jL on Eternal Fire: "It was a tough fight, I for sure expected it to be a different game"

23-9-2024 00:09

jL credits his teammates for helping NAVI get over the line against Eternal Fire.

jL had plenty of love to show for his teammates after struggling at times in the mammoth grand final

Natus Vincere have claimed the ESL Pro League Season 20 trophy after a gruelling 3-2 victory over underdogs Eternal Fire. The international side's run was near-flawless up until the grand final, where a dangerously in-form Eternal Fire side put up a valiant fight in one of the most entertaining series of the year thus far.

jL wins ESL Pro League S20 MVP

Leading Natus Vincere's imperious run to the final was Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius. The Lithuanian rifler averaged a stunning 1.42 rating in Natus Vincere's map wins and was particularly potent against Natus Vincere's two highest-ranked opponents, Spirit and G2. This MVP medal is only the second of his career, his first coming in spectacular fashion at PGL Major Copenhagen earlier this year.

jL needed his teammates to step up and help him through a tough fight in the final, however, something he graciously stated when he sat down for HLTV for a quick interview. He also addressed Natus Vincere's status in the hierarchy of top teams and what it was like playing Eternal Fire in the grand final.

If you cannot see the SoundCloud embed above, listen to the interview here.

How does it feel to win ESL Pro League?

It feels amazing. It was a tough fight, I for sure expected it to be a different game, I don't think we showed up. But I don't think it's about us not showing up, I think Eternal Fire were super strong and really well prepared for the game. Their fans also showed up and supported them, they were super loud and I feel like it helped them a lot. Regardless, I'm still happy about the win.

How does it feel to add another MVP medal to your collection?

I mean "another," it's my second one so…

I feel like it was an MVP-worthy performance until the grand final, but I don't know, something dropped

Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius

Still, you are starting the collection!

I feel like it was an MVP-worthy performance until the grand final, but I don't know, something dropped, I really have to figure that out myself. I couldn't play under pressure, I felt like I was making a lot of mistakes, which is not typical of me. I don't know, I really have to figure this out. Besides that, I am super happy my team was there for me. They supported me and no matter what happened we kept pushing, and we pushed until the victory.

Four grand finals in a row now, are NAVI the best team in the world?

Yeah for sure, 100%. Four grand finals in a row, two wins, two losses. We're doing a good streak, win, loss, win, loss. So Fall Finals grand final we lose, then Rio we win, then Shanghai… wait no, that's bad. No no no, screw the streak, we are breaking the curse now!

I'm just super happy to have teammates who, regardless of the situation, will still play to 100%. They will step up when it matters

Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius

Last question: how does it feel to help Aleksib break his BO5 finals curse?

Actually, our team helped him. In that BO5 I didn't show up at all, as I mentioned before, so I'm just super happy to have teammates who, regardless of the situation, will still play to 100%. They will step up when it matters, and when it comes to close games like these, we always find a way to win. I'm super happy I have them.

Humbled by EF

2024-09-23 00:11

jL is the Lebron of CS The best grand final of the year.

2024-09-23 00:12

3 replies

Wake me up when jL wins 4 majors, 4 major MVP, and 4 top 1 HLTV placements.

2024-09-23 00:59

2 replies

bro got so hurt from the G2 8-0 win rate hes tell jL to become astralis 😭

2024-09-23 03:13

Wake me up when g2 wins something

2024-09-23 06:29

good job

get more help from the crowd next time budi

2024-09-23 00:13

1 reply

turkish fans were yelling info in turkish for the whole bo5. maj3r says they didn't hear it, but still scummy from turkish fans.

2024-09-23 14:20

jL needs more haters, the old ones became fans.

2024-09-23 00:14

11 replies

I was A fan of jL 2023 but his ego made me hate him now Why would anyone start being A fan of his? Just your typical narcissist

2024-09-23 01:45

10 replies

He definitely gains more fans than haters, he won several trophies this year and several people in the CS community are plastic fans, they are fans of whoever is winning.

2024-09-23 01:47

8 replies

Luckily he also has people people criticizing him for his fake persona. The closest thing to what jL is trying to be is mrbeast with his shouty and fake personality. Good for kids but when u develop and grow u start to see their real face

2024-09-23 01:48

5 replies

Yes, at no time did I say that he didn't have haters, even ZywOo has haters, the point is that he has a lot more fans or people who like him today.

