Finn “karrigan” Andersen-led squad.

{cflag:BA} Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač

{cflag:FR} Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug (transfer-listed)

{cflag:FI} Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen (transfer-listed)

{cflag:FR} Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub (benched)

[slugORMA:{"slug":"analyst-jks-price-tag-no-is-going-pay-amount-money","isNewTab":true}]

JaCkz

compLexity Gaming

Ten days ago OG announced the transfer of the profiled AWPer Abdul “degster” Gasanov after a successful BLAST Spring Final Lisbon campaign, where the 21-year-old Russian ended up as one of the top individual performers.

However, the thing with transfers is that there’s almost every time one person who comes out on the “losing side of things”. In this case, that person is Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski. [link:{"url":"https://www.dexerto.com/csgo/out-of-og-mantuu-can-start-playing-csgo-like-himself-again-1879912/","isNewTab":true,"text":"In an interview with Luis Mira and Dexerto"}], mantuu opens up about the benching and how he has experienced a lack of communication between him and OG, despite having represented the team since 2019. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"cs-go-transfer-roster-moves-summer-2022","isNewTab":true}]

In the interview, manutuu also touches on his own role on the server, while playing under the leadership of both Aleksib and nexa and how he wanted to “fix some things in himself” in order to fit in nexa’s playstyle.

You can read the entire interview right [link:{"url":"https://www.dexerto.com/csgo/out-of-og-mantuu-can-start-playing-csgo-like-himself-again-1879912/","isNewTab":true,"text":"here"}].

[slugORMA:{"slug":"og-officially-sign-degster","isNewTab":true}]

mantuu

degster

nexa

Some players are just more scary to peek than others. You have probably heard about the so-called "XANTARES peek" and for a good reason. The Turkish superstar was once by many regarded as one of the scariest aimers to face, no matter the map or situation. Whilst "XANTARES" is still putting up great numbers for Eternal Fire, the times have changed, and is perhaps time to find out who the pros fear peeking against the most. 

A player that needs no introduction is the greatest CS:GO player of all time in "s1mple". The Ukrainian NaVi beast is impossible to take down when he is feeling himself and can create opportunities out of nowhere. When asked in an interview with Betway Esports, "Aleksib" pointed toward "s1mple as the scariest opponent to peek against: 

To hear more from various pros about who they think is the most scary opponent to face when peeking, you can watch the series of interviews by Betway Esports in the video posted down below: 

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

Aleksib

Player stats

Articles mentioning Aleksib

Aleksib: B1ad3 is the best coach in the world

NAVI Claims Historic Victory in First CS2 Major

Aleksib on s1mple break: It came out of the blue

NAVI confirms international roster

Aleksib benched as hampus makes his return

NIP ready for main event at IEM Katowice

Pley of the Day: Aleksib clicks heads!

REZ was the fastest AWPer at BLAST Fall Final

hampus on not being IGL anymore: I’m very happy about it

IEM Rio Major Preview: Ninjas in Pyjamas

Video: Aleksib's runboost works to perfection

Voice comms: Listen in on Aleksib’s first match for NIP

Video: Miss of the year from Aleksib?

Video: The smartest pro plays of 2022 so far!

NiKo: HooXi has been phenomenal for us, even though people might not see that

valde on Aleksib: The micromanaging aspect is a little overblown

NIP acquire Aleksib from G2

Media: G2 to acquire jks from Complexity

mantuu on OG benching: It was weird for me; There was never a talk

Aleksib on s1mple: He knows when you are peeking

Follow Pley