kassad: “makazze isn’t a star; he’s simply nowhere to be seen in the most important games.”

I’m willing to agree that NAVI needs changes. Why not? Let’s take a look at the team’s season. I wouldn’t call it a complete success, at least because of their latest result at the Major, but it was still pretty decent. At one point, they were the team closest in skill level to Team Vitality, but at IEM Cologne, it all fell apart. Why did that happen? I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll say it again: the team lacks a star player. makazze isn’t a star—he’s simply invisible in the most crucial matches. This was very evident in the match against Team Falcons. b1t has always been the closest to that status—and no one else—ever since s1mple left. I can imagine replacing iM with frozen; that might be a good solution. But cutting Aleksib? That’s just plain stupid. It would mean that you’ve spent a long time building your team only to cut the person who leads it. Then you’ll bring someone else in to replace him—and what then? You’ll have to teach him all the same things all over again, spend the same amount of time—and for what purpose? I don’t get it. b1t and Aleksib should be safe, as should w0nderful, who had a fantastic last tournament. But the other two players—that’s up in the air.

My opinion of NAVI changes as I watch their matches. Based on the last Major, I’d say the two main reasons for the team’s failure, in my view, are the two people from whom I least expected a setback. CS is just that kind of game where so much depends on your current form. If you look at makazze’s performance, it’s absolutely fair to say he was a liability. He played his worst tournament for NAVI in his career, and it wasn’t even a matter of pressure—after all, he’d had to face top-tier teams before—it just turned out that way this time. The second player I wanted to see do more at this championship was B1ad3. It seemed to me that his pick in the final series was very weak. I can’t imagine why he decided to pick Inferno when Ancient was available. You can say whatever you want about makazze, but on that map he’s simply a god and has rightfully been considered one of the best on it ever since he joined Natus Vincere. So, I think the blame for the elimination in the third stage lies entirely with the captain or the coach, depending on who specifically made the decision regarding the map pick.

I’m willing to agree with Maui that B1ad3 messed up in that series, even though that’s not like him. In general, if you look at NAVI’s coach during this tournament, even his body language made it clear that something was off, especially during timeouts. Both he and the team looked as if something was off, even though they’ve typically never had trouble handling such situations throughout the season. B1ad3 is, overall, one of the best coaches in CS history, especially when it comes to timeouts. He knows how to calm his players down, knows how to make the necessary adjustments on the fly, and knows how to change the pace of the game. And none of that was there in the Major matches. But if there’s one thing I have no complaints about, it’s the team structure. I truly believe he’s done an incredible job building this team. As for transfers, here’s what I have to say. I don’t think makazze needs to be replaced—at least not yet. Yes, he didn’t perform well at the tournament, but it was only his second Major of his career, and he played respectably in his first one. He needs experience—more experience. After all, he’s an academy player and is still learning, so it’s too early to pass judgment on his professional potential at this stage. I don’t even see the point in discussing b1t—he’s really the only one who can be called a star player on this roster. But the option with iM seems logical to me, and this discussion has been going on for more than a year now. There are plenty of players ready to play his position who would sell their souls just to be on the current NAVI roster: frozen, Senzu, even EliGE. And, most interestingly, each of them, if they replaced iM on the roster, would undoubtedly say that no further changes are needed and would simply go on to win trophy after trophy.