B1ad3: "We made a lot of mistakes because of the stage"

"Players aren't planning together, they're just being chaotic," B1ad3 shared regarding NAVI's loss to Spirit.

After being eliminated from the BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals by Spirit, Natus Vincere rebounded at IEM Katowice with a narrow win in the group stage over Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's side and beat The MongolZ to secure a direct berth to the semi-finals in Poland.

Natus Vincere and Spirit faced off yet again once in the Spodek, but this time NAVI found themselves on the back foot, ultimately faltering to the reigning Katowice champions after a 0-2 loss to bow out of the event.

Following his team's loss to Spirit, NAVI coach Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy spoke with HLTV regarding the ill-fated rematch, the impact of playing on stage, and how the team plans to prepare ahead of their next outing.

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A close finish on Dust2, very close to a third map. Tell me about this finish and how it was watching the guys from behind.

It's tough. We were just playing bad situations, having nerves at the end, and not having plans. We need to plan a lot and basically players aren't planning something together, they're just constantly being chaotic, they don't know what to do in the late stage.

We spoke about one game plan, and eventually everyone is doing something that he feels is better to do, and they need to find synergy to do something together. I think maybe [it was] the pressure of the stage.

What about pressure of the opponent? Spirit have been a difficult opponent for you, you lost to them in Copenhagen, at the Major, and last year it was a rough track record as well. How much does it come down to that?

We never look at the opponent like this. We always see what they do in the game, analyze our game, and try and build a game plan. Since we were winning against them at least two times, at EPL and here, we know it's possible, so I don't think it's a problem. It's not some psychological thing. I think on Mirage and on Dust2 we made a lot of mistakes because of the stage, 100%.

How are you going to address this moving forward? Back-to-back semi-final finishes, back in Copenhagen you were quite happy with that being your first event in the season, but is having this result again disappointing?

No, we just learn from this, there's nothing we can do. We know our potential, we know what is stopping us from being good, and we just need to learn from this experience. There is nothing else.

Let's say we have one idea of what to do in the game for several games versus Spirit, and we're not doing this, but we did it last game in the group stage here, we can learn from this. People forget, we can reflect on this, then think next time on the next try with a new force.

We had big chances to win Mirage, Dust2, it's all about nerves and mistakes. They were also making mistakes, we were making mistakes, and I think at some point we need to come to the moment where we as a team are playing with more clarity in our heads. It's very hard, but we need to get there. Maybe it'll never be so easy to play, but to minimize mistakes as much as possible.

What is the plan ahead of Lisbon?

We will practice online, then go to Copenhagen. We will try to practice online for Copenhagen, upgrade our stratbook, on three or four maps with how much time we have, and we will come with a new force. I think we will come much stronger than this tournament, for sure.