Interview with Na’Vi’s iM: “We’re obviously still improving.”

Ahead of the playoffs of ESL Pro League S18, we spoke to iM from Natus Vincere and asked him a few questions. Here’s the interview:

In the group stage, we finally had the chance to see the new Na’Vi roster playing fluent and well-coordinated Counter-Strike. Is this your final form or are you still improving?

We’re obviously still improving. Our group wasn’t that difficult so we had an easy path to the playoffs. FaZe Clan was a tough opponent. But the other two teams, we should beat them every time. We’re still working on mistakes, on every map. The hard matches are still ahead of us.

If you could pick your next opponent, who would it be? Astralis, Eternal Fire, or BIG?

Obviously, the hardest opponent would be Astralis. Last time they beat us. First time we beat them, so it’s 1-1. We need a decider against them to see who is on top.

If everything goes well, you will likely have to play against Vitality in the Semifinals. You know them well from the Paris Major. How do you think they’ve changed since then? Are they weaker, stronger, or still the same team?

I’m pretty sure they’re not weaker. But at least, we are stronger than before. As you saw in the group stage, even though our opponents weren’t that tough, we played much better CS teamwise. We still need time to improve. But we’re a better team now and have a good chance against Vitality.

Do you think that changing one of their players changed their playstyle a lot? Or was it just a role-for-role change?

From what I saw, it was a role-for-role change. I’m not sure they made any significant change.

Is Vertigo permabanned for your team or do you have it in your map pool?

Right now it’s permabanned. I was playing it on GamerLegion. I like it, but we decided to ban it as a team.

Thanks @CounterStrike for a hell of a experience and a lot of beautiful moments and memories.
Met many good friends and good people via this game and I’m grateful for that❤️
Let’s hope for more in CS2🤗 pic.twitter.com/3RlhjffF94

— NAVI iM- (@iMeCSGO) September 27, 2023

What are you doing next Wednesday?… Do you think that Valve will release CS2 on September 27^th?

I hope they will. We’ve been waiting for so long now and all of my friends, whenever I play CS with them, are asking me when is the official release. Also, I saw that a lot of teams are already practicing on it. So maybe we should start doing that as well.

Header: Euronews