Natus Vincere enter the final stretch of the qualifying campaign for the Singapore Major with almost no room for error. Currently ranked 24th in the Europe VRS, they have only two tournaments left to rack up enough points to qualify for the season-ending LAN.
NAVI find themselves in this situation following a string of disappointing results. Since the start of the season, they’ve placed 9th-16th at EWC, 9th-12th at BLAST Open Porto, and 7th-8th at StarLadder Series Fall, winning just three of their eight matches.
“If you think about it, you cannot focus on the tournament, because you will have a lot of pressure,” Drin “makazze” Shaqiri told HLTV about the Major on the media day of ESL Pro League 24.
“So we are not looking into it, we are just playing for every tournament, trying our best. And if you’re going to show our best CS, we will make it to the Major. And if we don’t show our best CS, we don’t deserve to go. So we are focusing only on this, so no pressure about that.
The Kosovar star also discussed what the team has worked on since StarSeries and his recent individual struggles, which he says are behind him.
“Right now I would say that I’m in better form than last tournaments, for sure,” he said.
“I was also enjoying more life, so I could freshen my mind, and I’m good now. I’m in better form, fresh mind, ready for tomorrow, whenever we play.”
Listen to the interview here
This is a big event for you guys, what’s the mood in the team?
The mood is good, I would say. We practiced a lot. We were starting to fix a lot of problems, and I would say it’s good.
Has it been a classic B1ad3 bootcamp, then? What’s the preparation been like?
We didn’t do bootcamp, we were doing it from home. We had more than ten days of practice. It was good.
What were the main things you focused on during that practice?
We were making a lot of individual mistakes. We were trying to fix these individual mistakes, like some over-peeks and some things, and we fixed it. So let’s see how it will go.
What do you think those overpeeks stemmed from? Because we know you as a team with such good team play. Is it frustration that makes people make these individual mistakes?
No, I wouldn’t say it would be… It was only over-peek mistakes and this kind of stuff. It was a lot of problems. And we were also in a bad period, I would say. The team, overall, was not playing the best CS. We were not shooting either So it was a chance. I wouldn’t say it’s only over peek or somebody was doing over peek. It was a bad period.
And then as a team, the season’s been tough, as you said. What’s the mentality, how hard is it to stay in a good mood during that?
To be honest, for me, I have a good mentality and, every tournament, I’m fully focused. I don’t care that much about what happened in the last tournament. I’m always focusing on the next. But what I’m wishing for is that good days will start for us because we’ve really had a rough season, as you said. So let’s see how it will go, bro. New tournament, new chance for us.
We also know that NAVI has been in every Major, so it would be good to not miss it
And obviously the Major coming up. Is the team very aware of your fate being a bit in the balance? How’s that affecting you guys?
Yeah, we know. If you think about it, you cannot focus on the tournament, because you will have a lot of pressure. So we are not looking into it, we are just playing for every tournament, trying our best. And if you’re going to show our best CS, we will make it to the Major. And if we don’t show our best CS, we don’t deserve to go. So we are focusing only on this, so no pressure about that.
That’s fair enough. But in terms of NAVI, they’ve made every Major. It must be so hard to put that out of your mind when you’re playing such important games.
Also, we had a lot of [talks] with the organization and the team, a lot. So they even said, ‘You just need to focus on every tournament that we’re going to participate in; we will fucking have a chance and just show your best CS. And if you’re not going to show our best CS and if somehow we go to the Major, we don’t deserve it.’ So we need to show our best CS, or the NAVI that [we] were last season, and before also. We also know that NAVI organization has been in every Major, so it would be good to not miss it.
But also, if you will think about it, you will have a lot of pressure in games. So for me at least, I’m not thinking about it. I’m just thinking about every game we will have to win.
It was kind of hard, like when you just lose, lose, lose, you cannot show your best CS
And let’s pivot a bit more to in-game stuff. So this seven-map pool that you guys have been doing—how are you feeling about that at the moment? Is it going to continue or is it hard to maintain all seven maps?
We will keep continuing this seven-map pool. The map pool is good for us now. Even right now that we practice from home, we fixed a better map pool for us. I would say it’s better from last tournaments. I think we are more ready. I don’t know what to say more. We just need to see what’s going to happen.
Are you feeling more ready individually as well? Because we know you had that really hot streak earlier in the year, how are you feeling as an individual?
Yeah, I think I’m also more ready, I would say, because last tournaments I was not playing the best. It was kind of hard, like when you just lose, lose, lose, you cannot show your best CS. But right now I would say that I’m in better form than last tournaments, for sure. I was also enjoying more life, so I could freshen my mind, and I’m good now. I’m in better form, fresh mind, ready for tomorrow, whenever we play.
Is it hard when it’s the whole team individually just not quite clicking like you’re used to? Does it feel like there’s more pressure on you as the opener, the space taker, to take a few more risks?
No, as I said, we had just a bad period as a team, I would say. We were not shooting as five. It’s not that I’m scared to take if somehow our team is not shooting or something. I dunno, to be honest, in practice it’s going really well, even how we play, how we take space, and even how we shoot. But I dunno, everyone has a bad period. I would say. I also had a bad period. Hopefully I don’t have it anymore, so let’s see. But I’m not scared to take opening to go first or something now
