nafany: "Of course, we want to return the favor and beat NAVI"

The meeting with NAVI at ESL Pro League Season 14 is one of the most desirable playoff options for Gambit, says in'game leader Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov. During a press conference dedicated to the beginning of the decisive stage of the prestigious league, he also shared his opinion on the current HLTV.org ranking, where Natus Vincere have been ahead of his team for more than a month.

The parts quoted are the translation from our Russian website.

It's too early to talk about what we expect next on the bracket. It still remains unknown who we will play against in the next match. First of all, we will focus on the meeting with Vitality or Complexity. Let's see what happens in the bracket.

When it comes to NAVI, they have not been on top for so long. NAVI won Cologne, then there was a break, and the guys were top-1 for a month because of the victory in one tournament. This is a fact. I say this with all respect to NAVI, who were objectively stronger than us at the last tournaments and deserve their first place, but last month they actually got a free ride. Again, this is not a problem of the team. It's just the way the world works. Of course, we want to return the favor and beat NAVI. This is a good, strong team. If it doesn't work out at this tournament, it would be cool to play them somewhere else.

nafany has rejected claims that his words about NAVI are a manifestation of envy or regret about the unfairness of the teams' position in the world ranking.

A feeling of unfairness? No, not at all. Look at HLTV's ranking with the main influence being the points over the last three months. If we look at our results and NAVI's during this time, then Cologne should have decided everything. If we took, at least, the second place there... But okay, we lost. It was really difficult to win against NAVI at the LAN event. If he [s1mple] plays the way he did, there's no chance at all. A lot of points for the victory make sense. NAVI's first place is fully deserved.

I was surprised when I saw that they overtook us also in the ESL ranking. I thought we had a good lead there. After Cologne, they got either 600 or 800 points. I was like: "LOL, is it possible to get so many points for only one event?" But, again, this is not a complaint against NAVI or some kind of insult, but it was surprising.

NAVI and Gambit have been the leaders of HLTV's ranking since early May. After IEM Cologne 2021, Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov's team replaced nafany's roster as a leader and remains in first place at the moment.

It should be added that the encounter of Gambit against the best team from the Vitality - Complexity matchup will take place on September 10. In case of victory, the opponents of the CIS team on the way to the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 14 can be OG, mousesports or NIP.

Origin: csgo.ru