B1ad3: "I didn't expect to win a Major so fast"

NAVI's head coach spoke on the development of his lineup since going international, the team's Major victory, and contesting the notion that the win was a fluke.

Two-time Major-winning coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy — and newly-crowned master chef — joined HLTV Confirmed on Wednesday to talk about Natus Vincere's recent title victory in Copenhagen, the development and performance of the team's players since going international, their run to the Major trophy and whether it was a "fluke," and much more.

The 37-year-old had a lot to say, as usual, when interviewed by the show's panelists, opening with a discussion about how it feels to win a Major so soon after NAVI's international pivot.

"It feels amazing, trust me," B1ad3 said with a smile on his face. "From the beginning, it was a huge challenge for me when we changed the lineup and went international. In some interviews I said it is a huge challenge for me because I never experienced anything like that. Also, the background of CIS players is a little bit different.

"It was very interesting to start, and imagine from that period, a year has passed, and we already won a Major. It's a huge thing to realize, and a lot of details in my head in terms of the system we tried to build, how we changed the system from the previous lineup, our CS 2021 lineup, how everything is improving from expectations to reality.

"I think I didn't expect to win a Major so fast. Yes, we had a goal for sure, in the beginning in January at the bootcamp we had a goal, like I said to the guys, 'Let's build something in these three months so we at least come to the Major with the feeling that we can win, so we have the chance to win. For me that was the main goal."

B1ad3 briefly spoke about the difference in mentality, culture, and background in this team compared to NAVI's previous roster, and explained how the organization's history and desire to win trophies had to be reconciled with the transfer market when building the new team.

"When we decided to change to international, we wanted to have a really strong lineup from the beginning because it's NAVI," B1ad3 said. "NAVI is a really high-status organization and we were always hunting trophies, this is very important for us, [but] this is a fact: You cannot get all the players you want.

"We analyzed the market and we took the best that we saw at that moment in terms of building something piece by piece, in terms of having one strong, balanced unit. It wasn't like we took everyone we could take."

The Ukrainian coach was realistic about the process, saying the main goal was to go international, start with something, and see where it goes while not ruling out the possibility of roster changes if results don't go the way considering the caliber of an organization like NAVI.

B1ad3 also touched on how much focus Natus Vincere put on "cooking" on Ancient during their bootcamp ahead of the Major, believing that teams underestimated NAVI on the map because of past results and that the amount of work that went into elevating their game on it was a key factor behind their run.

The topic of G2's veto in the semi-final was brought up, to which B1ad3 said he believed G2 said all the right things after the match and that he felt Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen wanted to pick Inferno, but was guided toward Ancient by Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas.

"It's also about prep," B1ad3 added regarding the veto, before pointing out NAVI had beaten G2 in their last few meetings on Inferno and that, at tier one, sometimes you don't want to pick the map people expect because of how much preparation teams have for you in MR12.

"But still, on these kinds of tournaments you need a confidence map. So they were a little bit, let's say, delusional about our Ancient."

Conversation soon shifted toward how Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius's performance surprised B1ad3 a lot, with the coach stating that the Major MVP was making a lot of mistakes during their bootcamp in terms of decision-making and analyzing the macro of the game, but also heaping praise upon the Lithuanian's mindset and how it is "very good for tier one competition."

Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's leadership and B1ad3's comments in an interview with Players.com.ua were also brought up, where the coach had said the Finnish captain had an "old-school" approach to the game and was not a tier-one in-game leader when he first joined Natus Vincere.

Regarding his comments about Aleksib's leadership when entering the team, B1ad3 clarified that "The idea was about potential. To see the potential, you need to see how we started." B1ad3 expanded this notion to the rest of the team's new additions, stating that "each of them was not 'tier-one'."

"This lineup was completely different from the one we had before. The level was going down instantly, I felt it. Not even just in terms of experience, but in also terms of knowledge, and the way that they learned was different."

"Speaking about Aleksi, about micromanagement, I think this is a natural habit for any IGL, that he wants to have everything under control. When you do this, you want to win, you want to help." B1ad3 later shared "I had this problem on FlipSid3, I was also controlling a lot, and it's really hard to play your game."

Expanding on the idea of developing Natus Vincere's new players upon their arrival to the lineup, B1ad3 shared a simple mantra: "Truth is essential." Here, the veteran coach clarified that players can have difficulty sharing ideas in a straightforward fashion, a flaw that he compared to "a virus, ruining everything in your head."

B1ad3 also did not shy away from responding to the idea that his team's Major win was a fluke. "The main question must be from a different angle, we must ask FaZe why they lose a Major," retorted B1ad3. "Why do you have four star players, in a grand final seven times, and then you just fuck up the veto and then you're losing?"

"Do you think that FaZe will win all events until summer, EPL, Dallas, and London? No. I think they can win zero also, that's a huge possibility that they win zero." Tying this into his own team's prospects, B1ad3 stated that "winning at least one of these events will be a very good result. If FaZe can win zero and we can win one, this is huge."