NAVI player Drin makazze Shaqiri gave a short interview to Players correspondent Sofiia Pikhalo after the victory over The Mongolz at the IEM Cologne 2025.
So, congratulations on your win. What's happened, for your opinion, on the first map, because it was like crazy?
On the first map, to be honest, it was hard for me, because I couldn't not control the motion, but a little bit pressure, because of the crowd in the first half. In the second half, I just reset my mind and I got back in the game and we beat them.
Yeah, because you have, like, stats different, totally different. So, how do you feel after finally calming down under this pressure?
I mean, it's an insane feeling, to be honest.
How do you think, what's helped you to beat The Mongolz on the second map so easily?
On the second map, Ancient is my best map. And B1ad3 was telling me how to kill the guy on mid, how to counter him, so I was just going mid and killing him every round.
How much did B1ad3 help you with all these strats or something like that?
I mean, he's helping me a lot. He's trying to teach me a lot, even off of practise. Like, he's taking me and he's showing me some good things, how to play and how to rotate on some situations.
How do you feel these changes on the roster and some positions changes, how this affects your play?
I mean, when I came here, I didn't believe that they were going to give me my position. I mean, in the whole format, they gave me a good position that I didn't expect. But, to be honest, I think everyone is feeling comfortable in their positions.
Even if you swap some positions. So, do you think you will change some positions later as well or you will stay like that?
I think it's the first tournament, we will see how it will go. If something, some position will go bad, we're going to change for the next tournament for sure.
How can you assess your adaptation, how you did this adaptation for you all? Because you're one new guy and it's hard for you to adapt to a new team or it's like easy peasy?
I mean, it's good, to be honest. They're helping me a lot and I'm asking them a lot. Like, I'm being a kind of boring guy, asking them everything, like what to do, what to do, because it's a lot of strats.
Do you think you're trying to be a strat guy more than them?
Yes.
Why?
I mean, I need to learn, for sure.
