Justinas “jL” Lekavicius has never shied away from speaking his mind. Whether in interviews or on social media, the 25-year-old NAVI profile is known for sharing his opinions and not being afraid to stand out from the crowd.
However, not all professional Counter-Strike players share this approach. In fact, according to jL, the scene lacks personalities.
“Sports needs personalities”
We have spoken with jL about his mindset and why he believes it can be tough being a personality in Counter-Strike nowadays.
When asked why he’s so open about sharing his thoughts, jL highlighted the importance of showing authenticity towards the fans.
– I feel like the people who are watching us and supporting us deserve to know the truth – to a certain extent, of course. You’re not going to go into huge details, but I just feel it’s important to share your story with the people.
Do you think the Counter-Strike scene needs more personalities?
– Yeah. I think every sport needs personalities. Many mainstream sports have great personalities. But in esports, you have more of the star players but not as many personalities. I could see why we don’t have a lot of personalities, but yeah, it’s up to the person.
jL with a fan during BLAST Premier World Final in Singapore last year – Photo credit: Shaun Lee.
“It’s hard being a personality”
The Lithuanian rifler also shed light on why some players may avoid stepping into the spotlight. Here jL used top players such as Dan “apEX”, Casper “cadiaN” Møller and paiN’s youngster Joao “snow” Vinicius as examples.
– To be honest, a lot of personalities get hate in the community. Here we have apEX and cadiaN – there are a lot of players who have a lot of personality. For example, snow – he’s just a harmless guy who wants the best for his team. He never trash talks his opponents, but he still gets hate because he’s young and he hypes the team up. And even he gets hate. There’s no way around it, I guess. You just have to accept the hate. But, of course, with a lot of hate comes a lot of support too. It’s just hard being a personality.
In our chat with jL, we also discussed NAVI’s off-season, their route back to #1 and more. You can watch the entire interview down below.
