Who leads Natus Vincere? Aleksib or B1ad3?

In a recent interview, Na’Vi’s new IGL, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen made it clear that he’s not the actual mastermind behind his team’s methodology. That man will remain Andrij “B1ad3” Ghorodensjkyj, the team’s coach.

It’s not that often that we find a CS:GO team whose coach has such a big impact on how his roster plays, but it’s perfectly normal if you think about it. In sports like football and basketball, it’s the coach who determines the strategy that will be used against the opponent, not the players.

The players’ role is to implement that strategy to the best of their ability and find the right tactics for every scenario.

I’ve joined @natusvincere. Can’t wait to get things fired up with this lineup. Thanks for the support 😁#navination

— NAVI Aleksi (@AleksibCSGO) June 30, 2023

Na’Vi’s recent results

Natus Vincere used to be the best team on the planet. They won a Major in 2021, as well as numerous other trophies. But since the end of 2021, they’ve only won a single tournament: BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022. For a team that has Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev on its roster, that’s not good at all.

More recently, Na’Vi radically changed its roster and brought in three new players. Since then, the team has played three matches.

The first one was against Astralis. And, despite the first map disaster, it ended with a victory for the CIS team: 8-16 on Ancient, 16-6 on Nuke, and 16-12 on Overpass.

First victory with our squad, feels great! 2-1 versus @Astralisgg ggwp #navination

— Sasha (@s1mpleO) July 14, 2023

The second match was a complete failure but it’s easy to understand why. Na’Vi’s opponent in this match was Heroic, arguably the best or second-best team in the world. The scores were 16-9 on Mirage and 16-10 on Inferno. What’s strange about this match is that Aleksib was the best Na’Vi player, while Mihai “iM” Ivan had a K-D score of 21-41.

In the third match of the tournament, Natus Vincere went back to their winning ways and defeated BIG. Both maps started well for the CIS team: 11-4 on Ancient and 11-4 on Mirage. But the second half of each map went poorly. The final scores were 16-11 and 16-14, which made the team’s fans very worried.

The best player in this match was iM, who is quickly becoming a superstar. He already demonstrated his talent at BLAST.tv Paris Major, where he competed in the Grand Final with one of the tournament’s underdogs, GamerLegion. But now he has a real opportunity to win important trophies. His K-D score was 47-36.

In the Grand Final of group B, Na’Vi will play again against Heroic.

Header: BLAST