2024-09-23 01:50

"The closest thing to what jL is trying to be is mrbeast" jL = Mr beast? Wtf kind of comparison is that? Bro was tripping when he wrote that comment

2024-09-23 06:04

#55

2024-09-23 08:35

As a well renowned psychologist, can you tell us what sort of condition you need to have to think that jL is like mr beast?

2024-09-23 09:21

All I said is they are very similiar in how they act on camera, hyperactive, shouty, engaging everywhere he can, general stuff that catches their attention span I just simply stated that both of them cater to the same audience of kids, u simply cannot ignore the similiarities and say i am wrong? Tldr: they are not The same, the way they act is. I never said anything about their real personality

2024-09-23 09:24

Those are not fans, those are just bandwagoners. The moment navi falls off, they will immediately turn on him and move on to the next top team.

2024-09-23 06:14

"Plastic fans", read again, and every team and player have

2024-09-23 07:52

Y'all love people until they start winning and then you start accusing them of having egos and praying for them to be humbled. It's almost like the average fan loves losers

2024-09-23 11:24

me too jL I thought it will be a different game and you will lose to EF 1-3 with 0.89 rating

9 replies

Nice self report that you have a shit analytical eye

2024-09-23 01:19

maybe I do, I was cheering for XANTARES taking that MVP

2024-09-23 01:22

I meant THATS fair. Nothing wrong with rooting for a team. But thinking jl will perform like aleksi is expected to despite being in as good as ever form would be definitely a bold hot take :P Wp to eternal fire. As far as the final I both think they could've played even better (wicadia has a higher potential hopefully and xantares was amazing but has higher ceiling and woxic may be only getting better and better until hes 2019 form or just below it) and Same to Navi. (Jl went missing) This was neither at their peaks. Good match. Hopefully ef actually keep this up unlike after their last good showing. Xantares deserves a top 10 team MINIMUM, and woxic was my favorite awper to watch in 2019 and even some of hellraisers due to just how insane some of the shots you can hit when you aren't limited by how far your wrist can turn. Also if wicadia blossoms aggressive riflers that are world class are always a joy to watch.

2024-09-23 01:43

I mean jl would have 0.8 if not for Ancient 1.54 game The rest he had 0.7 to 0.9 on all 4 other maps

2024-09-23 01:49

Respectfully your "if" word there is doing far too much heavy lifting. *insert player here* would have a 2.0 rating if you ignore the .5 and .68 on the next two maps! Yaknow what I mean?

2024-09-23 03:58

4 replies

The thing is his rating was 0.9 0.9 0.74 1.54 and 0.85 Not 1.5 and 1.68 like u said 4 bad maps do not excuse 1 good one, in my opinion. He failed in the final Now I get your point, I don't think he deserved 0.8, but his final rating shouldn't be 1.00 After having only one positive map. Something around 0.9-0.95 would suffice

2024-09-23 08:40

I'm not saying this as a "gotcha" moment. But my guy we agree completely! I've already said jl went completely missing. The point I'm trying to make is a 0.89 is a BAD series for aleksi. So even if you expect jl to fall short, expecting a 1.0 rating is more reasonable especially in a bo5 when you have so many maps and chances to perform. As you just pointed out even just 1 map is enough to make a big rating difference :D We agree my friend! :D Now if they expected navi to collapse as a whole, a 0.89 isn't unreasonable to expect from jl, he could perform EVEN worse than that if his team collapsed around him. But in my opinion it would also be a bold hot take to just assume navi will collapse, sure it's a grand final and sure it's a bo5, sure they're the favorites and that brings pressure. But STILL. I mean look jl collapsed completely and they still won.

