Q: Congratulations on defeating pain with absolute dominance and getting off to a great start at IEM Cologne. How do you feel now?
A: Very good, it's always nice to start the event with a win. Now I'm looking forward to more victories.
Q: Considering your previous poor performance at the BLAST Autumn Groups, does it feel good to crush your opponents with such a strong state?
A: We are very confident now, in fact, we were also confident in the BLAST event. It was the same against Complexity and BIG . We just had some issues against Liquid. But I think that was more of a map BP issue. Because compared to us, Anubis and Inferno are their strong maps.
Q: Regarding the match against Liquid, do you think Liquid, as a new lineup, also caught you off guard to some extent?
A: Yes, but we also wanted to use BLAST as a training match before Cologne to see where the problems were and play some maps we don't usually play. We wanted to find as many issues as possible so we could prepare accordingly.
Q: In a previous interview, you mentioned that the team might have won the Major championship too early. Now that you have another championship trophy, do you feel any different?
A: Yes, now we have the experience of winning, which helps us a lot. You don't need to force players to believe in something because they know they've already done it. Sometimes you would say—guys, let's push, we can do it. But now there's no need to say that because the players have a different kind of confidence, and both the players and the team as a whole are constantly growing, which is great.
Q: For every player in the CS world, winning a Major is very important. But is winning other event championships as important as winning the first one?
A: Yes, we also reached the finals in the BLAST Spring Finals, so we gained the corresponding experience and also knew whether the team had time to prepare for the BO5 final after a hard-fought battle the day before.
After that, we knew that after the summer break ended, NAVI would appear more in the semifinals and finals of major events. Because I know the team is constantly improving.
We built this lineup a year ago and had to integrate the corresponding system. NAVI's 2021 lineup was the same, many things take a year to practice, and after a year, I saw the results. This lineup is the same, I saw the team's progress and the dynamic operation of the team. As the players grow, we keep trimming. Just like the previous NAVI, everyone keeps improving and playing more cooperatively.
We saw the pros and cons of the system in London. And in the eSports World Cup, we strengthened our confidence through one match after another. Even in the training camp before the eSports World Cup, our approach to the game was different from a year ago.
Two championship trophies changed a lot of things, it was a big step in our growth.
Q: After the Major, you said that the next step was to develop iM into a deputy commander. Now that you have done that, what's the next step?
A: Let the sniper become the deputy commander.
Q: Do you mean to let w0nderful express his intentions more freely at the start of the round?
A: At any time. Even in the mid-round, he can see gaps and what the team needs to do. It's not about saying "I want to do" this or "everyone do this" kind of thing, but rather that he can coordinate with two other players to act together with him.
Achieving this requires a lot of experience, and I feel he has grown a lot.
NaVi will face Astralis at 21:45 tonight, with the winner qualifying for the IEM Cologne knockout stage.
