NAVI iM at ESL Pro League Season 19 – “Our goal is to have consistency”

NAVI‘s rifler iM is a curious case. After a barn-burner performance at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 with GamerLegion, he transferred to NAVI as part of a new international lineup. The transition wasn’t as smooth as he may have hoped, with a fair balance of lows and highs. In the time since he joined NAVI, iM has had to fight critics all the way, proving them wrong all the way to the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, where he became among the first-ever CS2 Major winners.

Ahead of the start of ESL Pro League Season 19 Group D, we got to chat with iM about his thoughts on becoming a Major winner, the tournament ahead, and the new map pool – let’s dive in!

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Daniel Morris: First off, congrats on winning the Major.

iM: Thank you very much!

What do you think was different this time around for NAVI to finally get over the line in a Grand Final?

iM: Oof, that type of question! To be honest, I don’t think, like… we were only in the EPL Final, right? We didn’t have a lot of Finals before. But, what was different? I don’t know. I don’t feel like it was anything different. We just, we were trusting each other, we were playing our game, our gameplan and then it worked out pretty well. The only thing that was different a bit, we were expecting to play Nuke at one point. I mean, it could have been the second or third map. But we didn’t didn’t play it and we are happy for that. FaZe was, and is, a very good team on Nuke and it would be way harder.

Daniel Morris: We saw obviously the celebrations at the airport when you returned home to Romania.

How did it feel to be welcomed home like that?

iM: Man… I was very tired. Very, very tired when I arrived. It was the same thing when I came from Paris, but now there was lots more people, plus television. I knew before because usually this thing is organized by a YouTube streamer, jaxi, and what he did in Paris – he basically blocked me on Instagram so I don’t see, and he did the same now! I saw it before – it was obvious as well and I knew that they were gonna be there. It was not a surprise. But it was good to see a lot of people just waiting for me to come home.  It… it felt very good.

Daniel Morris: It’s been almost a month since we last saw NAVI on the server.

Are you concerned about any sort of rust coming into ESL Pro League?

iM: I mean, I don’t know – we’re about to see. We had some online CS practices, and then that’s it. I don’t know. I don’t think we’re gonna be that rusty because we played a lot online. But it’s always different from LAN tournament to online tournament. We just have to see it I guess.

What have you guys been working on over the last month to ensure that strong form continues at ESL Pro League Season 19?

iM: I don’t think we… I mean, I cannot reveal what we’ve worked on a lot. Basically, we worked on some maps more than the others that we had some problems with at the Major, you know? Obviously, we added some new stuff because every time you need stuff. We just started from there, basically. We watched what we played at the Major and we started from there. From little mistakes, from what we did good, all of this stuff.

Daniel Morris: I’ve spoken to a few players so far who have said that ESL Pro League Season 19 isn’t the most important tournament in the schedule and that they use it to try a few new strats.

Is that something that rings true for NAVI? Will you be using ESL Pro League to try out some new things?

iM: We always say that EPL is kind of the best tournament to have after the Major because of the format. You saw G2, they lost two times… a lot of teams, they lost two times and still qualify to Playoffs. You can lose once, okay, you have the second chance. Okay, lose a second time, you have a last chance and you can still qualify, you know? Like, you can do a lot of mistakes and you can afford mistakes and then you can still qualify to Playoffs and probably win it. It’s less pressure, that’s why a lot of people say it’s good to try new things, because you can afford to lose.

Daniel Morris: We know that, obviously, after ESL Pro League, Dust 2 will be part of the map pool in place of Overpass.

What are your thoughts on the change?

iM: I mean, I think it’s a cool change. Probably not Overpass, but I’m down for every change, map-wise. If for some reason we’re gonna have a map change once every six months, or something like this, I will be happy. Changes are good. I don’t want to play the same map over, and over, and over, you know? I think Dust 2 is good although I didn’t play it for four years. In GamerLegion, it was the perma-ban, but I was playing a lot of pugs in it, so I’m down for it.

Do you think we’ll be seeing much of NAVI on Dust 2?

iM: I mean, it NAVI’s best map, no, from what I know?

Daniel Morris: Yeah. I know you played it a bit in Nexus.

iM: In Nexus as well, yes! In Nexus, it was one of the best maps for us. So yeah, most likely you’re gonna see it.

Daniel Morris: I do want to ask about w0nderful. So, you’ve actually played with him a little bit longer than you did with s1mple.

In your experience, what has been the big difference between these two players?

iM: It’s hard to compare them because s1mple has his experience, he’s one of the best who touched CS. Then you have Ihor (w0nderful), who is very young, is very talented. He played very good with this pressure on his back, coming to replace s1mple, which is kinda hard. I’m not sure if he realizes it or not, because he’s too young for it. Basically, in my opinion, you cannot compare them. Also, they have different playstyles. So yeah, kinda hard.

Daniel Morris: Just one more question to round it out. We’ve already seen NAVI win the Major in 2024.

What are your personal goals for the team for the rest of the year?

iM: I don’t think we set any goals after the Major. We didn’t have a bootcamp. We set our goals at bootcamp, as a team. But, probably, I think what I can say now is that our goal is to have consistency. To play our best, to try to play NAVI CS, basically.