Aleksib: "I see this new side of b1t"

NAVI's in-game leader discusses the impact of Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's departure and first impressions of their new AWPer, Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov.

After a two-week bootcamp, NAVI are undergoing their debut with w0nderful at the BLAST Premier Fall Final. The team has so far survived the first two days in Copenhagen and is set to compete in the quarter-finals after losing the opening series to Cloud9 and coming back on day two to beat Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Following the first victory, Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen spoke to HLTV about his early impressions of w0nderful and how exchanging a player like s1mple for a less experienced AWPer has impacted the team.

The in-game leader also shared how now becoming the most decorated and experienced player of the team has affected Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy and what new role the 20-year-old has taken on himself in the aftermath of s1mple's departure.

You can watch the full interview above or on HLTV.org's YouTube channel. A transcript of the five-minute interview is also available below:

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Congratulations on your first win at the Fall Final. I wanted to ask about w0nderful — tell me about your first impressions of him now that you've had a couple of weeks of bootcamp and officials with him.

I like him a lot as a person. I think we share a lot of the same stuff and hanging out one-on-one with him seems effortless. He's just a natural guy who laughs at stuff, and I don't see any issues with us working.

He's really talented, he lacks some experience, but I feel like... Sometimes I press the scoreboard, for example, and I didn't hear him be that vocal in the game, but he might have like 15 or 20 kills or whatever. He's definitely in there individually. I just think that he needs to gain some experience playing in NAVI and the system we have, and second of all just being brave and speaking a lot. Once he does that and have the self-confidence, I think it's gonna be great.

How has it been for you as an in-game leader to, especially compared to a guy like s1mple who has a lot of freedom and goes for different plays, deal with that difference between the two players and having to integrate a new guy into the team?

It is really different. It feels weird after some time playing with Sasha that, now there is a new team, new system, new everything, we might sometimes lack that something that gets us out of those tense moments, or a move that might happen, an info play or whatever, that every really good tier-one player is bringing to the team. I feel like that's just the case here.

We just played our first official yesterday, now the second one, and we're learning a lot compared to when we played on bootcamp. Everything is so fresh. I'm looking forward to just learning and playing this event through. Honestly, I think it's gonna be good. Even though we lack some experience and we might crumble in those tense moments, you just gotta live and learn.

I spoke to B1ad3 on the media day and he admitted that it is a factor in the team that, now that s1mple isn't here, there's not as much pressure on individual players. How does it feel inside the team now? Do you feel like the atmosphere has changed dramatically?

I think that whenever you make a player change, no matter if it's for the better or worse, there is this new energy, and that's why people talk about honeymoon phases and whatnot. I do think that our atmosphere is pretty good. As I said, Ihor is really neutral and he's having a lot of fun with us.

But at the end of the day we're here to work and we're here to be good, and obviously if we play shitty or we feel like we're playing worse than last time, also Valerchik [b1t] being one of the guys from NAVI that has a lot of experience, he obviously wants us to play really good, it's weird for him as well when all these elites were by his side and he's playing with less experienced players.

At the same time, as I said, I feel like we have a group of people that trust each other, and we gotta keep the trust there and we gotta keep the good mood because we've been having it thus far. If we just learn and if we have the confidence, we can do damage.

B1ad3 also mentioned that b1t has taken a lot more initiative naturally after s1mple left, now considering himself the star of the team. Has that made things easier on you, as well, to have more initiative inside the team to replace that playmaking ability?

In a way, yes, but I do feel like he might... I'm not saying he's getting frustrated in practice or officials, but I see this new side of him when he knows that he has the experience. He knows he's played a lot of tier-one events, he knows some of the situations, so I can hear him say sometimes when there is like this brief moment of when he talks, he really means it that, if we're doing dumb mistakes or something too slowly, we need to step it up next time.

I feel like for him that's really good because he's also in the space where he's getting a bit older, and I think he's already an elite player, and this will just bring a new side of him when he gets even more years in, that he will be this player that is also guidance for a lot of other people.