Aleksib on joining NAVI: "It hurts that a lot of people might be saying I don't deserve it"

Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen is keen to prove the doubters wrong and show he belongs on Natus Vincere.

Few players have had a career quite like that of Aleksib, who experienced some euphoric highs with ENCE early in his career that he hasn't quite been able to recapture. The Finn took OG to No. 6 in the world twice but could never win trophies, had a blistering start with G2 that waned quickly, and failed to impress with Ninjas in Pyjamas amidst a plethora of roster changes.

Opinion is split amongst the community as to whether Aleksib deserved the multiple chances he had to lead upper-echelon squads, but despite any noise made by fans he finds himself once again in charge of a star-studded roster, headlined by one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.

The 26-year-old IGL is aware that his recent resume "doesn't look pretty" on paper, but is motivated to prove he deserves his chance. Ahead of his eclectic new roster's appearance at BLAST Premier Fall Groups, Aleksib sat down with HLTV to give his candid thoughts on his reputation in the scene, his time on NIP and his style as a leader, and of course how he has been settling in with his new teammates.

How have you been settling in to NAVI?

I think it has been a cultural thing, I played in a Finnish lineup a long time ago but after that I only played in international lineups, for almost three years. Now I'm coming into a culture that is way different from a lot of the international teams I have played in, but honestly I think change is good a lot of the time. When you have got used to something I think it is good for your career to change up some things. The first few days were a bit weird, but after that I felt like I started settling in and everybody is finding their own ground in the team, and it feels nice.

What is the biggest thing you found difficult culturally? Is there one thing you can point to that has been tough for you to adjust to?

I wouldn't say tough to adjust to, but the main difference is that things are not being sugar coated at all, and I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily. Over the last three years in the international rosters I have been in, many of my teammates or many of the staff behind the scenes have had their own inputs and thoughts, and usually the path you take is really careful and people are sensitive and whatnot. Here I feel like it's much more straightforward, sometimes that's really good, sometimes it might not be good, but I feel like that's the case with the current team and with this system. I actually like it in a way, like I said change is good and sometimes change is necessary, and I feel like it's a more sport type feeling. It's something else.

To take a step back – some people in the community were surprised by this move, I don't think it's one that many expected as it doesn't seem the most obvious on paper. Were you surprised at all to get the call from NAVI?

In a way yes, because the news dropped from NIP and this was one of the first things that came to my attention and I was like 'I for sure need to take this, no matter what'. I was speaking to B1ad3, it's his project and he was pondering a lot of different names I am guessing, and for the sake of my career and where I was after NIP and overall what I have been doing, I have always had a lot of respect for NAVI and the consistency they have had. I think it was a no brainer for me, obviously I want to do my best and prove to everyone that it was the right decision, now it's up to me to show it.

Talking about your time in NIP, it wasn't exactly the most successful, but towards the end in particular it seemed like the team was starting to ramp up and improve. How do you reflect upon your time on the Ninjas?

I feel like the start of the NIP journey was not the best because we had a player who left the team, hampus, so we started the journey pretty badly. We started the grind, then we stopped and took a step back, then we had new players without any practice, and so on. We started to improve as soon as we got some time under our belts, but in the end we ended up failing to qualify for the playoffs of the Major. If we did that I think it brings a lot of confidence, but my time ended there pretty quickly. It's been a lot of ups and downs with that team even before me, with a lot of roster changes and whatnot, but I feel like it was meant to be, because now I am in a really good team with really good players besides me. It's really nice.

Is it almost, bizarrely, a positive thing to have not made the playoffs of the Major with NIP? Because maybe they wouldn't have benched you and you wouldn't be on NAVI right now?

Yeah that was what I was about to say. I know a Finnish saying for this (smiles) but it's as you said, maybe none of this would have happened and I would never end up in NAVI, and I like it right now.

There is a lot of talk in the community about you in general, obviously the community like to have their opinions, and people generally fall into two camps: the idea that you tend to fail upwards, or that you are one of the best IGLs we have in the scene. Do you have any reflections on that debate, do you care what the community perception is of you?

