Aleksib: "This game was a long time coming"

A happy Aleksib stopped by HLTV's microphone to talk about finally beating Spirit after multiple failed attempts and NAVI's promising start to IEM Katowice.

After getting off to the new season the same way the last ended, with a loss to Spirit at the BLAST Bounty, Natus Vincere finally got one over their big nemesis to secure a place in the IEM Katowice playoffs.

It was a hard-fought victory, one that may well have gone the other way, but Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and company got it over the line despite Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov and Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia winning crucial clutches in the closing stages of the overtime Nuke decider.

In an interview with HLTV shortly after the confidence-inspiring victory, Aleksib expresses his pride in the team's ability to recover from the nerve-wracking finish.

"Even though our mentality is strong at times, during those clutch moments I felt like perhaps they broke our back now," the Finnish in-game leader shares. "It's just amazing to see we didn't let it come into the next round."

The win comes as a huge boost for the team, who is looking to return to form after their impressive run of grand finals tapered off at the end of 2024. "Winning against the number one team, the form they had and the form we had, it was a long time coming, this game. I think it elevates our confidence," Aleksib admits.

You can watch the full interview, in which the in-game leader also talks about the scene changing around them and Spirit and how NAVI can best make sure they take advantage of their longevity, below:

Aleksi, congratulations on the win against Spirit. I heard jL say "fucking finally" at the end there. Tell me about your feelings after the close Nuke ending and finally getting it over the line despite some clutches going the other way.

Winning against the number one team and the form they had, and the form we had, it was a long time coming, this game. I think it elevates our confidence and the overall level, we were gonna take all the takeaways from this game, but it's very nice to play a best-of-three, all three maps, all the smallest margins, overtime last map and we managed to take it home. Feels fucking nice. We needed a lot of work to make this.

Tell me about the ending. It must have been nerve-wracking because of the clutch you lost to sh1ro, then another against zont1x. How did you recover from that?

It's tough to say because I felt like, in the moment, and how frustrated we were because we knew we had it in our hands and we kinda gave it away... Even though our mentality is strong at times, during those clutch moments I felt like perhaps they broke our back now. But it's just amazing to see that we don't let it come into the next round and we can still focus on the game.

There was a snippet of communication that went out on the broadcast where B1ad3 talked about something about outside that he had told you ahead of the game. Can you get into this, what happened there?

Basically, we had a round and we had a fake from the round, and when we were speaking outside I just mixed the two. I called a round with the details of the other rounds, so it was obviously doomed.

It's fair enough, man. I feel like I've done this for a long time, and sometimes you hear it rough. I felt like I came back into the game after, and that's what I'm proud of. Sometimes that kind of stuff happens, and, for me, it's back to the drawing board, I guess.

B1ad3 seemed fairly happy about your showing at the BLAST Bounty even though there were some sloppy on some maps. How do you look at your performance at Bounty and the form you went into Katowice with?

I felt like we started the season and our games weren't that clean, but at the same time we were getting into it after the game. Then, again, we lost against Spirit. We had three match points on Ancient and couldn't close it out, we lost against the number one and they had very good form.

So for us it was a key takeaway, who we lost to, so that we don't lose our heads into the grind we had going on. We knew that, once we have enough repetitions and once we have enough situations, we're gonna eventually succeed. Now I feel like the group stage, beating Spirit here was obviously very good, but it's not over yet. We still have many games to go, but it feels nice to get to play in the Spodek, finally.

You went into the season seeing all the teams change around you while you and Spirit were the only top teams that stayed the same. How do you look at where you stand in this, and how do you make sure you stay ahead?

We have the luxury of having a team and history and so many different things that we can come up with because we have such a deep playbook and everything.

We know each other very well, but the only issue that comes with that is the fact that you know each other too well. If the relationships are kept good and we keep having good vibes, I just think it's a very good thing that you have a roster that played together for such a long time and succeeded together. We're just trying to do everything now to keep the team happy.

But do you think teams around you have improved in terms of their lineups after the winter break?

Some teams, yes. I do feel like for us it's just about trying to strengthen our map pool. There have been new updates now in CS, Train also came on the board, and you don't really know yet how every team is playing.

Some teams might not even have Train as their permaban even though it seems like that, just because they didn't play too many matches. So I just feel like we're early into the season and we're gonna see a lot more games from all the teams, and then you can paint a better picture.

Do you have an advantage because of not having to jump on Train?

It's kinda good for us. Our permaban is gone and it enables us to do whatever now. Everyone is starting from scratch when it comes to Train, and people are gonna evolve on the map official by official because you still really don't know what the meta is and what the number one best thing or style to play on this map is. I think you're gonna see a lot more updates on the map as well, I hope. Maybe it's too early to say anything huge yet.

Now that you have beaten the number one team, how much of a confidence-booster is that given how this season started and how last season ended for you? You had the massive run around the summer and then it tapered off towards the end of the year, is this where you can see yourselves coming back to the same form?

Yeah, I think we're gaining some form. We played a clean game against FURIA now and took down Spirit, so that's a very good key note to have for the next game. At the same time, it's early days to say because we went into a lot of finals in a row and kind of dominated some tournaments. Now it's just game by game and understanding we're in the playoffs, we're gonna play on the stage, and try to get into our comfort zone. That's it.