GuardiaN: "I believe in this team"

Kovács' Natus Vincere made their break through two months ago at SLTV StarSeries IX Finals in Kiev, where they upset Titan and NiP en route to a surprising tournament title.

Since then it's been silent in the Na`Vi camp so we caught up with their Slovak to get an idea of how their preparation for DreamHack is going, what they think was key to their success in Kiev and more.

GuardiaN doesn't like playing against his previous organization's new team 

How have you prepared for DreamHack Summer; do you feel ready for the event? Have you only practiced online or also bootcamped? How do you plan on spending the remaining time before the event kicks off?

GuardiaN: Hmmm.. We have not started to practice for this event yet. Our bootcamp will start in few days and we will do our best to prepare as good as we can. That means we will be playing a lot individually, lots of practice games, watching demos and analyzing our weak parts on each map.

Do you believe the lengthy break from LAN competition since Copenhagen Games will affect the results at DreamHack in any way, or does constantly playing official matches online make up for it? Are you afraid of giving up your game plan too much online?

GuardiaN: It's hard to say, because we still have lot of strats that we have not used at all and we are waiting for the right moment to show our best game. We also missed lot of online leagues/events, so it will be hard to get back to our good shape, but I believe that we have enough time to prepare for everything. Sometimes it's necessary to use some strats that you do not want to show at all (in online events).

Who do you think will be your toughest opponents at DreamHack? Any potential dark horses who have seemed particularly strong lately that you think might surpass everyone’s expectations in Jönköping? Anyone who might disappoint?

GuardiaN: I think Virtus pro if we will play them. They are always extremely hard to play, feels like they are destroying your mind by playing some strats and their aiming skills are probably the most consistent in the pro competitive scene.

If we talk about some dark horses, then I think it might be the French team Nameless with shoxie.. No idea if they are going to be preparing extremely well for DreamHack Summer, but if they do so, they will show us a good fight. Titan seem to be inconsistent since the roster change, so they might fail again. Hard to say, every single top five team can disappoint or fail at the event.

Player	Age	Rating
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács	22	1.18
Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev	26	1.11
Denis "seized" Kostin	19	1.07
Danilo "Zeus" Teslenko	26	1.02
Sergey "starix" Ischuk	26	1.01

What do you make of your chances at DreamHack? What would be a realistic goal for your team, and what would you be ok settling at? Is there any extra pressure for you to perform well at this particular event?

GuardiaN: Our goal is always the same, to be the champions. After SLTV we want to prove that it was not a fluke and I believe we will be strong enough to be in the top three. I do not think there's any pressure on us, we just have to play our game without any doubt in ourselves.

SLTV StarSeries IX Finals confirmed you can contend for titles at any event. How has that result affected your motivation? Do you feel as if a weight has been lifted off your shoulders now that you’ve won a tournament in CS:GO? Could it only be the beginning?

GuardiaN: Winning SLTV was very, very nice and it was a great feeling, but.. My motivation is probably on the same level as it was before. CS:GO is growing, but not in the way we, the pro players want to. The prize money for this event is kind of disappointing and I do not see teams preparing their best game for this event. But yeah, everyone will do their best in their actual shape to win DreamHack Summer as well as we will. I believe in this team and more titles in our colors.

Your team was incredible in 2v* situations in Kiev. Did you do something special there, or did you simply have a great tournament? Do you think that’s a strong suite in your game in general, something you’ve worked on to become better at than your competition?

GuardiaN: I think 1v*/2v* situations are about communication and skill, you can not prepare specially for these situations. You simply have to aim better than the opponent, to get the opening frag in the situation. So we can say we had a perfect tournament, but with luck in a few moments.

The key factor behind our success was our captain, Zeus. He has been watching demos every single possible moment - for example while we were talking about next map outside, he was watching demos on the stage to be prepared for the next map. I think that was key for us that we knew a lot about our opponents. If he keeps doing this, then we can be successful once again.

Natus Vincere will get a chance to see if they can repeat their performance in Kiev in under a week's time, with DreamHack Summer 2014's $30,000 tournament kicking off on June 14.