We spoke with Zayac, a player of NAVI Junior, about their second-place finish at the recent tournament, the team atmosphere, his role as captain, and his transition from the main NAVI roster. In this candid interview, he shared his thoughts on the development of the young team, compared its potential with the main roster, and discussed his plans for the future.

Let’s start from the recent news, since you joined the team, NAVI Junior got second place. Any particular thoughts after the event? Are you satisfied with your performance at that particular moment?

Yes, I’m satisfied. We got second place. To be honest, I was ready to enter the tournament because I felt like there was only a few teams like Talon, Secret, Aurora, Yakult Brothers - but Secret and Yakult Brothers, even Aurora, feels like a stack and not a real team. Only Talon was like a real like opponent in the tournament. So we could beat them, but at the finals we just didn’t have good drafts. And it was a long day for us, 7AM and we started playing grand finals at 10PM, so it was a long day and we trolled that finals, so that’s why we got second place.It wasn’t like a real battle in grand finals.

Speaking about NAVI Junior after you came into this roster, how can you describe the general mood in the team?

At first, they’re very young and it’s very fun because it feels like home and like, memes. Sometimes it’s too much because it doesn’t help to grow as a team, but anyways, it’s a good atmosphere. I like it and other players said to me after the LAN they liked when I came to them to start talking about Dota more, to share about information. So it’s all cool, because they are young and they are ready to make new moves and strats. And I also feel a bit younger with them (laughs)

In the community, there was a bit of like, nervousness, let’s say, because NAVI Junior was on an uphill for quite a while and people are afraid I’d say that you will come and destroy the composition within the team. Have you felt any kind of reservation when you come into the team? Anything you wanted to prove, to achieve?

My main thing that I was thinking when I came to this team was how to show their talent because they’re kind of young. They have some signature heroes like Timbersaw, Primal Beast.. It’s not in the meta but they keep playing it and I like to ask them and try to tell them to realize their skill (potential). My main point when joining NAVI Junior is to be a real captain and it’s kind of hard to be the captain while speaking English, and you have to do it because English is the main right now - so when I joined this roster I was ready to be a real captain although I speak mainly Russian for now because I can speak English but it’s not that good.

Talking about NAVI main roster, after you stepped down from it, have you considered that as a “step down”?

No, because I just - well, one and a half year ago when I was thinking of coming back, because I have like I already thought about maybe joining Team Spirit Academy or something like that, and start playing with really young people because anyways, young people are talent right, they have some new skills. And for me, I grow up because I believe in these guys in our team, they can grow up. And Im very sure young people can win big tournaments. They just need old guys like me, old I mean in Dota profession, because you need some experience and teamwork. I really believe in our team, so we can grow up and be TI winners. We just need a bit of time, and let’s see.

Since NAVI Junior is like stepping up every day, and second place in the first tournament after change in the roster is really good. It’s hard to build comparison between NAVI Junior and the NAVI main roster. So because you have played in both, can you compare the powers of the rosters? The potential of the roster, is there a point where these both teams are kind of equal?

I’m sure we can beat the main roster easily. I’m sure because nowadays - at first it’s kind of hard to speak about main roster because they changed a lot of people. There is no Yuragi, no me, a lot of people so it’s kind of hard to say whatever. But if you’re speaking like - I can vouch for last roster. So we had a lot of roster problems and we keep changing players so I don’t know how to compare. But I feel like in NAVI Junior, every position on 1-3, they can win this game. Maybe they’re not good at communication but if they have a good net worth in the game, they can win the game. So, it’s kind of very hard to compare.

In 2024, it was a very bumpy road for you guys. Like 2 events, with a bunch of open and closed qualifiers. After you stepped down from the roster, do you have a realization what were you struggling against and what went wrong exactly?

I felt when we changed our roster and Yuragi and joined our team, it was kind of a good roster. At that moment we felt we were good in TIs, like we won first qualifier in Dreamleague. We didn’t feel that good when we lost qualifiers for Riyadh and TI, if you’re in both tournaments it’s kind of good for you. 

Let’s talk about both qualifiers separately. In Riyadh qualifiers, everything went down between you and Virtus.pro. So what went wrong and how did the qualifier affected the roster at that time?

