Aleksib credits makazze and w0nderful ahead of Cologne

Natus Vincere arrive in Cologne for Stage 3 after finishing second at BLAST Rivals and winning IEM Atlanta, where the team defeated Vitality en route to the title.

Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen credited Drin ‘makazze’ Shaqiri and Ihor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov for recent late-game plays. Makazze and w0nderful each won their first career MVP awards this year — makazze at a Pro League event and w0nderful in Atlanta.

Aleksib linked the individual awards to increased confidence and improved execution in clutch situations. At media day he offered: “I hope w0nderful plays the same way here in the Major; it will be good for our team.” He added that the roster is winning clutch moments they previously lost and that having players who can bail the team out in key rounds is common among top teams.

The team prepared with a two-week bootcamp that included time in Barcelona. Na’Vi arrived on site four days before media day to adjust to lower ping and tournament hardware and to play practice matches ahead of the official games.

Stage 3 uses full best-of-three matches. Aleksib welcomed the change, saying BO3s require multiple map wins and give a clearer measure of team performance across a series. He expects early group-stage results to indicate which squads can reach the playoffs.

Aleksib identified Falcons, strengthened under karrigan, and Spirit, with donk in strong form, as teams to watch. He also mentioned FUT and Legacy as potential threats, noting Legacy have beaten Na’Vi twice recently. Vitality’s form after Atlanta will be observed during the opening days.

Na’Vi enter Cologne having practiced extensively since Atlanta. The team will play officials soon and aims to compete for a deep run in Stage 3.