b1t: "Before Pro League, we didn't win for two years. I'm hungry to win trophies"

Dust2.us writer Nathaniel "Gadj" Singer spoke with Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy of NAVI after he and his team beat Vitality in the quarterfinals at IEM Atlanta. In beating Vitality, NAVI broke a ten-match losing streak to the Bees and earned themselves a berth in the semifinal v. BetBoom.

b1t commented on beating Vitality, NAVI AWPer Ihor "w0nderful" Zhdanov's recent improvements, and his desire to continue to win trophies.

Find the video interview below with a full transcription underneath. All questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

How are you feeling after that game?

Feeling very good. It was a very enjoyable match and very emotional for us.

It was a pretty big win, you guys have played them a lot and this is your first win against them. What do you think went differently?

We made conclusions from our other losses and we did a lot of prep, we tried to fix it and it worked.

Even if Vitality have said they haven't practice a ton for this event, does it still feel like a breakthrough moment because it's been so long since you beat them?

For us, it doesn't matter that they didn't practice. It's the same team. Obviously, maybe they didn't have the best preparation because they won four events in a row. They are the best team in history. For them, it's not a big deal, but for us, it's important.

The core of the NAVI team has been together for a couple years, what's it like to play with the same people for so long and how do you feel it affects the team?

I'm not sure that we've had the same team always, because we have makazze now and we updated. We are not the same, so, good.

w0nderful has been playing a lot better recently. Did you guys change anything or has he just had a big uptick in form?

I think he he's feeling the game more than before. Basically, we didn't change anything.

You've already achieved a lot in your career. Are there any other big goals you have?

Before Pro League, we didn't win for two years. I'm hungry to win trophies.

Any final thoughts before your semifinal against BetBoom?

We'll come and try to show our best CS.

NAVI face BetBoom today in the IEM Atlanta semifinals at 04:30PM.