Aleksib at BLAST Open Spring: “Spirit for us historically has been pretty tough…so now again, time for revenge.”

Today, Navi will go head to head with Team Spirit in the quarterfinals at BLAST Open Spring here in Lisbon. Ahead of the game, I got to speak to Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen about THAT map against The Mongolz and got his advice on how to keep up with such an intense schedule.

Sophie: Last time we spoke, it was in Katowice. It was February. It was cold, it was miserable.

Aleksib: That’s true.

How are you finding Lisbon?

Aleksib: I find it nice, obviously, coming here from Copenhagen. Honestly, the weather there was nicer than I’m used to. Like, it was blue skies for most of the days. Obviously not that warm. But now coming here, blue skies and warm. So that’s nice. Good to see some sunlight.

Sophie: That’s it.

Have you managed to spend any time outside of a hotel or you guys just here practicing?

Aleksib: Yesterday I went for a morning walk, a bit of a longer one. And today we went for a team walk as well. And other than that, not really. We went for a team dinner yesterday. But, you know, it was dark outside, so you couldn’t really, really enjoy all the views, but at the same time, not really here to sightsee. So let’s say maybe after the tournament, if you have time. But that’s it.

Sophie: That’s it. I mean, hopefully you won’t see much of it if you’re making it to the finals. I mean, because I guess you’ve had quite a good run so far. You took out The Mongolz and FURIA? Yes, that was it. Sorry. So I did want to touch quickly on this series with The Mongolz because you had a really good start. Really terrible map two, pretty good map three.

So how, as an IGL, do you keep that mental strong in the whole team, going from that map two into map three?

Aleksib: I think we understood that map two, we weren’t there at all, whether it was individually or as a team. So we’re kind of like nervously laughing about it afterwards. You could see that we didn’t really process what just happened, and it was something, like, unusual for us. And we understood that Mirage is the third map and we felt comfortable.

And, yeah, just overall kind of, we forgot it because it was so terrible that it was hard to even think about. So if we lost in a different fashion, maybe we would have even felt more tilted.

Sophie: Okay, yeah.

Aleksib: I don’t know. It was just really unusual and we kind of just brushed it off and obviously spoke about it afterwards. But we didn’t really get into it that deeply with our emotions.

Sophie: Absolutely. Because I guess it’s, as you say, it’s such an anomaly for the team that.

What do you think happened during that game? What was that post game conversation like?

Aleksib: I don’t know, it’s hard to, hard to explain in small detail. But yeah, I’m not going to talk too much about that. It’s just terrible all around.

Sophie: Yeah, yeah. I mean you got right back on the horse. You got a good, a good map three there and here you are. So next up, you guys have got Spirit and then potentially being the ones to break the Vitality win streak.

How is that feeling right now?

Aleksib: I mean obviously two tough teams. Spirit for us historically has been pretty tough. We ended up winning them against them in Katowice groups but then we lost against them in the playoffs. So now again, time for revenge.

Kind of obviously nice to play in front of the crowd and if we manage to win this game, we’re obviously going to play Vitality. They have a 14 match win streak if I believe if I’m correct, I mean and obviously taking them down would I feel like then it would mean that we have the.. what it takes to win the tournament in my opinion. So obviously just going into the semi-finals with everything, we have and try to take the best team down because I feel like they’re the best currently.

Sophie: I mean, yeah, absolutely. Ever since ropz joined they’ve been pretty much unstoppable, right? So the last thing I wanted to talk about was last time we talked, we were talking about the CS calendar, how packed it is and now obviously you guys didn’t go to Cluj-Napoca. I don’t think you’re going to Bucharest either.

How are you prioritizing events? Like do you guys have any say in that?

Aleksib: I mean Navi is trying to figure out the schedule for us and kind of not like trying to take everything into consideration. So obviously now we had two weeks in EPL and two weeks in this tournament. So going straight to Bucharest might not be the wisest decision. We obviously have other tournaments coming up and then we’re prioritizing boot camp for the, for the major.

So I think our schedule is pretty, pretty okay. And I don’t think playing everything in a row is sustainable, especially if you might be struggling. Obviously if you have a 30 match win streak, why not do everything you can? But we’re trying to find ourselves still and trying to replicate last year’s success.

Sophie: Absolutely. Because I guess it’s not even just Counter-Strike that we’re seeing this in. We’re seeing it in Dota, we’re seeing it in VALORANT, lots and lots of tournaments.

So if you’re going to give someone advice how to deal with that burnout, that scale schedule, the constant boot camping, what would you have to say to them?

Aleksib: I mean, it’s a hard question, to be honest, because sometimes you struggle with it yourself. And obviously having success is kind of bringing everything else, like giving you a nicer mood, giving you this extra hunger motivation. And when you struggle, it’s always harder. But at the same time, I just feel like you need to try to rest in between and you need to try to be productive. Because once you’re productive with the team, during the tournament, after the tournament, during practice, you will find these glimpses of obviously, improvement, success together. And that’s bringing you the motivation in order to continue.

Because I couldn’t imagine how it feels, like I’ve been there before. When you’re playing, you’re playing practice, you’re playing with the team, you’re talking with the team and you feel like something’s off. Maybe an individual is not putting in all of the effort. Maybe you don’t find success in practice and you feel like you’re not going anywhere. And that’s going to bring you down even more because you’re going to have so many travel days, everything, and you’re not improving. So that for me would be the worst thing that could happen. So we’re still productive. We’re, you know, trying to improve day by day, and that’s bringing me motivation.

Sophie: Yeah, I mean, you’re still making playoffs, so that’s the. That’s the most exciting part. Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much and good luck in the playoffs.