djL: "There is still a long way to go, but we are at least going in the right direction"

The Swedish coach touched on Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov's development since joining the squad.

Ninjas in Pyjamas come into IEM Rio hoping to build on a good result at the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMRs, where they ensured a place at the upcoming Major amidst shaky form that has seen them slip to the organization's lowest-ever ranking.

Daniel "⁠djL⁠" Narancic sat down with HLTV for a quick chat following his team's victory over Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and company to talk about the team's development over the last two months, headtr1ck's improvement, and their upcoming match against Natus Vincere.

Congratulations djL, you won the first game quite easily after the first half. Obviously Imperial was here because Virtus.pro couldn't make it, did that catch you off guard?

We played the RMR before this and we focused on it. We just saw that VP were not playing and it was just a few days before so didn't really talk about this match even, we just focused on the RMR. When we got here we just focused on Imperial, nothing special really.

Were you surprised when they picked Mirage?

We knew it could be three different maps, and Mirage was one of them, so not at all.

This is the second time you come here to Rio, the first time was for the Major and it wasn't so good. Are you looking to make up for it this time around?

[laughs] Last time we went 0-3 in the Legends Stage, so yeah, of course we spoke about that as well before coming here that we want to do better, so with a win here, it's great.

You are facing NAVI in the next round in a best-of-three, what are your thoughts going into that game?

I think they are good and they are always consistent, it's going to be a tough matchup for sure. I think we have been playing very well lately, or at least better. It's going to be a fun match. We played them a lot last year, but we haven't played them too much this year and it's going to be a close matchup for sure.

They beat you twice at BLAST earlier this year, are you looking to get some sort of revenge?

No I mean, at BLAST we played with stand-ins so I think it's going to be way tougher for them and I think it's going to be a competitive game for sure.

Speaking of stand-ins, if we could touch on the team at the moment, you have k0nfig right now, can you tell us any updates on the situation?

We got k0nfig after BLAST and we have been pretty much going from tournament to tournament. After Pro League, we had a really heavy talk about how we wanted to approach the game and how to be on the same page because we did not really feel like we were. Especially for Pro League, it was really tough, I don't think we played the CS we wanted. We essentially started talking about the basics and trying to be on the same page. I think for now with all the players we are super confident, and there is still a long way to go, but we are at least going in the right direction.

Speaking of long roads, headtr1ck, his performances have been up and down. He played well today and he performed well at the end of the RMR. Tell me how he has been developing since joining the squad.

I knew it would be rough for him in the first couple of months, I would say. We spoke about that, and he had not really played any good teams with NAVI Junior, he played a little bit with NAVI, but I still think his curve going forward has been very good. We have to note that you don't see everything that is going on, like his communication, awareness, and teamplay have been incredible these couple of months. I think he's going to be very good soon.

This is an event just before the Major, and there have been three events close together. How do you tackle these events as a team?

We take it day by day honestly, still of course the Major is a focus now that we qualified, but we want to be as good as we can at this tournament, right? We just take it game by game and then we try to fix our mistakes and we will try to be the best we can for the Major.

You said you have been trying to get back to the basics and improve on your mistakes, does this congested fixture list affect how you do that?

Yes. Overall we have a way more accurate plan on what we want to do on the server and how we want to play with pretty much anything. [We are] reviewing way more, talking way more with the players and it just feels very good right now.