B1ad3: "We need to show a much better game if we want to beat Vitality"

NAVI's coach was very open about his team's shortcomings versus MOUZ despite emerging victorious.

Natus Vincere have continued their successful run results at IEM Cologne, making their third consecutive grand final as they secured a hard-fought victory over MOUZ in front of a packed LANXESS Arena.

Although NAVI came away with a 2-0 win, it was hardly a confidence-boosting match for the world's No. 1 side. With their Terrorist sides lacking, they had to fend off a big Inferno comeback from MOUZ to win in overtime and relied heavily on their individuals' five clutches to win Mirage.

As they head into their grand final affair against a red-hot Vitality squad, coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy admits NAVI need to step up their game to secure their third trophy of 2024 and their second in a row.

"We need to show a much better game if we want to beat Vitality," he said in an interview with HLTV. The veteran coach was open about Natus Vincere's mistakes versus MOUZ, highlighting hurried rounds and communication issues throughout the close series.

In addition, B1ad3 shared his thoughts on MOUZ's surprising Inferno pick, capitalizing on the mistakes of opponents, and the mentality of the team as they stand just one win away from hoisting the IEM Cologne trophy.

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A 2-0 victory, and you're straight through to the grand final. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling relieved, kind of, because it was a very tough match. We were really close to losing both maps. That's always a relief.

I wanted to start with the veto. Were you surprised that they went with an Inferno pick?

I was very surprised. I didn't expect it. First of all, I don't like it when people pick Inferno. It's bad for them. Because this map is really hard to anti-strat and control everything. It's my opinion. We can also fully ignore preparation on Inferno, do our defaults, and still be in control sometimes.

They had a good CT side, but I think they were a little bit lost in the mid-round when we were on the CT side. Imagine how hard it is to pick the map when you haven't picked it before in the tournament. It's very hard. It was risky but maybe they respect us a lot and that's why they picked it. I don't know.

You seemed to be in control on Inferno. You were up 10-3 and then you lost that round to some pistols and an MP9. It seemed that round shifted the game in MOUZ's favor. Did you feel that you lost control of the game?

I think that at that moment, we lost communication a little bit. We thought there were two B, but there were three. Maybe we were hurrying things up. I think we were hurrying things up on Inferno a lot of times, and also sometimes on T side on Mirage. It's very important to be aware of what can happen.

And we use to say that, on stage, there's a loss of packages, like 5 percent loss, constantly. You need to know this before you make a move because maybe your teammate didn't hear you, or something like that. This is something we need to learn for tomorrow, for sure.

MOUZ ended up taking the game to overtime. How did you manage to stay so calm and composed after regulation? And what was the message that you told the players as you went into overtime?

I only say this when I see that we are shaky, lost on the map or something. When I see we are kind of afraid to lose. But I saw that the atmosphere was pretty good, kind of like a work in process, that's how we used to say, and the players were ready to execute ideas. So we didn't say anything about the mindset.

We only spoke about what to change, because from Inferno OT, we changed completely. I said to change on Banana and we changed. That's all. Because we were a little bit passive. We were giving them too much vision. We were a little bit blind and I think it helped for one round. Second round, Justinas [jL] was in control more than before.

Talking now about Mirage. Why do you think you struggled so much on the T side? You won only four rounds, and three of them were clutches.

One of the problems that could have given us maybe two more rounds: we were hurrying things up. Okay? We spoke about how they played and we said, 'As soon as we have control, please don't hurry up because they are passive, they have good off-angles, it can be dangerous for us. We need to maybe use some flashes, maybe swing together, and so on.' And in MR12, it's very dangerous if you lose one or two rounds, unfortunately.

In the end, you got the win. You won five clutches and an eco round on the CT side. Do you think MOUZ were feeling the pressure a little bit?

For me, usually when it happens, from my experience, luck is on the side of the better team. I've been in this situation before. I think we were lucky in this situation. But the only thing that we can do is fish for mistakes, okay?

The biggest part of what can happen is on their side. I think 70 percent is down to them. If they had done everything perfectly, we would not win the round. So maybe you're right, it's like pressure. The same thing happened with Liquid against FaZe, for example. I think 70 percent of the job was done by Liquid, in my opinion.

You are now going to face Vitality in the final. You haven't faced them this year. What are your expectations for this match?

We need to show a much better game if we want to beat Vitality. We haven't played them in a long time, I think the last time was at BLAST. I think they respect us, which is what has changed since the last time.

I think they are very well prepared. I said this before the event that they are very well prepared and they are ready to win. The two best teams in the tournament will face each other, I think the better team will win, but we for sure need to step up if we want to win. We can play better, in my opinion.

This is your third final in a row. Cologne is a trophy that no one on the team has won except for b1t. What would it mean to the team to win this tournament, especially as we head into the Major?

It's good if we don't think about this as players. Because, let's be honest, this line-up is not like FaZe, when you open their profiles and there's like dozens of trophies. And when they lose, they're, like, 'Fuck, we could have got one more trophy.' And they've already had huge careers.

But for these players, I think it's fine not to win this. We don't need to overvalue this. If we overvalue this, it can be like a zugzwang situation, when you're afraid to make a move on the map. It's very important not to think about how important the Cologne trophy is. But yeah, this place is amazing. The Cathedral.