Aleksib on Major bootcamp: “We’re hoping for a miracle”

NAVI have been eliminated from PGL Astana 2025 at the Quarter-Finals stage, after being knocked out by a resurgent Astralis under the leadership of HooXi.

Pre-tournament, NAVI stood amongst the favorites of PGL Astana 2025, leaving them bruised and battered coming into the BLAST.tv Austin Major, the team’s last event of the season. Post-loss, NAVI IGL Aleksib spoke to James Banks for PGL to assess how Astralis were able to knock out the previous CS2 Major winners at PGL Astana.

On the Nuke loss:

“I think that Nuke for us was… in a way we played good, we lost three times the round that decides the money basically. On CT, we’re losing anti-eco if I’m not mistaken. On T, we won the pistol, lost the anti-eco and then force after we have a two-on-one, almost unlosable. Managed to lose that. Then we’re still clawing back into the game. Didn’t do the best calls to close it out I guess and yeah, I ended up being outplayed in the Overtime. It was pretty back and forth, but we didn’t really have a choice in losing these rounds that decides the money. Giving them too many rounds.”

Speaking about the possibility of a bootcamp prior to the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, Aleksib attempted to remain a little more positive on NAVI’s prospects going forward:

“We have a long bootcamp ahead of us. The thing is that, that’s the only thing that could bring us back now. Getting into all Playoffs, except one, ended up bombing out of a lot of Playoffs, including this. So, obviously, we’re hoping for a miracle and hoping the chemistry is there after the bootcamp, and you know, all the stars align again. I know we can do it. I think we know as a team we can do it if we convince ourselves and the bootcamp goes well. At the end of the day, it’s another Major and we’ve seen a lot of teams surprise on the Major when they wouldn’t. It’s a special moment to be there, and I hope we’re going to seize it.”

Aleksbi also commented on the team’s lack of chemistry at the moment, which seems to be severely lacking on the server:

“I think it’s something that we need to work on to keep up. All these teams with new players now this season, as soon as they join the server, you can just see that they want to be there, and they’re doing their best in order to win. For us, it’s kind of like, we have too high expectations now, I think. We just need to put some rocks in our pockets and just face the reality. We’re not there at all. We can still reach Playoffs, we can reach the Playoffs of the Major. And then we need to show our playbook on the stage.”

On the season as a whole:

“I think it stings… Yeah, I don’t know. It feels bad to think about this season, like, all the things we could’ve done but we didn’t. Now you have only one tournament remaining. At least it’s a big one. At least we have a bootcamp. But at the end of the day, it’s not been pretty. But if we’re holding the Major trophy in one month, that’s all I could ask for right now.”

Rumors of changes in NAVI’s lineup are ongoing, although it’s unclear who or what exactly will change following the BLAST.tv Austin Major. For now, it’s curtains on NAVI’s Quarter-Final run at PGL Astana 2025.

The full interview with Aleksib and James Banks can be found at the official PGL VOD.