For me, we came to bootcamp to play DreamLeague at first and right after, we already played for 2 weeks. We played Riyadh Qualifiers like a week after DreamLeague. We did well at Riyadh quals, we played in the final against Virtus.pro, I don’t know but I lost my captain draft and I feel bad because some have been sick. I have been sick and some guys at bootcamp has been sick. And it was kind of hard because when you’re unhealthy it’s kind of hard to sync because at one point, at one moment I lost my captain’s draft because some people started saying like I should change something, maybe it’s gonna help, and for sure at the moment it was a good idea, to get some buff. But for myself it was, I lost my power, you know. After we lost in that finals, and when you lost your draft because it was forced by other people, and you start being annoyed. You start overthinking and I didn’t push my opinion too much. I started not playing good. 

I then realized during the time we had a bootcamp near to Barcelona, and we had a day off, I realized at that moment that we have played 25-29 days not even having good chill days. Just burned out. Too many works, we played six scrims, six days in a  week, we didn’t even go outside. After spending that much energy and you lose, it’s kind of hard to keep playing strong. And that’s why we weren’t a good team after Riyadh quals. We didn’t have a lot of day offs. I’m sure every player wasn’t feeling in good shape.

Have you felt like your teammates doubted your mindset, thought process, drafts, etc? 

Yeah, they forced me to not draft during the start of joining NAVI. Of course it was kind of, it affected me for sure. It’s kind of hard when you start losing trust in your teammates and yourself, it’s very hard to reset it. 

What was your thoughts on your team stack and performance during PGL Wallachia?

From last roster, we saved only me and Yuragi. BOOM joined like one month maybe before PGL, he was also a new player for us. After we had VISA problems and had to find a stand in for pos 5, we were also thinking who to join us. So it was like a stack, not a real team.

Can you share a bit your experience playing with Puppey?

He knows Dota very well and he knows some basics. What can you say, he’s a captain, he has strong opinions he wants you to follow. It was kind of good because we find some moments and strategies together which we liked. We just tried to mix energy. And we haven’t even played one scrim with bzm, we just welcomed him and was like “Hello bzm let’s go!” So at the moment we just played Dota and that’s it. It was quite a good result but in my opinion we could’ve gotten a top 3 or 2 maybe. That LAN I remember HEROIC was very good, Falcons was kind of bad for their standard and I felt we could beat them, and Tundra was an interesting team, they had some distractions. That’s it, only those three teams were like real opponents and others were kind of beatable easily. That’s why we got to 4th play. We had some chance to go to final but it didn’t happen.

Have you ever felt like after 9 months of qualifiers and no results, you feel like you can’t take it anymore?

For me, personally, I always know I’m a LAN player. If I come to LAN, I like the energy. I like the sportsmnanshuip, everything is good and I feel very well. Even during DreamLeague, I wasn’t happy because it was an online tournament it’s not LAN, we’re just playing from bootcamp and that’s it. But during LAN you have the energy, you play in the arena, or something like that. Some people start choking, but for me it’s always more energy to show myself. 

Let’s talk about the future, do you have any sort of expectations from the main roster, from an outside perspective right now, after seeing them play in ESL One Bangkok? 

I didn’t watch too many games from ESL One Bangkok, but I did a few from NAVI. They didn’t show their best heroes. I mean, for sure they fucked up right, they didn’t go Playoffs and my opinion is they didn’t show their best heroes and strategies. Because I know sanctity plays good Lina and Tiny but the main point is they may not have the best training. Because success in Dota.. in Dota it’s more about your training session, how you train and prepare. I don’t know what they trained and their ideas, but I didn’t like their drafts in some games. 

What expectations do you have from your roster and the main roster for the next season?

I don’t have expectations for the main roster, I just want to have more wins that them because - and for my team, it’s always the same. We want to play TI, we want to play Riyadh. Next expectations, I know we’ll play like 3 qualifiers in January and I want to win at least 2, and of course it’s like good for a minimum win of one, but it’s always good to take 2 quals. But anyways, the main point is always to qualify for Riyadh or TI right?

Do you feel as a player and former player of both rosters, do you feel the competitiveness that you have to score more than the main roster.

For sure (laughs). First motivation is always to be better than your ex teammates or win against your ex teammates. Of course I want to win more than them, but it’s not a main goal for me or our roster. Of course we just want to win quals.