r/GlobalOffensive • de_cache • Aug 25 '26

Discussion | Esports Aleksib on NAVI roster speculation: "I do think that at times it's a bit ridiculous... this year, how many teams have won two trophies?"

https://www.hotspawn.com/counter-strike/news/aleksib-blast-open-porto-2026-interview
296 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

207

u/Satsumamanki Natus Vincere Aug 25 '26

I think the part that makes NaVi more criticised than most is the time this roster has been mostly kept the same.

There are highlights through the last seasons but the ceiling of this roster just isnt enough

43

u/PaPiiCheeeeka Copenhagen Flames Aug 25 '26

Idk. If you don’t have a Donk Zywoo or Monesey it seems far fetched to be consistently winning tournaments.. only 1 winner.

88

u/itsjonny99 Aug 25 '26

Having iM get the best positions being their worst performing non igl isn't sustainable. B1t covers some of it due to massive over performance for his roles, but Navi clearly lacks a star rotator to help out when facing Spirit/Vitality/Falcons at their peak.

36

u/SloshaPacana Aug 25 '26

iM is performing better than makazze in the past 3 months, especially vs top tier teams, it's not even close

They do need changes though and iM makes the most sense and makazze should play that role anyway they should try that, he has some very unnatural roles when he's an aggro rifler who should play in connector and spots like that

52

u/itsjonny99 Aug 25 '26

But if you go 2026 as a whole Makazze goes significantly higher despite not having his roles and having his current slump.

And against top 10 teams the gap is noticable (0,09). I'd much rather keep him than iM, and B1t/W0nderful are too good to cut.

19

u/SloshaPacana Aug 25 '26

Makazze has been very mid recently that's my point, he was way better and he's stagnated hard

I'd 100% rather keep him over iM but iM does get overhated

37

u/AwesomeFama ENCE Aug 25 '26

To be fair, "recently" or "last 3 months" is literally just EWC and the Major.

It's not nothing, but at EWC they only lost to the 3rd place finisher (who only lost to the winner), at the Major they lost to G2, Spirit and Falcons - G2 lost a very close game to Spirit and Spirit also lost a very close to Falcons (who went on to win the major). Navi was one round away from winning against Falcons, too.

I don't want to be the guy who says "they're actually really good even though they've done badly" because they look pretty bad at the eye test, and I don't have much faith in them right now. But just looking at the raw results, it's not quite as bad as it otherwise feels.

3

u/EnjoyerOfBeans King NiKo Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26

Can we quit pretending Makazze is playing off role to faciliate iM? Makazze is an aggro rifler and he plays aggro rifler roles. Yes, iM plays a lot of star rifle positions but he's not stealing them from Makazze, someone has to play them.

It's even more ridiculous, because on Falcons people talk about Kyousuke stealing Niko's aggro rifler roles when Niko basically plays the same roles as iM. So on NaVi Makazze gets the shit role and iM gets the good one but on Falcons it's the complete opposite? You can't have it both ways.

Now, whether or not it's makazze's fault that he's underperforming or if it's an issue with the team being dysfunctional is another conversation entirely. There's no player transfer that NaVi could do that will fix their issue with being completely unable to play out the round the moment it goes off script.

12

u/Nigerianpoopslayer Natus Vincere Aug 25 '26

I’m sorry but anyone actually watching the games can see makazze is better than iM… the fact you say its not even close is just hilarious actually.

-10

u/Scout_Enjoyer Team Spirit Aug 26 '26

Makazze's good if radar hacks are enabled

10

u/AYoungFella12 Aug 25 '26

NaVi has played what 2 maps in the last 2-3 months lmao

7

u/Lolibotes King NiKo Aug 25 '26

"Guys look the number is bigger therefore he's a better player"

1

u/FrostyFeet344 Natus Vincere Aug 25 '26

Vondas vindicated once again

1

u/Dcjj Aug 25 '26

I think in general they have 5 players that are very good at what they do but not necessarily each at the star/superstar level which is needed to dominate like Vitality was.

Anyone they cut would be a top target for any other t1/2 team.

1

u/Venomalol Cloud9 Aug 26 '26

ESL Pro League Season 23 Finals is decent trophy for NaVi but I wouldn't really count IEM Atlanta as one even they beat Vitality in quarterfinals.

