NAVI player Aleksi Aleksib Virolainen gave an interview to Players reporter Sofiia Pikhalo after the victory over FURIA at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025.
Congratulations on your win, it was a long match and how did you feel about it?
I'm just super proud of how we fought. I know that every one of us felt like we should have won Inferno and we choked and made bad hesitation mistakes and felt the pressure. But the most important thing is how we came back into the third map and we kept fighting and we didn't stop believing and that's why we ended up being the winners, so I'm super proud of everyone.
It looked easy, but was it really?
I felt like Train, I wouldn't say easy, but all our plans and individual communication was flowing so it felt like they had no counterplay.
But what's wrong on the second map? Because you were also leading and then comeback happened and overtimes.
Yeah, as I told you, I think that we felt like we already won basically and they won the anti-force on the T side and we threw a 1v3 against FalleN and in the end I just think that they played better, they showed why they were the number one team in order to make that comeback, but that's CS sometimes and I'm happy that we got a slap in the face before the semifinals because we can fix the small mistakes that happened today.
How much did the 1v3 clutch from FalleN affect the result?
Well, we won the round after, so not that much, but also just giving a free round on the board after losing 7 rounds in a row or 8 rounds in a row, it obviously affects the team mentality but it wasn't the decider of the match, but maybe that went to show that we were a bit too nervous and a bit too pressured to make a big mistake like that.
You had frequently matches with FURIA lately, how can you assess your results against them?
You know, I think they're a great team and I think maybe compared to the other tournaments they really felt the pressure now because I think they were the favorites and they had a big win streak before this game and they still have some rookies in the team so I just think that maybe the pressure got into them that they couldn't play their best game and maybe it helped us today and that's why we won.
A lot of people said FURIA for their pickems, what about your pickems, how is it going?
I'm not doing any pickems ever, but I know my teammates put us to win and I know in my heart I put myself to win so that's what matters the most.
They're happy for you, I'm happy as well. How would you evaluate this season, can you count it as a plus or if the season is not finished yet?
Yeah, I don't think it's finished yet, the tournament is not finished yet. We will not be happy with a semi-final run. I think all of the team, including me, we all want to end the year in a bang. I want to be in the grand finals of the last tournament of the season and now we took down the number one team, I think the whole team feels the hunger and feels the passion and I think that everybody believes that we can make it happen and I really hope that we can show an amazing result tomorrow as well.
What can you say about makazze experience in this Major?
I think that game by game he's getting more comfortable and you saw on Decider Train he took the game into his own hands and I just felt the confidence coming out of him and it's just amazing to play alongside that kind of guy.
Thank you very much and wish you good luck and success.
Thank you so much.
