Replacing Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev was never going to be easy, but thus far, Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov has risen to the challenge. With a top four placing at BLAST Premier World Final 2023 now under his belt, the world is w0nderful’s oyster heading into 2024.
At the event, bo3.gg spoke to w0nderful about his level of experience, playing for his dream organisation, and NAVI’s road to becoming a top tier team.
We're here in Abu Dhabi, is this the best place you've been for a LAN event?
No... wait, yes actually, this is the best place I've been for a big LAN for sure.
Will you be sticking around for a little holiday?
No, I have to go home because my girlfriend is waiting and my parents will come.
Your first couple of events with NAVI have gone reasonably well, a 5th-6th place finish at Fall Final and a 3rd-4th place finish at World Final, so an improvement across the two events, does it feel like the team is constantly improving?
Yes, we are improving step-by-step, but we've still not spent enough time together, and we need more time for team chemistry. Next year it will be better, for sure. There are three or four steps before then, though.
When does that path begin for you? Is there anything before BLAST Spring Groups?
We have some RMR Closed Qualifiers and then BLAST, so we will play two tournaments in January, one online and one on LAN.
So in terms of the actual improvement then, what's the main thing you need as a team? iM told BLAST.tv that you aren't punishing teams enough for their mistakes, do you think that's the main issue?
I think it's not just one thing we need to improve, it's a lot of things, and one thing will be very important to improve for the next thing. Our communication and things like that compared to teams like Vitality needs to be improved. Of course, for myself there's also the understanding of the game, it's a big problem for me right now. I'm not super experienced, so I need to understand a lot, and I think we need to work on all aspects.
When you say about your understanding of the game, is that in a tier-one sense? You seemed to be fine in tier two.
Yeah, because when I played in previous teams I didn't understand everything, but now I've come here B1ad3 has started teaching me a lot of new things, a new understanding of the game. It's really important for me and it has a lot of impact in-game, when I understand all of it, it's going to be easier for me to play.
What are the main differences between playing in tier one to tier two?
I don't know, when I played in tier two with Sprout it was just very easy for me. I just know that I had better aim and I understood everything that was going on. I was preparing myself for the teams I was playing against, and it was so easy to play, I knew what they were doing, and I was just killing them. In tier one, every player understands and it's like mind games. You need to think better than your opponents, make decisions faster, and stuff like that.
You said you were just killing people, you're a very confident player, how good do you think you can become?
It's my goal to be the number one player in the world, that's been my main goal for as long as I've been playing. I think I can do it for sure if I have time and improve myself. Hard work pays off.
What's going to be the key thing to improve to be the best player in the world?
I think if we get some months to work on the team and prepare, and everything works well, every player in the team will feel comfortable and it will be easy to destroy everyone. When your team is doing a lot for you, you're doing a lot for them, you can understand everything that's going on on the map without many words. This is key to be really good and everyone in the team will be able to perform.
In terms of your performances with the team so far, you've settled so well that maybe it has surprised some people because at points you seemed very inexperienced on Spirit, were they maybe just not using you correctly?
I don't know. Everything was wrong after a certain point, it just went wrong in the team. I was playing well until then, but after that, it all went really bad and I wasn't playing well. I didn't feel my game, I didn't feel what I was doing, and I just didn't feel comfortable like I do here or I did in Sprout.
When you say you didn't feel comfortable, was that the team environment, or were you just in bad form?
I think it was a structure thing and how I wanted to play, I didn't feel comfortable like that.
So when you're feeling that way, how do you get back to comfort and play at your best?
For me, I think when you're not playing well, you just need confidence and when I have a lot of confidence I can do crazy things and crazy rounds and highlights. So that was one thing for me when I left Spirit and went to Sprout, the first games weren't so good for me but after that, I got confidence and realized I could do it, I could destroy everyone.
You said that playing in NAVI is a dream come true for you, has it settled in yet?
Yes, but I don't want to stop yet. When you reach some goals or dreams, you don't want to stop. If you stop then you are going down in terms of motivation. So for me, it's like, okay, I'm in NAVI, but now the goal becomes to win tournaments, to improve myself, improve the team, to do everything I can do.
Let's talk about your teammates, jL is a very fun guy and seems like the heart of the team, what's it like to play with him?
It's really good, and everyone on the team is fun and positive. For me, that's super comfortable and important to have such a good atmosphere in the team, that's what I like and I think we all like it.
In terms of Aleksib then, some people are very critical of him and his achievements, what's he like as an in-game leader?
He is the perfect IGL. In his past career he had problems, I guess, but I don't know what happened there. In my opinion, he is perfect, he understands the game on a super high level and he has good aim, he has everything. I think he will be the number one IGL in the next year.
He was m0NESY and headtr1ck's first IGL, sort of half yours too, what's he like in terms of helping you as a more inexperienced player in a key role like the AWP?
He's shown me a lot of stuff, even if I make a mistake he says "bro, you can do this like this instead, be more aggressive here, do it this way instead of that way and it will be better," he's always helping me, and it helps a lot because sometimes I don't see what I've done wrong or I think it's good but he says "no, you can do it this way, and it will be better" and I agree and think it's true, so it's super good for me because I'm improving so much with Aleksib and B1ad3, it's amazing.
So what's it like having B1ad3 as a coach, then?
It's wonderful to be in a team with B1ad3 [laughs].
People are now used to CS2, and they'll be getting more used to it next year, and so far Vitality and FaZe have been the best two teams, do you think next year it will become a top three and NAVI will be involved?
I don't want to say anything about what place we will have, because, for me, you can say it when you're the best, but not before. This game, CS2, is a huge different from CS:GO and for myself, it's going to be interesting in the next years because at the moment it's a bit more casual, CS:GO was a lot more about skill but this game, even when you're playing FACEIT, some random guys can destroy you easily. Although, I hope we will be at the top.
Do you think CS2 is easier then?
Yes, I think it's much easier for new players and for everyone.
Is it easier at the pro level too?
For me, it's easier at every level, but that might just be how I'm feeling.
A lot of people have moaned about it, but are you enjoying the game?
Yes, I have been waiting for it for a long time and I like it, they need to fix a lot of things still and there are things I don't like, but I can play the game and I like it. We'll see how they fix everything and enjoy our time with it.
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