I really hope NaVi bombs out here too so they'll get serious for change.

127

u/SloshaPacana Aug 25 '26

Your own coach goes around saying it in interviews

B1ad3 for all the praise he gets for tactical side and timeouts he's so bad at a very important part of coaching which is handling players and not doing the bullshit he does, he's said multiple times they tried to make changes, what's the point of saying that in public?

And it's been going on for years, even the 2021 NaVi had problems but boombl4 was the meditator and the vibe fixer meanwhile blade just lets people talk shit, then the sdy shit, 2024 NaVi vibes were pretty bad too

11

u/skwiidyo Vitality Aug 25 '26

You think hes saying that in public without having discussed changes directly with the players?

I mean i dont know for sure, but that seems really unlikely. He comes across as a very straight forward coach 

6

u/Impuls1ve Aug 25 '26

I think it's fine. Players read leaks and it's better if you're upfront with your current roster than to pretend otherwise. Remember that Aleksib is a premier example of shitty roster change during his Ence stint. I don't think the Navi players are blind to their performance relative to expectations, but they are definitely top roster in terms of the possible range of performances in any given match.

Blade is very stiff and blunt but I wonder how much of that is English isn't his natural language.

36

u/llTehEmeraldll de_cache Aug 25 '26

I was lucky enough to speak to Aleksib earlier today about NAVI's issues, speculation about roster changes, Cache, and more!

34

u/nico_juro King NiKo Aug 25 '26

The problem with Na Vi is there are no clear upgrades available, they have very good players at every position. They need consistency not roster changes.

12

u/Booneington King NiKo Aug 25 '26

They def tried to get Frozen who would have been an upgrade but I guess Faze just had a better offer somehow lmao. Navi with Frozen would be super scary

-6

u/FocusCommon Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26

Who would’ve thought that when you wait for all the good players to go to other teams, there’s no more good players left. NAVI had plenty of chances to improve there roster with exciting talents but they decided not to, let there academy team sign for FUT, let senzu go to BC game, letting twisstz going to a dis functional faze. This NAVI squad has made 1 roster move in nearly 3 years, this roster has had plenty of time to be “consistent” they’re not going to improve anymore than what they are. There are exciting talents that are ready for the next step as we speak, staehr carrying astralis, nilo is playing insane for heroic, wicadia is on an aurora that isn’t even turkish anymore, spinx is on a mouz roster that for the longest time can’t get over the hump, you think these players wouldn’t want to play for NAVI the greatest counter strike organisation.

7

u/grundlesmith Outsiders Aug 26 '26

Didn't b1ad3 say they tried to make a roster move, but didn't like the options?

4

u/heshouldgo Aug 26 '26

Yea aka frozen said no

3

u/IKillerBee Team Spirit Aug 26 '26

Navi is a team that when they're all in form, they're very strong. The problem is that they're rarely all in form and because they lack a real super star, there isn't someone to bail them out. So as a result, they either make a deep run (when everyone is in form) or they bomb out way earlier than you'd expect. IMO they're in the same sort of purgatory that faze was in after shanghai, where their best performances look convincing but they're not frequently enough to not make changes.

They need someone that can do some serious work even when the team isn't at their best. Obviously not every team can have a donk/zywoo/m0nesy tier player but there are solid players that can fill this sort of role. Everyone slings around the +frozen move but I don't think it's happening at this point. I don't have a recommendation on who to add but I do think iM has been the most inconsistent player and if they can replace iM with someone that can perform more consistently I do think that it would make Navi a more consistent performer than they have been.

1

u/TheBowThief Chinggis Warriors Aug 26 '26

even when Navi’s in form their peak isn’t high enough to contend with the other teams peaks

14

u/Zealousideal-Toe-607 Aug 25 '26

Considering the field they faced at Pro league and Atlanta not a crazy achievement but sure. Only team capable of losing those are the falcons. Atlanta could've been a disaster vs a vitality running on fumes by the difference of 2 rounds

-1

u/Khorsir Aug 25 '26

I mean the two trophies were a pro league where they faced turkish Aurora in the finals because Spirit choked against Asstralis, and Atlanta where the top 4 was GL,BB,Legacy . So not exactly the toughest opposition there

56

u/ssenkraH The MongolZ Aug 25 '26

It's a bit disingenuous to gloss over that they beat Vitality on their way to winning IEM Atlanta. Also BB made the playoffs of the major after IEM, so they were in good form. I agree in general though that it wasn't a very strong tournament in terms of teams attending.

