NAVI player Mihai iM Ivan gave an interview to Players reporter Sofiia Pikhalo during media day ahead of the IEM Cologne 2025 playoffs in CS2.
How are you doing today?
Chilling.
Do you have some rest after matches?
No
Do you sleep at least some time?
Yeah, I sleep, I sleep. But we usually, whenever we have like this, decider games, then after you have another media, then you have official. So there's not much rest, but we got used to it.
You really played incredibly well, like stats, everything. Like you feel the game from within you. How do you feel after this? What helped you to be in such a good state?
To be honest, I don't know. Like basically, I think we played good as a team.
And then I think this is the most important thing, not like one person's stats. And if we played good as a team, I would play good as a, let's say, teammate also.
So you feel like you're supporting in the fullest of your might.
Yeah
What can you say about makazze game? Of course, everyone's asking that, so I also want to ask you that. Has it already been adapted in the team structure, or are you still looking for the synergy, for the teamplay?
I think he adapted pretty well on what we are speaking, because when he joined in the bootcamp, he got hit by a lot of information on a lot of maps, and then it's pretty hard to process all of that so fast. And I think he managed it pretty well. Obviously there is more to improvement, because there are so many situations that never happen in practice. It will happen to officials, so you just have to adapt faster.
But like I said, I'm very happy that he adapted pretty well, and also his communication is very good. Whenever he sees some gap or anything else, he's just saying, okay guys, let's do this, this and that. And then it's pretty good to see a guy who didn't have any Tier-1 experience to do this.
If you can recall your experience when you just came into NAVI, can you compare these situations, and can you say that something changed and his adaptation process is different from yours, for example?
I think it's totally different. Because when I joined, we joined three guys from different teams. Now he joined from NAVI Academy to four guys that already kind of know the system and everything. It's kind of different to say, because it was a lot more to learn when I joined than now, for example. Because now he has four guys to help.
And you have a ready system.
Yes exactly.
Last season you failed to win a single match in the playoffs. Unfortunately. Always leaving the tournament in the quarterfinals. How do you think, will you be able to break this curse in this IEM Cologne?
I don't know if it's a curse or not, because we had a rough season overall. I don't think it matters that much if it's group stage or playoff. We just try to play our best, no matter what. But I think it can be, just like I said, it can be different. We started already good, qualifying to the playoffs. So I think no matter what, if we're going to win or lose, I think it's going to be the same. Because our goal in this tournament is just to learn. Because we have a new guy, we don't know which is his position. It's like, it sounds weird to have Cologne as a test tournament, but it is what it is, it's the first tournament in this season.
It's also not the first time when before or in the middle of the big events something changed in Counter-Strike. Like some updates, something that is really strange or unknown or new to you for adapt. Do you think you changed some strategy to adapt for new things? Or do you feel that these new updates got into your play?
I have no clue. Because we also don't know if you're going to play on the new update or you're going to stay on the last update.
So how do you prepare for this “going to play or not play”?
We need to find out. Because, for example, I'm not sure if you know, or everyone knows, for example, if there is any update in the middle of the tournament, you play on the old update. You don't change it. And then I'm not sure yet if we're going to play on the new one or the old one. And if you're going to play on the new one, I think it's mostly going to be animations that we have to use to play on them. And then it's like small changes on Inferno, on the balcony.
Train, some boxes.
On Train it might be different because they added some random boxes. We'll have to adapt with that. But I think it's going to take a few practises to get used to and that's it.
So you feel like it will be quickly, to adapt and play.
Yes, exactly. It's not like a huge update.
