BLAST Open Porto kicks off tonight, with NAVI facing M80 in the opening round. Before the match, Aleksib spoke to pley.gg about the team's ups and downs this season — four finals and two titles, but also early exits in Cologne and at the EWC. He admitted that what they lack most right now is confidence, and that confidence has to be earned back match by match. "If we can stick with it, the results will come back naturally." On pressure, Aleksib said there is none, but admitted the schedule is tight and everyone is tired. Ahead of the opener against M80, he said "you can't underestimate any opponent, but this is a fair matchup." Tonight, NAVI need a win to prove their adjustments are working
Q: Aleksib, from the outside, NAVI's performance this season has been somewhat up and down. You've reached four finals and won two titles, but were also eliminated in the group stage in Cologne and Paris. How would you evaluate the season so far?
Aleksib: Overall, winning two titles is still pretty good, it shows we really do have our highlight moments and can play at a top level. But as you said, we've also been through quite a few lows. The EWC and the Major are both very important tournaments for us, we bootcamped for a long time for both of them, but ended up getting eliminated early, completely failing to play at the level we should have. That's really hard to analyze. We're trying our best, but we also realize that if we want to win another title this year, we have to understand that even during the lows, there were some things we did right. We know we need to reach that peak form again, and keep trusting the process, trusting each other — if we lose that trust, we won't win anything.
Q: We interviewed you after your loss to Legacy at EWC. Five days have passed now, do you have a clearer understanding of that loss?
Aleksib: To be honest, they played much better than us, outplayed us in almost every aspect, and had sharper aim. But we also found our own problems and understood exactly what went wrong. I won't go into the details here, but we did thoroughly review that match and tried our best to fix every small mistake. We also made adjustments on the mental side to ensure we're ready in key moments — because in that match we failed to hold up in the key moments.
Q: What do you think this NAVI team needs the most right now?
Aleksib: What we need most, I think, is confidence. Individual confidence may come from your own performance, but as a team, we need the belief that "we can beat strong teams," not just winning against the teams we're supposed to beat. That's for sure. But now we have to play well starting from the group stage, do everything we can to advance to the playoffs, take it one game at a time, and re-establish our place through the matches. Like I said, confidence is key.
Q: Based on the club's setup, player roster, and overall team system, where do you think you should rank and what level of results should you achieve? Before the Major, what do you think the outside expectations for you should be?
Aleksib: If I remember correctly, we reached three finals in a row before and won once. Back then, including ourselves, we held ourselves in very high regard, and expectations were set very high. But then everything came crashing down. Now it might be the opposite — some people don't even think we can safely make the playoffs. For us, it's about recognizing that the season is still long, continuing to train hard, and remembering all the details and our system — after all, overall we played pretty well last season. I think if we can stick with it, the results will naturally come back.
Q: Do you feel stressed right now?
Aleksib: No, I don't think so. But everyone is indeed giving their all, and it's pretty tiring. We've been on the road for four or five weeks, with a few more weeks to go. The schedule is tight, we can't rest easily because we have to keep training to get better. There's not much pressure, because we know we will put in the effort. But everyone wants to see results, and hopefully it will pay off.
Q: It's hard from the outside to know which events you prioritize, different teams have different strategies. How important is BLAST Porto for NAVI? After all, you just had an early exit at EWC...
Aleksib: I think every tournament is very important for us right now. On the one hand, VRS points are very important, and on the other hand, it's about confidence. So this tournament is very important for us, we need to perform well here and start laying a good foundation for this season.
Q: You're facing M80 in the first round, what do you think of this opponent?
Aleksib: We can't underestimate any opponent, that's for sure. But I think this is a good opportunity for us. They have shown some weaknesses, and of course so have we. So this matchup is fairly even. We need to be prepared and make sure we show solid fundamentals in the game.