jL: "Vitality are not an unbeatable team"

Justinas "jL" Lekavicius spoke with Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore ahead of the Major playoffs.

jL commented on the balance between tactics and firepower, his team's struggles against Spirit, and the similarities between this version of NAVI and last year's team.

You can watch the full interview below on YouTube, or read the full transcription underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity.

Welcome to the playoffs, jL. You guys made playoffs with a 3-1 record, taking down Nemiga, 3DMAX, and G2 with a loss to Spirit. How are you feeling about your run through Stage 3?

To be honest it was, I wouldn't say expected, but the teams that we beat we expect to beat. The team that we lost to, this time we didn't stand a chance against them, but usually we have a chance to win.

Obviously, you're talking about the loss to Spirit there. Why don't you think you had a chance against them in that particular match?

Anubis is a hard map for us and Train, it's a home map for us but we didn't show up and didn't win rounds that we're supposed to win. We made a lot of mistakes and got punished for it. That's why there was no chance.

Is there any explanation for why that happened? Was it due to nerves, lack of recent matches, or anything you can point to as to why you didn't play your game on that day? Is it something that worries you that might come out in playoffs?

No, it doesn't worry me at all. Sometimes, it happens, there's not much to it.

Looking back at your season up to this point, it's been somewhat of a mixed season. No big trophies taken home, which is a big difference from what we saw in 2024. What do you make of your season so far?

If you look back at 2024, we also had a slow start to the season and then our first trophy was the Major, so we might pull that one off, as well.

Looking at your individual performance, you had a great showing in Stage 3. You were the top-rated player on NAVI with a 1.1 rating over seven maps, so that's really good from you. One thing people are looking at in this tournament is that it's a matchup between firepower. In a world where we have ZywOo, donk, sh1ro, and s1mple, you're the highest-rated player on NAVI and 22nd in the HLTV ratings. Does that worry you that NAVI might not be able to match up with the firepower on teams like Spirit, Vitality, and FaZe?

First of all, we didn't have that firepower in 2024, and people still had ZywOo, ropz, donk, NiKo, m0NESY, but still we won the most trophies and the Major. I don't feel like that's a focus point at all. If we win the game, we win as a team, and if one of us pops off, that's nice. That's a good bonus. We always focus on the team.

Where do you think we are in the Counter-Strike ecosystem in the battle between tactics and firepower? Do you think we're more in a firepower era? Or do you think tactics will take the day with strong callers like karrigan and Aleksib?

No matter how good your calls are, the game will always have rounds where it's 3v3 or 2v2 and the team with the higher firepower or game IQ will win those rounds. Even with a disadvantage, if you put ZywOo and ropz in a 2v4 clutch, you should never count them out. The game revolves around tactics and firepower so there's a good balance.

B1ad3 gave an interview to HLTV before Stage 3 started where he said if we can win one out of ten times against Vitality, that's a good day for us. What do you feel about his thoughts on the one out of ten statistic and do you think you have a higher or lower chance of beating them than what B1ad3 speculated on?

As a pro player, I don't think you should look at the chances as too hard. If I say the chances to beat Vitality are 12%, how am I going to be feeling going into the game? You either win or you lose, your focus is to beat the enemy team and you shouldn't undervalue yourself. That doesn't matter. As long as you play your game and you have your emotions under control, you'll always have a chance of winning against any team.

Looking at that Vitality match, what are your thoughts going into it, against one of the best teams of the year so far?

I think they are the best team of the year. We're feeling good, we practiced against them, they're not an unbeatable team. They got the pressure off their shoulders of the win streak so, for sure, they're feeling a lot better. We just have to show up and play our game. We have to beat them as a team, we're not relying on a single player to pop off. They have this backup if they do fail as a team, but let's show a better team game than they do.

jL and NAVI will play Vitality tomorrow at 02:00PM in the quarterfinals of the BLAST.tv Austin Major.