After NAVI's hard-fought victory over NiP at IEM Cologne 2025, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen gave an exclusive interview to Bo3.gg. The captain discussed key rounds on Inferno, makazze's adaptation, and s1mple's transfer.

Alexi, congratulations on your victory. How are you feeling?

Feeling good, but the day is not over. We still have a best-of-three, and we don't have too much time to prepare. We're just gonna go eat in the hotel and play another match.

Will you make some more practice before the match? Maybe more warm-ups?

As I said, we're just going to go to the hotel, eat, and we need to come back here. That's it.

OK, let's talk about the game. What happened on Nuke? It used to be one of your best maps, but recently that hasn't been the case.

I think they are just a very good team right now on Nuke. They're feeling them.

We obviously just got a new guy. We swapped out some roles. Yeah, they just won us on the map. But in the end, we managed to win the best-of-three, and that's the important thing.

Was it the luck from a nap, or were they just better prepared?

I don't know. I think it wasn't luck. They played Nuke better than we can right now.

Okay. In my previous interview, B1ad3 mentioned that you're trying to forget the previous map results and approach the next one with a clear head. How difficult is it to actually reset mentally after a loss?

It's not that hard, but we need to show the new guy. And in my case, he hasn't been here in these tier-one events, and he might feel the losses more than the others. We need to show him that we can be better than that sometimes.

We might still be arguing after the first map, after the second map, but in the end, when the game goes live, we usually forget about everything and try to do our best.

How do you think, at what percent has makazze adapted to the roster? Maybe it's 50 or 100?

I think it's— I think really well, in terms of personality and what we usually want. It's just some maps and roles that he is still finding himself in. But I think he's doing very good. Maybe like 60 to 70 to 80%, something like this?

Okay, your performance on Inferno was absolutely dominant. What allowed you to shut down NiP so easily?

I don't think it was a specific thing. I just felt very confident on this map, and I felt very confident on the T-side, understanding what they usually want to do. And yeah, that enabled my game.

Was it good preparation, or did you just read them like a book?

I mean, we had decent preparation, but at the same time, as I told you, I felt super confident in all the moves I was making, so I think that was the most important thing.

What's the atmosphere like within the team right now? From the outside, it seems like with JL gone, there is no one who really leaves the team spirit mid-match. Is it true?

I wouldn't say that JL affected it at all. I think we had our struggles at the end of our lineup as well, where I felt like JL was also a bit exhausted. So I think we all need to do better.

It's not perfect right now. Everyone can chime in a bit more. And as I keep repeating, I think that we need to show a better standard to makazze so he doesn't— So he doesn't get used to a bad mood.

You've played several matches under the new economy update. How much has the extra $50 per kill impacted the game overall?

It's actually a nice change, and it impacts a lot of the economy. They can have more M4 buys. They can have more buys that are faster. I mean, they can buy M4s more when previously you really couldn't do it.

No, if you win the pistol round as CT and the opponents get the bomb down— Now you can at least buy some M4s, 'cause they're buying Galils. So it's a good change.

OK. And the last one — about s1mple. What do you think about s1mple's move to BC Game?

I think it's good for him too. He stated himself that he wanted to grind, and he finally found a team who bought him out, so I'm glad for him.