NAVI head coach Andrii B1ad3 Horodenskyi talked with Players Editor-in-Chief Alex Kharchenko after losing the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024.
I would like to ask about peaks. Why, for example, did you peak Dust 2?
Five maps, it doesn't matter what to pick. Five maps, we can pick anything. We won Dust 2 twice, it's a good map for us.
If you look at spirit stats, they play really good, they have a high win rate on almost all maps, it wasn’t a matter for you what map to pick?
No, Dust 2 is our map, we need to pick something.
If we talk about micro moments, do you think their aim was better than yours?
I haven't seen the game yet, so I don't know, but in general, we made mistakes, we didn't control the situation on the map very well. It’s a lack of experience.
Talking about the season, you have one win at major and there were a couple of losses in the semi-finals and today in the final. How would you rate the result for NAVI?
I think it's good. The final in this tournament is very good for us. We showed that we can beat strong teams. There was a confident victory over vp, quite confident over Astralis. Therefore, not everything is good, but not everything is bad either.
Speaking of players, can you pick anyone in this final?
Everyone tried their best. I can't say that anyone played better than everyone else. Everyone tried their best, everyone had good moments, everyone had bad moments. Therefore, somewhere everyone is equal.
Do you think the team lacked the overall level to beat Spirit at this stage?
Well, I don’t know. Maybe bo5 got in the way because a lot of maps had to be prepared. For example, we prepared for the match yesterday for 4.5 hours. Today's schedule was such that we only had 2 hours because we finished late in the evening the previous day. And you have to be here at the arena at one o'clock.
So you are saying that there was a lack of time?
100% there was not enough time. But at the same, all the ideas we came up with were not implemented 100% and with mistakes.
So the strats you prepared together were not fully implemented?
We implemented it in a game with mistakes. Everything was not very smooth. Somewhere someone forgot something.
Is it a matter of experience?
Experience yes, but still, there were 5 maps, and that's a lot of information. It is necessary to do everything clearly, to be one step ahead. And it was hard to do.
You will now have a break, you will have time to analyse everything. What's next for NAVI?
It's vacation now, and then we're going to bootcamp in July.
And Cologne, right?
No, we have Saudi Arabia, then BLAST, Copenhagen, then Cologne.
And this roster, at this stage, these are the 5 players who played in the final today?
Yes, I think so.
