iM: "It doesn't matter if it's higher opponents or lower opponents, we just need to get some wins"

iM has said that NAVI are looking at StarLadder StarSeries Fall as a chance to build some confidence.

Natus Vincere kicked off life with Drin "⁠makazze⁠" Shaqiri amongst their number in promising fashion,finishing top four at IEM Cologne in the young rifler's first outing with the team. Since that bright start form has faltered, however, with the European combine suffering a string of early tournament exits.

StarLadder StarSeries Fall is a chance for Natus Vincere to put together a streak of wins and build confidence, considering their status as by far the highest-ranked team in attendance. Their campaign endured a slow start, as 9INE got an upset win in the first map before Natus Vincere righted the ship and won the series.

Read more

NAVI beat 9INE 2-1 to close StarSeries Fall day one

"We need some confidence back," Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan admitted in the wake of their opening game in Budapest. "I'm pretty sure that this tournament, if we're going to win it, will be confidence for the next tournaments."

With a win in his team's rear-view mirror, iM spoke with HLTV to give his thoughts on the series and the mood in the Natus Vincere camp considering their recent form.

Listen to the full interview here.

---

Reflections on what was probably a closer series than many were expecting?

It was closer than we thought, than we expected, but just to make fun of it, my guys played 4v5. I was doing my part, but whenever I saw a guy in my aim, I couldn't kill him. Almost every time it was 80, 80, 90, 90, but this is the game, it was one of those games for me, and I'm happy that we won.

Definitely they also played good, because that's why they took a map from us and kinda pushed us on Inferno.

What do you think went wrong on that first map?

I think every tournament for us, every first game or first map, we kinda struggle, so maybe it was that, maybe it was something else. Overall I think we just lacked a bit of confidence and balls, lets say. We were doing the things we said in the freezetime, but then maybe something changed and we didn't do the proper things that we had to do, we didn't react properly.

It felt like there were a few uncharacteristic mistakes from NAVI, you got full eco'd on Inferno at one point, which we don't really see happen to NAVI…

I'm not sure what happened on that round… I know that we clicked everything and I was holding CT, I think makazze was watching behind, and all of a sudden he dies, one guy dies from Apps, and we are 2v4. It was still winnable to be honest, I could have killed them, but like I said I had a rough game and couldn't shoot. It was obviously a mistake, we will discuss what went wrong and see who needed to hold what. Maybe we thought it was already won and we were just chilling.

What does this tournament mean for NAVI? How have you approached it? Because obviously it's not got all the biggest teams.

I think B1ad3 already said it in an interview, that this tournament for us needs to be a confidence boost. Just playing more games and it doesn't matter if it's higher opponents or lower opponents, we just need to get some wins, so maybe that's the answer. We need some confidence back and I'm pretty sure that this tournament, if we're going to win it, will be confidence for the next tournaments.

How has confidence been in general, because you haven't been in the best form recently?

To be honest, from my point of view at least, it was decent to good, but obviously we didn't show it. Maybe we have confidence going into a game, but maybe it goes off if someone fucks up or something goes wrong, and then you start to overthink and so on.