Captain of the NAVI roster, Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, shared some insights in an interview with HLTV.org regarding his team's defeat to FURIA in the group stage of IEM Rio 2024 for Counter-Strike 2. Thanks to this victory, the Brazilian team advanced directly to the semi-finals, while NAVI moved on to the quarter-finals.
"They're playing well at the moment, and today they were clearly at a high level. They constantly posed challenges for us on Nuke, especially at the start. We equalised, I think, to 10-10, but they took the most crucial rounds. That carried on to Mirage; they changed something in their attack, and I just felt that they played much stronger than us today."
The Finnish esports player also commented on how the defeat to G2 in the final of the recent BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 in Copenhagen impacted them.
"I think the biggest impact on us was winning the EPL and then losing the final in Copenhagen a week later. It felt like we hadn’t won anything, as if everything had been taken from us.
That's the level of competition in CS right now when you’re playing in all these tournaments. But yes, we are here to win, and of course, this defeat sends us to the quarter-finals, but that's the game. We will still be performing on stage, and that is nice. It's just that now we are backed into a corner."
As a reminder, IEM Rio 2024 takes place from October 7 to 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a prize pool of $250,000. The winner will also receive an invite to IEM Katowice 2025. In the first rofund of the playoffs, NAVI will face Virtus.pro.