Aleksib before match against Spirit: "Spirit — our kryptonite from last season — we’re gonna prepare our ass off”

After NAVI 2:0 win over The MongolZ in the IEM Cologne 2025 quarter-finals, team captain Aleksi " Aleksib " Virolainen reflected on the team’s emotional start, the breakout performance of Drin " makazze " Shaqiri, and the overall playoff momentum.

Aleksi explained how the team started nervously on Inferno, but once Drin [ makazze ] picked up confidence on the CT side, everything clicked:

I think just us playing playoffs again… Drin [ makazze ] was pretty shocked at first. Like, when we were at the tunnel waiting to come and play the game, I saw him not smiling at all on the T side. And as soon as he got rolling on the CT side, I just knew he’s back, because whenever I looked at him, he’s smiling to me. And he started to play super well. On Ancient, he took it under his control.

He also praised makazze for overcoming early nerves and showing strong character on the big stage:

I mean, as I said, a bit of nervousness at first, but I think it was the whole team. Then we got back into it. It’s just nice to see him happy and smiling, and you know, winning — for him, this game is important.

When asked about his own performance on Inferno, Aleksi highlighted the joy of playing in front of a supportive crowd and securing a stage win:

It felt great. Being back on stage and winning a match feels amazing. There’s a lot of Finnish fans here. Let’s go guys, let’s go.

Finally, he addressed NAVI’s mindset heading into the semi-final against Team Spirit — a team that gave them trouble in the past:

The thing is, we did the first step, which is to get into the playoffs. Managed to win them 2-0. Now it’s gonna be Spirit — our kryptonite from last season overall. So we’re gonna do our best this evening, prepare our ass off, and play our best.