s1mple: It’s interesting to see what G2 has to offer at IEM Katowice 2022 to beat NAVI

Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, an AWPer of NAVI, has spoken with journalists at the press conference for IEM Katowice 2022 group stage participants. The Ukrainian shared his opinion on a number of topics and, among other things, spoke about his desire to play against G2 at the ongoing tournament.

The parts quoted are the translation from our Russian website.

In Katowice, for me it will be interesting to face G2. They are good individually, but I don't think they are better than us. It's interesting to see not only how a given player performs, like m0NESY at his first LAN event, but also what this team has to offer to beat NAVI.

s1mple emphasized that his roster is slowly but surely getting back in shape after BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022, where they had a couple of unexpected defeats.

We had such a long break for the first time in a long time. After it, it is difficult to return to the level of play where we destroyed everyone and won tournaments. Of course, we need a little time. Especially since the first tournament of the year was online, and our team is good at LAN events. I think we get better every day.

Kostyliev also answered a question about his possible transition to the in-game leader role. According to him, this is only possible in the future, in case his individual level of play gets worse.

All the in-game leaders of NAVI are crazy. I don't want to be like that. Don’t you think, Boombl4? Jokes aside, I might think about switching roles over time, when my individual level drops. The duties of an in-game leader are very difficult. Everyone in our team knows how much time Boombl4 spends working with B1ad3. He also needs to deliver on the server. Maybe in five years I will become an IGL, but definitely not now. Now I can already suggest some tactics, but it is very difficult to manage the roster all the time.

At the end of the press conference, the AWPer shared his opinion on the recently announced merger of Europe and the CIS into one region for the Major-qualifying cycle. He considers this change positive for the representatives of his region.

I think it's a good decision. In 2020, I didn't understand why HLTV.org was awarding MVP medals at the European RMR event, which was held online. Were there all the best teams? That year, the CIS squads were destroying everyone. This is the biggest slip of 2020. Only after that did they start awarding medals at other RMR events.

In general, I am happy with the merger of the regions, because teams from the CIS will get a chance to play against strong opponents more often. For instance, Entropiq could not play against fnatic, Vitality or Astralis on a regular basis before. They gained experience only at LAN events. Now all our teams can get that experience.

NAVI’s debut at IEM Katowice 2022 is scheduled for Friday, February 18. At the moment, the opponent of Natus Vincere in their first match in Group B is unknown.

Origin: ru.csgo.com