GuardiaN: "Came with only one goal"

Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács talked to us following Natus Vincere qualifying for ELEAGUE Major playoffs in confident fashion.

Natus Vincere became the second team to qualify for ELEAGUE Major playoffs after Virtus.pro, winning all three matches without breaking a sweat.

GuardiaN sees Astralis and Virtus.pro as Na`Vi's biggest threats

After their last match against SK on Dust2, where Na`Vi won 16-3, Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács talked about the team's confidence going into the playoffs and told us who their hardest opponents will be.

A very confident group stage performance overall, only losing 12 rounds over the three matches, I'm sure that makes you confident for the playoffs...

Well, we came here with only one goal and that's to win the Major and we did everything for that. We showed that we have improved and prepared for the Major. It's pretty good that we won all three games on CT side, in each match we had 12 rounds as CT, so we didn't have to show anything on T side, and I would say that's a huge advantage for us in the playoffs.

I already talked to s1mple, but he didn't say much about your map pool, which was obviously quite shallow at the end of 2016. How much has it improved now?

I will be the kind of party pooper guy, I won't say anything, it's a secret and it's one that only we know. The teams will not find out until they play us, so I won't say anything about it, the teams will have to face us to find out.

Can you at least say if you're confident about your map pool?

I would say as a team, in-game leading wise, all five players, we're confident about all maps we have prepared.

You said you only came with one goal, to win the Major, who will be your hardest opponents?

We played SK, so I can't say SK anymore, because we beat them a lot, but of course they can come back in the playoffs if they win the last game. Still, SK, and I'd say the biggest threats will be Astralis and Virtus.pro. I wouldn't say anyone else, because we're confident to play all teams, and the hardest teams are those two, mentally and skill-wise. If we face them, it'll be quite a hard game.

Make sure to check out the other interviews we've conducted at the ELEAGUE Major:

Day three

Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen: "We had a great bootcamp"

Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer: "Didn't expect Dust2"

Day two

Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski: "I hope Gambit will be nervous"

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz: "It was important for us to start well"

Dennis "⁠dennis⁠" Edman: "[YOLO teams] will go far"

Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin: "It doesn't feel like we won"

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: "Gonna fight as hard as we can"

Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong: "Confident about our map pool"

Day one

Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey: "Everyone's happy with their roles"

Markus "⁠pronax⁠" Wallsten: "I'm happy it went to Train"

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire: "It was hard after jdm's 1v5"

Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev: "Hope to show beautiful CS"

Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski: "It's always close vs. OpTic"

Ricardo "⁠fox⁠" Pacheco: "We played 12-14 hours a day"

Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon: "FaZe can do pretty well here"

Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov: "We prepared for everyone"

Natus Vincere #9 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács Age: 25 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 849 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62 Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Age: 25 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 475 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.60 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 21 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 826 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Richard 'shox' Papillon Age: 24 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 1011 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.66 Markus 'pronax' Wallsten Age: 25 Team: GODSENT Rating 1.0: 0.91 Maps played: 939 KPR: 0.61 DPR: 0.66 Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong Age: 26 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 814 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.65 Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov Age: 22 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 140 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67 Spencer 'Hiko' Martin Age: 26 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 574 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.61 Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen Age: 22 Team: North Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 989 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.72 Ricardo 'fox' Pacheco Age: 30 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 503 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68 Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 771 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.65 Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski Age: 23 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 967 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Age: 23 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 909 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.71 Dennis 'dennis' Edman Age: 26 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 520 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.67 SK #3 Ricardo 'fox' PachecoGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski Age: 28 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1099 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.69 Virtus.pro #4 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' Bieliński Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Age: 19 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 501 KPR: 0.84 DPR: 0.70 Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey Age: 22 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 864 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.64