makazze on NAVI improvement: “I was playing more as solo, searching more… I’m trying to play more as a team”

Young rifling talent Drin “makazze” Shaqiri is the newest recruit to the NAVI CS2 roster. Promoted from the promised NAVI Junior lineup, makazze has made quite a name for himself throughout his short stint in Tier 1 so far.

After their win at StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2025, NAVI have arrived at the Thunderpick World Championship 2025 in Malta with the confidence that victory is possible. Ahead of NAVI’s opening match against Imperial at the Thunderpick WC, we sat down with makazze to chat about their prospects in the tournament.

makazze on confidence, growth, and Thunderpick World Championship chances

Sophie McCarthy: You guys finally managed to win a LAN trophy recently, almost a month ago at the StarLadder StarSeries Fall. How has that affected your confidence as a team, especially coming into an event like the Thunderpick World Championship?

Drin “makazze” Shaqiri: The confidence, for sure it gives us. Because it’s not a Tier 1 tournament, we just tried, we were favorites so we had to win, so of course it gives us a bit of confidence. After we had a tournament in Sweden, we made it to Playoffs in EPL. We showed good fights vs. MOUZ, we could also win. I f***ed up two, three rounds, so that’s why we didn’t win on Inferno but we keep improving.

Sophie: I mean that’s all you can hope for really, isn’t it? Because this has been a bit of a tough year for the team, if you don’t mind me saying. So what have you guys worked on lately that has really helped with this performance improvement?

makazze: Since I joined, we are playing a bit more solo, not like a team play. So we are trying to keep improving the solo play. So we need to play as a team, not solo. So we are trying to fix it.

Image via Hotspawn

Sophie: And how does that look when you guys are practising?

makazze: I mean, it’s good. We make a lot of jokes. We enjoy the pracc, so it’s fine.

Sophie: Because you’ve been with NAVI for about four months now, I think. How do you feel that you’ve grown as an individual, as a player?

makazze: For sure, I’ve grown as a player because before coming to NAVI, I was in NAVI Junior and I was not playing a lot as a team. I was playing more as solo, searching more. Since I joined NAVI, I’m trying to play more as a team. So yes, I’ve grown a lot.

Sophie: I mean playing with some players like Aleksib, that’s going to make a big difference.

makazze: They teach you good CS.

Sophie: Yeah, absolutely! So you mentioned EPL just before. That was another Playoffs for you at that event. So how are you ensuring that you keep that momentum going once you’ve had that first win?

makazze: I don’t know. We need to see it. We need to see what’s gonna happen.

Sophie: I mean, we’ve got some pretty busy days ahead of us, so I think you’ll be playing a lot, right?

makazze: Yes, play a lot.

Sophie: So just to talk about the first matchup, you’re going to be facing Imperial, what do you think specifically about this matchup?

makazze: I mean, they’re from Brazil. They play with momentum, they’re screaming a lot, so it’s going to be fun to play against them.

Sophie: What are you expecting from them as a team and how do you go about preparing for them?

makazze: To be honest, we’re going to prepare today. So I don’t know nothing about them because I never watched them.

Sophie: Where would you place your personal expectations for NAVI at this event?

makazze: I’m gonna put NAVI top one.