Interview with Mihai “iM” Ivan from Na’Vi: “Initially, I wasn’t that good, only Silver III. But I practiced a lot.”

A few days ago, ahead of the start of group C of ESL Pro League S18, Fragster had the pleasure of interviewing one of the most promising Counter-Strike players of his generation, Mihai “iM” Ivan from Natus Vincere.

We talked about his journey, his new team, and Counter-Strike 2. Here’s the essence of my interview with him.

At what age did you start playing Counter-Strike?

I started playing CS 1.6 when I was very young. I must have been 10, 11, or 12. I remember that I was in school when I made the decision. And I played until around 2012, along with other games that had nothing to do with Counter-Strike. In 2013 I started to play CS:GO.

How much time did you need in CS:GO to reach the Global Elite rank?

I reached this rank around 2014-2015.

And were you playing the game daily?

I was playing it all the time. Initially, I wasn’t that good, only Silver III. But I practiced a lot.

After how long did you start to want to play professionally? Or was this your plan from the start?

No, I had no such plans when I started playing. I just enjoyed playing the game with friends at first and as I got better, I’ve gone through a natural progression. My next step was FACEIT. While I was competing there, I was able to learn about professional tournaments.

Being a level 10 FACEIT player, I started competing more seriously with a team called Vama Veche. But in tournaments, we were often losing at 2 or 3 points, essentially getting completely outmatched by our opponents. It took a while to get better.

After the creation of ROPL (Romanian Pro League), things started to move in the right direction. I actually won ROPL once and I was playing very often, reaching even 200+ matches per month.

How did your family react to all of this? Did they rejoice or were they worried?

They didn’t worry, especially since I wasn’t the kind of kid who missed from school. I didn’t have high grades either, and occasionally I was nearly falling asleep during math classes. But I was present and didn’t want to get into trouble with my parents.

When I was at home, I was allowed to play as much as I wanted. I started to receive support from them when I won the first prizes in tournaments.

Did you ever imagine that you would end up playing alongside s1mple?

Back when I was competing with Nexus Gaming and GamerLegion, I did aspire to play with good players. But I never imagined myself playing at Na’Vi or together with s1mple, partly because of the language barrier.

What happened at the Paris Major? Personally, I was very surprised by what you did there. You practically carried a whole team almost on your own. Were you surprised by this performance or did you know by then that you were one of the best Counter-Strike players in the world?

I don’t like to consider myself one of the best, or even good for that matter. I wasn’t expecting something like this. I knew we could play well as a team and I don’t focus that much on what happens at the individual level.

The fact that I had a good rating and that I played well in every match was a plus. But ultimately, GamerLegion played in the Grand Final, not iM. And we did it as a team. Some of the roles that I played during the matches and some of my kills were relatively easy compared to those of my teammates.

The overall result was something that we did not expect. We simply went from match to match and tried our best to win. We went from 0 W – 2 L to 3 W – 2 L during the Challengers Stage.

That was still a reasonable comeback. What was truly shocking was your performance during the playoffs stage.

Yes, we were also surprised. But against Monte, we were very confident that we could beat them. Many people regarded us as underdogs during the entire tournament. But we didn’t care about it.

Our confidence against Monte came from our experience in Rio, where we got used to the intense atmosphere of a LAN where the fans in the arena are against you. The match against FURIA was pure hell. Meanwhile, four players from Monte had very little experience with this kind of atmosphere.

What do you think is the difference between a team like Na’Vi or even GamerLegion, and one like Nexus Gaming?

The first major difference is the mentality. Back when I started playing for GamerLegion I could see their perseverance. We spent a long time competing with the same roster and not because we were winning every match. We had defeats that discouraged us and made us very upset. But we persisted nonetheless.

In Nexus Gaming, after some of our bad defeats we had immediate roster changes that practically reset things for us and forced us to rebuild our cohesion almost from scratch, which is quite complicated.

Another thing that’s missing in the Romanian Counter-Strike scene is very experienced coaches who can speak Romanian.

How big of a role does the coach play on a team?

Some coaches excel in the tactics department, while others will hype you up really well and help you to improve your mental game. Others are good at every aspect of coaching and can have a big impact on their players.

What’s the approach of your current coach, B1ad3? Does he get heavily involved in creating the tactical and strategic approach for the team?

Yes, he does. He also helps us with the psychological side of the game.

Really excited to start this new journey alongside some of the best players that touched the game and can’t wait to compete against the best on a daily basis.
Let’s win some tournaments😈#navination https://t.co/Q00StDnXmX

— NAVI iM- (@iMeCSGO) June 30, 2023

At stage are you at right now as a team? Back when the Na’Vi roster changed, three new players joined. I suspect that it’s quite difficult to rebuild from scratch, especially since you all speak different languages. How do you adapt to each other’s style?

It’s going better and better. In our first bootcamp it was hard because we didn’t have enough time to conceptualize all of our map strategies. For a new team, learning how to play well on six maps takes time and one week wasn’t enough. But as weeks and events went by, we started to improve more and more.

In some bootcamps, we were spending even 10-12 hours a day talking about the game and how we wanted to play it as a team. It was very intense.

What expectations do you have from ESL Pro League S18?

First of all to qualify for the playoffs. Our group isn’t very challenging. The only tough opponent that we’ll face is FaZe Clan. However, we try to not underestimate the rest of the teams. Our hope is that we’ll qualify from the upper bracket. Even if we end up losing against FaZe, we should finish the group at least 2nd.

Why iM and not something else, such as Ivan the Terrible?

The nickname iM simply comes from the initials of my name, Ivan and Mihai. I first saw JW using this alias method and I thought it was smart.

What’s your current impression of Counter-Strike 2? Do you think it will be officially released this autumn?

I hope it will be launched as soon as possible. Many players who are not competing in tournaments are spending a lot of time in it, while I’ve only spent around 6-8 hours playing CS2. So they’re starting to gain a bit of an advantage.

For me, going form CS:GO to CS2 isn’t the most pleasant change. The game is quite different. When I play CS2, I get a feeling that I’m playing Call of Duty. But I’ll eventually get used to it.

At the muscle memory level, aren’t the CS2 changes an issue for you? I mean in terms of gun control, movement, and so on.

No, not really. I expect to adapt quickly and not everything has changed. Most aspects of CS:GO remained the same.

Alright. Mihai, thank you for the interview and I wish you the best of luck at ESL Pro League S18!

Thank you!

Header: BLAST, Paris Major