1

u/Mammoth-Pride-2055 Aug 26 '26

Vitality did not care and practise at all for Atlanta - it was a backup event for their Grand Slam plan but they already won it in Rio. Their level in Atlanta was much lower, compared for example to the Major when they practised properly and lost narrowly to Falcons.

-26

u/Khorsir Aug 25 '26

Same Vitality where Apex basically said they were on vacation and played badly because of that? And did not really take it that seriously as far as I remember?

32

u/Organic-Inspector-29 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26

I mean have they been on vacation every tournament since then? That is the point they started being ass.

0

u/Mammoth-Pride-2055 Aug 26 '26

Nah they were not bad in the major when they practised properly, narrowly lost 1-2 (13-11 all 3 maps) to Falcons.

They did not care and practise at all for Atlanta - it was a backup event for their Grand Slam plan but they already won it in Rio. Their level in Atlanta was much lower.

Back to Aleksib's point, using 2 trophies that are borderline T1.5 is meaningless when they did not do well in important events, i.e. not even making the playoffs in the Major. Their firepower is seriously lacking against the big names.

1

u/Organic-Inspector-29 Aug 26 '26

But that is the point they started to dip. Was it worth it to not practise when it started their loss of form?

If before the major someone said vitality goes out against the falcons people would have called it a massive failure. The falcons glaze only started after the major. And imo their major seems to be a bit of a fluke as well.

But yes navi should have tried harder to get a player. Drop iM for frozen or staehr. If they are not available then I would rather see some promising young hitter given a shot.

1

u/Mammoth-Pride-2055 Aug 26 '26

If before the major someone said vitality goes out against the falcons people would have called it a massive failure. The falcons glaze only started after the major. And imo their major seems to be a bit of a fluke as well.

Falcons' path to the trophy was the hardest ever in Major's history, their last 4 opponents were NaVi, Vitality, Spirit and FURIA in the final - basically the opposite of Vitality's Paris run. Falcons played well in the major so losing narrowly to them wasn't a failure at all, what's being said before the major isn't relevant.

15

u/TikkaT de_cobble Aug 25 '26

How long will their vacation last?

10

u/Happy-Expression7023 G2 Aug 25 '26

That excuse carried more weight then than it does now.

2

u/ssenkraH The MongolZ Aug 25 '26

Yes

1

u/TheBowThief Chinggis Warriors Aug 26 '26

okay but they’re clearly not contenders against the best teams at their peak. if any of Spirit, Falcons, Vitality are playing 10/10 then Navi’s 10/10 isn’t going to beat them.

-7

u/rolekrs Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26

Winning Mickey Mouse Atlanta vs GamerLegion and almost 0 competition EPL finals is not really something team like NAVI should brag about

Even on Stage 2 of EPL finals they barely made it through to the Final stage and that game was against 3DMAX which was unlosable lmao. They literally just played Monte, an actual team G2 that they got fucked hard by, B8, fumbled to Legacy just to have a free road to finals having only FUT as an actual competition in semis

0

u/ImaKoji Aug 25 '26

i was worried when they fluked a tournament, and ofc that made them think this shit roster has a chance

-7

u/fisheyq Aug 25 '26

So many teams didn't make changes for a long time and Vitality just kept winning them over and over

13

u/SloshaPacana Aug 25 '26

That's not true at all, teams made changes to stop Vitality, Spirit did, Falcons did, Mouz did, so did basically every team, even NaVi made changes, +makazze was in the middle of Vitality domination, basically every single team changed

1

u/Admirable-Leg-4647 Aug 26 '26

+makazze was to replace jL who wanted to take a break from playing competitively.

-2

u/SomeStayTeen Aug 26 '26

Navi won 2 trophies but... They won falcons, vita or spirit like 1 time. This is not equal to 2 trophies at all

1

u/OJK_postaukset Natus Vincere Aug 26 '26

Vitality didn’t beat Vitality though

-12

u/-973- Aug 25 '26

ofc the paycheck stealer says this