Who is makazze, NAVI's new rising star?

The Kosovar player has been promoted to NAVI's main team after shining on the academy roster.

It's the summer of 2023, and the internationalization of Natus Vincere's Counter-Strike division is in full swing. An array of changes is transforming every department, from the main team to the backroom staff to the academy.

NAVI Junior has carved out a reputation as one of the most successful academy programs in the game, producing talents such as Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy, Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, Rodion "⁠fear⁠" Smyk and Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov, so when NAVI announced they were looking for English-speaking players aged between 16 and 19 and with a minimum 4000 elo on FACEIT for their new academy, applications poured in.

In the end, two of the players who made the cut didn't go through the application process. Drin "⁠makazze⁠" Shaqiri and Aulon "⁠Krabeni⁠" Fazlija had impressed so much playing for local Kosovar side KS that they were invited by David "⁠Kairi⁠" de Miguel, the then-NAVI Junior head coach, for a tryout.

"The trial process was very simple because they were the ones who stood out the most out of the many players we tested," said Kairi, a veteran of the Spanish scene who played at the highest level in CS 1.6.

"Even though they were very aggressive players with a lot of firepower, they also had a lot of knowledge about the game, as well as a big voice within the team."

Fast forward almost two years, and makazze is being promoted by Natus Vincere, who are injecting some new blood to provide a spark to a team that failed to challenge for titles all season.

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It's a move reminiscent of when Natus Vincere bumped b1t to the main team in 2020, though at the time, the Ukrainian was eased into action before eventually replacing Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev permanently. He has gone on to win 14 international trophies, including two Majors, and made HLTV's Top 20 Player of the Year ranking three times.

Another person who played an important role in makazze's rapid ascent is Flatron "⁠juanflatroo⁠" Halimi, who helped the youngster get a new setup and led the Kosovar community's efforts to get makazze into FPL-C in 2022, when he was only 15 years old.

NAVI Junior had a rough start to their international era, which led to the restructuring of the academy project in May 2024, when Adam "⁠froz1k⁠" Nahornyi, Nikita "⁠cmtry⁠" Samolotov, Džiugas "⁠dziugss⁠" Steponavičius and head coach András "⁠coolio⁠" Fercsák were promoted from the Youth squad. makazze was kept on the roster as a substitute, only to be brought back into the starting lineup a few months later.

"In the summer, froz1k decided to step down from the roster, and I called makazze," coolio said. "I probably would have done it anyway. I was following his impressive grind on FACEIT, and I wanted to use him.

"It was easy to understand that he would bring a lot of aggression and firepower to the team."

The changes to NAVI Junior's roster bore fruit immediately. The team became a regular in tier-two competitions and won six tournaments during the second half of the year, with makazze at the heart of the action with a team-high 1.20 rating.

NAVI Junior were a team on the rise by the end of 2024, impressing fans and fellow players alike — so much so that makazze and dziugss both received Bold Prediction shouts from Top 20 players of the Year.

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NAVI Junior were ranked inside the top 50 in the VRS at the turn of the year, though their opportunities were limited by a shadow-ban system that kept them — and several other teams — from playing in certain online competitions. But once Valve forced tournament organizers to either publicly disclose their invite exceptions or follow the VRS to a tee to be able to run ranked competitions, NAVI Junior suddenly had more doors open to them. And they were determined not to waste that opportunity.

The team continued their steady climb in 2025, shooting up to 22nd in the global VRS in April after winning YaLLa Compass Spring with an impressive unbeaten run.

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"I think after we won some small event we gained a lot of confidence and we learned a lot from our mistakes," coolio reflected. "Day by day, we improved as a team, and in practice, we beat tier-one teams really often.

"Of course, practice is not the same as an official, but if you beat better teams often, it means something. And we were looking to face better opponents in officials to show we could do more."

NAVI Junior followed it up by picking up three more titles (Thunderpick World Championship 2025 European Series 1 and back-to-back CCT Season 3 Europe Series) to finish the season inside the top 30 in the VRS, beating teams like Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astrum and Passion UA along the way.

As the season came to an end, it became obvious that NAVI Junior had outgrown their status as an academy roster and that it was necessary that the two parties go their separate ways, or else the young team would be deprived of opportunities to play in some of the biggest tournaments.

At the end of June, NAVI announced they were ready to listen to offers for the Junior roster (minus makazze), hoping to attract some of the big organizations that have expressed an interest in entering Counter-Strike. Cloud9 were briefly rumored to be after the young roster before CEO Jack Etienne put speculation to bed.

The recent invite list for the ESL Pro League S22 European Closed Qualifier includes "ex-NAVI Junior" — which suggests that a buyer for the roster has been found.

makazze already stood out as a great future prospect in 2024, and he remained a consistent performer for NAVI Junior in 2025, averaging a 1.18 rating in all competitions even as the level of opposition increased.

"He is a super aggressive guy in-game," coolio said. "I remember the first time I talked to him. He said, 'Let me go and I'll kill them.'

"I laughed, but when I saw him doing it, I realized he would be in tier-one soon. He has a lot of skill and good mechanics. And as a person, he brings a good vibe to the team, cracking jokes."

But as makazze makes the jump up to tier-one level, the question is whether his impressive mechanics will make up for his inexperience. He has only two LAN events on record in his entire career, both of which were local tournaments in Kosovo. Fans will be rightly skeptical of a player who has never competed at this level before, with plenty expected of someone who is replacing Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius, 2024's Closer of the Year and fifth-best player.

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At the same time, the demands of playing for one of the best and most popular teams in the world, like media duties, sponsor commitments and overall increased scrutiny, mean he will be pulled in many more directions than when he competed online for NAVI Junior from the comfort of his home.

coolio is confident that makazze will handle the pressure well, but noted there are areas of his game that still need some polishing.

"He needs to have the space he wants to play well," the Hungarian coach explained. "I think he needs to understand the macro and micro things of the game, but under B1ad3 he is in the right place."

One of makazze's teammates on the M1X KS roster that won XP Game Fest in 2024 was Rigon "⁠rigoN⁠" Gashi, who had words of praise for the youngster.

"I'm happy that he got promoted," said the former BIG and Bad News Eagles player. "Now we have at least one promising young Kosovar/Albanian representing us.

"I didn't play too much with him, but skill-wise, he is definitely one of the best out there. I wish him nothing but success and luck."

makazze will make his Natus Vincere debut at IEM Cologne — a baptism of fire for the young player as this is traditionally one of the most stacked tournaments on the calendar.

He is now going in a different direction than coolio. As he bids farewell to his former player, the Hungarian coach admitted there are conflicting emotions.

"It's really sad, but I was ready for it," he said. "I knew it would happen one day. We kept telling each other in our last tournament before every match that maybe it was the last time we would play together.

"But on the other hand, I'm really happy. He is a great guy and we became friends. I think he will be the next big thing in tier-one."

juanflatroo, without whom makazze's meteoric rise probably would have taken longer to come to fruition, believes this is a watershed moment for Kosovar CS.

"It really does make me and everyone else who has contributed to the Kosovo scene so proud of what we've done, especially the super tough journey we had and the thousands of hours we spent in this game, to finally have someone climb up in the tier-one scene," he reflected.

"It is nothing but a moment of pride that we have managed to break the ice and give hope to the youngsters, and I hope they will represent us and Kosovo in the best way possible."