I mean obviously I care, and obviously it kinda hurts that a lot of people might be saying that I don't deserve it or whatever. To be honest that fuels something in me, that I actually deserve this, but at the same time I get it, on paper it doesn't look pretty. I feel like it's been a bit unfortunate with my relationship with some of the coaches, us not being on the same page, although I feel like I was on the same page with djL. Maybe the management might have some different opinions and that's whatever, but I feel like with my time in G2 and my time here I just want to make sure me and the coach are getting along well, because a lot of these top teams right now are giving the keys to the coach. They're usually the one building the team with the management and the players have no say. At the end of the day I want to make it work as a leader and I want to work with someone who's willing to trust me.

I feel like it's a misconception that I'm way too strict or something, or that I add way too much structure, that's definitely not the case if I have players who are capable of playing good CS and understanding what they're doing, and are telling the team what they want to do. If I have teammates who tend to be more quiet it's a different story, that's when you have to take some of the responsibility into your own hands. In the end it's been a rough road for me for the past one-and-a -years, but I'm trying my best to make it work in NAVI

I was actually going to ask a little bit about that, about your style. Obviously there is a community perception about your style, that you micromanage and are strict. Have you ever had to sit back and reflect upon yourself as an in-game leader based on these criticisms, has it ever made you question "am I too strict, do I micromanage too much?"

I mean, obviously. I think it's basic for you to reflect, and for me also as an individual I think I do reflect on things, but as I said for example in G2, there was no need for me to micromanage NiKo or huNter-. Maybe at the time XTQZZZ, NiKo, me, everyone was chiming in for the sake of m0NESY, he had never played in tier one when he started playing with us, so obviously he needed some guidance here and there. I had no need to tell anything to NiKo and huNter-, for example, they had the experience, and obviously I look up to NiKo and the way he plays. It's the same thing here, I have s1mple on my side and I feel like this guy knows what he is doing, who am I to say anything about what he wants to do or not (smiles). As long as we are on the same page as a team, for the rounds we want to play and the style we have, everything is right. I am not the type of guy to deny these people, it is what it is.

On paper this might be the most firepower you have ever had, maybe G2 is comparable, but there is obviously a huge amount of talent on this roster. How do you feel you are going to utilise that? It's a bit different from what you had on OG and NIP.

Yes I do think we have a lot of firepower, but the issue on this team isn't that, and it hasn't necessarily been in some of my previous teams. It is about us being on the same page, understanding the roles and system we have, and the communication. I think for this team communication is one of the biggest keys, and I feel like that's the thing all the top teams are always saying, 'we need to improve the communication'.

For NAVI it's been the same system, the same culture, the same everything for god knows how many years, and now it's something completely different. I feel like b1t and s1mple understand it, the coach understands it, but it will still take some time for everything to be adjusted, for everyone to feel comfortable. So I do think that there might be, in the first one or two months or maybe when the game changes, there might be uncomfortable times for some of our individuals, they may not be able to show everything they have. I hope we are going to grind through for the next six months or so, and get settled in CS2 and whatever, and I think it's going to be fine.

Do you have a timeline for this roster? Have you sat down with B1ad3 or NAVI and said 'six months is when we need to start seeing results'?

The timeline we have is EPL should be a time where we have at least had some tournaments under our belt and some practice, we should be good on most of the maps, and EPL should be fine for us. But who knows when the game is going to change, what's going to happen in CS2, what the maps are going to be. There are so many different things that could happen, so for us, or for any team rather, I think it's hard to say for the next six months what's about to happen. We can maybe only look at the next two months, because once the game changes and we know the first tournament in CS2, once we know what the meta is… there are too many variables for people to say what the next six months are going to be like. We have a perspective on some of the things, and I think it's going to be fine.

Final question and then I'll let you go: what are the targets for this BLAST Group Stage? Is it simply a case of working the team into form, considering it's your first tournament with a completely new roster and maybe a language barrier to overcome?

It's kind of about seeing where we are on the maps we practiced the most, obviously there might be outliers here and there, and figuring out the map pool, what we want to pick and all these kinds of things. For us it is really early to have a tournament after the player break and the bootcamp that we had, we will try to do our best in this tournament. Usually I am not a fan of this long group, having a day off in between all of the games, but maybe for us it's for the best so we can fix some things here and there. I feel like this tournament is a stepping stone for Cologne and overall for the future, and I hope we will have some fun playing.