Aleksib: "It feels so gut-wrenching to be in this situation in the middle of the season"

The Finnish in-game leader is left to figure out how he can navigate NAVI through tough moments like their latest elimination at EWC.

Natus Vincere, the Esports World Cup 2024 champions, were stunned in the opening day of this year's edition by 3DMAX, who ended their title defenses in the single-elimination's Round of 16.

The Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen-led squad made a semi-final run in their first event with Drin "⁠makazze⁠" Shaqiri at IEM Cologne, but then suffered early exits in the online portion of BLAST Bounty Season 2 and now in EWC, both times in single-elimination brackets.

"It's hard to think about winning after going out like this," Aleksib said in an interview with HLTV right after losing to 3DMAX, who were playing for the first time under Filip "⁠Graviti⁠" Brankovic's orders.

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One ray of hope is youngster makazze, who seemed much more loose at EWC than he had in Cologne. "I just feel disappointed that I couldn't provide him more matches here at EWC," the Finn said.

"He played very good, I constantly heard him communicating, trying to understand the round," he added, "Sometimes he was a bit confused because there's a lot of new information for him, but he still tried his best and I could see it, so I'm really proud of that."

You can listen to the interview, here.

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Give me your thoughts on that series.

Overall just a very bad feeling on top of my mouth. It felt like the game went by so fast, and it really felt like on Inferno T side when we were playing a solid half that we would already close it 2-0, but they ended up completely outplaying us on the T side of Inferno.

First of all, we kind of threw the 5v3 on the anti-eco, after pistol, we had a 2v4 as well where they went to the empty B site. But overall they played better on that half, they got a lot of entries and after they entry, they immediately extended and got the site for free, basically. So they definitely wanted to go out fighting, and they really showed that they're capable of pulling a win like that, which is very nice by them.

On Nuke we clawed our way back on CT, and I don't really know how they adapted because I was playing Inner and trying to listen to the others, how they were taking Outside control and this type of stuff. It was very rough. We got into a very close match in the end, but they just won the most important rounds and ended up winning the game.

It felt like you lost quite a lot of situations where you had man advantages, 4v2s and 5v3s. What do you think that was down to?

Honestly, that's a good question, and it's hard for me to say, because that's one of the things that we tried to focus on prior to coming here. Definitely something is wrong in that regard, maybe we had miscommunications on TeamSpeak, who was dead and where, maybe one of us thought there was no one and tried to push, and ended up dying.

Obviously, I can't forget the round where I lost the one on one after having four very sharp kills. I just feel so sick to my stomach after that one. I know that that doesn't justify the whole game, but for me it was a very rough situation after. Even after that we ended up making a couple calls where we went to an empty A site, and just can't win rounds like that. At that point, I just think that they deserved the win.

Perhaps the one bright spot for you was makkaze having a good series. How do you feel he is developing in a NAVI jersey?

I just feel disappointed that I couldn't provide him more matches here at EWC, because it's his second big LAN event and he deserves it. He played very good, I constantly heard him communicating, trying to understand the round. Sometimes he was a bit confused because there's a lot of new information for him, but he still tried his best and I could see it, so I'm really proud of that. Just disappointed in other aspects.

Obviously you are still incorporating makazze, but how long will it be until we see NAVI in top form with this five-man lineup?

The thing is, when we played out first LAN in Cologne, it already felt very good. Since then we have just taken a couple of steps back, and now it feels so gut-wrenching to be in this situation in the middle of the season.

Trying to understand how we can gain the confidence to be the team that we should be, and trying to forget this tough moment, that's going to be the key thing going forwards. Trying to think about how we can use 100% of everything. It's a very tough question, and we just need to go back to the drawing board and see what happens.

Do you think it's harder now, than for example last year during NAVI's good streak, to get to the top and win tournaments?

I don't know. I think that… the thing is I want to answer yes, but at the same time I want to believe that, with the same amount of work that we put in last year, we are still capable. We are constantly speaking about that it's needed right now for us to do even more work, so we will probably have a bootcamp now to try and qualify for the London finals (BLAST Open).

We're trying to play a lot of tournaments, and I know the schedule is hectic, but we just need to keep fighting and hopefully don't face any visa issues or anything like that. Just be able to play more tournaments and be able to peak when we know that we're capable of. It's just so tough to answer right now, just after losing. Probably you get the point, but it's hard to think about winning after going out like this.