2024-09-23 16:16

that's true, navi were big favorites and jl kept dropping 1.4 all tournie, i didn't rly expect him to drop such a stinker, even tho i was slightly rooting for ef since i would love for some national teams to get better, so it's more interesting

2024-09-23 16:18

Yeah!!! Glad we agree cuz like I really felt I was being pretty reasonable and unbiased. National teams would certainly be nice to hold on to , I'm a bit pessimistic so I don't have THAT much hope that national teams will still be around in 5 years. Atleast in the top 20 teams. So my reason for rooting for ef are all individual placed. I do like every single individual on ef. Woxic when at peak was was the most fun awper to watch, although in fairness I'd listen to the s1mple argument. Xantares is just simply a top ten player period and deserves a top ten team minimum. Wicadia plays aggressive in a fun way and has snappy aim, he's pretty much xantares lite, so if he blossoms that'll be sick. And calyx is the unsung hero. I don't have big opinions on maj3r , I hear some negative things from some analysts and I hear some positive things from some other analysts. But I haven't been watching cs SUPER attentively like I usually do over the last 6 months due to life kicking my ass and making me very busy. So despite catching a decent fair bit of their games, I've not once in the last 6 months rewatched a game with my eyes focused solely on how ef is positioning themselves , trading together, using utility, and etc. So I've no strong opinion on maj3r besides the fact that I hope he's good. As I want ef to find success especially for xantares sake, even though I like every player xantares literally DESERVES it with how he plays, and because it would be a great story considering his history with space soldiers and then coming back from Val for space soldiers round 2! :D

2024-09-23 16:35

Speaking of breaking curses, prepare to be humbled by G2 next week

2024-09-23 00:15

Surely this time…

2024-09-23 00:18

Definition of insanity G2 should just auto forfeit matches vs SexyB and save their strength for matches they actually have a chance in

2024-09-24 01:32

turkish lithuanian relations going UP

2024-09-23 00:16

Great final, I loved it.

2024-09-23 00:26

RESPEKT <3

2024-09-23 00:23

Ef every match is amazing to wat ch. They will for sure ranked top5 imo. They had won 58 rounds and navi 51 and they got the trophy

2024-09-23 00:34

Well, thats how the game works. It's not about the amount of rounds.

2024-09-23 00:40

well the team that gets 13 in 1 game wins so it technically is about the amount of rounds.

2024-09-23 01:28

Not in a BO3 / BO5 You can get stomped on some maps and narrowly win the other maps. You can win a BO5 with winning only 39 rounds and losing 59 rounds

2024-09-23 06:39

idk i feel like ef peaked at this tournament and we'll never see them again

2024-09-23 00:41

idk they seem legit

2024-09-23 01:37

perception of EF will change depending on how Vita and NAVI do at BLAST Fall - if Vita bomb out and NAVI don't win either (somehow) EF less credit for close fought win + loss - if Vita and NAVI both grand finalists EF credit increase greatly

2024-09-23 02:27

Other teams will study how they beat Vitality and almost beat NaVi, including Vitality and NaVi themselves. It will be hard for EF to stay on top when all teams get more familiar with their game. EF will also need to keep their form up, which isn't by any means guaranteed after such a Final loss and overall as time progresses.

2024-09-23 10:25

We'll for sure see them again are you kidding? We probably won't see them in a grand final but they can clearly make deep runs.

2024-09-23 14:30

deep runs for sure but yeah definetly not a grand final its a bit like cloud 9 in 2018, if they stuck together as a team i dont think they would have ever made another grand final regardless, the just happen to peak at the event

2024-09-23 23:16

jLegend giving creds to EF is wholesome, deservingly so. Truly an amazing final.

2024-09-23 04:50

We're doing a good streak, win, loss, win, loss. So Fall Finals grand final we lose, then Rio we win, then Shanghai… wait no, that's bad. No no no, screw the streak, we are breaking the curse now! Lmao how can you not love this guy

2024-09-23 08:21

Aftet Rio, we have Blast World Final, then Major. So W

2024-09-23 09:04

8 finals in a row would be crazy by navi

2024-09-23 12:01

close but no cigar from the EF side of things, NaVi deserved the win even though they did not show their best version, nonetheless it was a win-win for both teams imo, NaVi got what they've wanted, jL got his second MVP, Aleksi broke his curse and EF showed that they are serious contenders for the upcoming events

2024-09-23 10:55

I'll go on the record and say I was a huge doubter when NAVI signed jL and iM. Even the major felt like a fluke. Full credit to both of them for proving me wrong. jL has looked like one of the best riflers in the game this year, and iM is coming into form recently. NAVI is definitely the best team in the world right now.

2024-09-23 14:27