xaoc: "We decided to give B1T a chance to prove himself"

NAVI Operations Director Alexei "Chaos" Kucherov has spoken in an interview with Metaratings.ru about the team's plans for the remainder of 2021. According to the specialist, work is now underway to build a stable game with a six-man roster, and the ultimate goal is a championship title at the fall major.

 The CS:GO squad is going through a rebuild right now. Tell us, what are your goals for 2021 and what do you expect from the team?

- First and foremost, it is important to fine-tune the roster and the training process in order to consistently perform at the championships. The six-player system has many pluses, but there are still a number of challenges in implementing such a format. For example, the new Valve rules for RMR events. We are working to solve them, but it will take time.

We want to win all the tournaments, but it is almost impossible to do so now: the teams prepare very hard and carefully for their opponents. The main goal for the club and the players is to win the Major tournament. The guys will do their best to achieve that.

-What do you think about the replacement of flamie by B1T? What is Egor's problem and who suggested it in the first place?

- This is not a replacement in the usual sense of the word. Due to Valve's rules, we were forced to enter the lineup of five in the first RMR tournament. We decided to give B1T a chance to prove himself. After a few tournaments we will draw conclusions and choose the best format for our further development.

- In November we are going to have the Majors. Judging by the current trend, do you think it will take place in 2021 or will it be moved again?

- Practice shows that LAN events can take place even now. It just requires a lot of time and money from operators and teams. I really want this LAN to happen and we want all teams to get to the venue without any problems.

- Ilya m0NESY is already 16 years old. A lot of people think he needs experience playing in the tier-2 scene. Are you not considering the option of renting him out?

- We will try to help him prove himself and gain experience in the CS:GO tier-1 scene. But renting is obviously not the first option on the list.

- If you didn't have an academy, then you wouldn't have B1T. How hard do you think it would be for you to buy out a player?

- There are a lot of good players in the CIS. Right now, our region is generally tearing up everything alive on the tier-1 scene in the world. If you narrow it down to a specific role - it's harder, but there will still be options. So I'm sure it would just be another transfer, as has happened before.

- Share your opinion on dev1ce's move to NiP.

- Astralis have won so many tournaments. After that it is difficult to keep the motivation at the same level and to tolerate the bitterness of defeats, and it is impossible to avoid them. Because of that the guys simply had no chance to keep the lineup. Will it hurt the strength of the team? Absolutely. Is it a step forward for dev1ce? I don't think so. Will it strengthen NIP? Probably yes, although they've been playing so great together with nawwk lately. It's a bit unfortunate for him in the current situation.