NAVI Parus: "I don't think there's a big gap between us and KC/G2"

For the third time this year, have made it to the LEC Playoffs. With a 2-1 victory over , the squad has punched its ticket to the final stage of the Summer Season, though narrowly failing to secure a top-four spot. Starting in the lower bracket, the Ukrainian organization will have to climb back up the gauntlet if it wishes to prove it is truly a force to be reckoned with, after having failed to get past fifth place in both previous splits this year.

In an exclusive interview, support player sat down with Sheep Esports to discuss the team’s current atmosphere, what NAVI can do in playoffs and how it fares against the top teams, as well as his goals for the future.

Polat "Parus" Furkan Çiçek: “I knew we’d qualify to playoffs, for sure. I expected us to beat GIANTX 2-0, seeing how we were playing scrims in the last few days. I’m really confident in the team’s level currently. I’d say we can get close to the top two teams— and . They’re still a bit better, but I don’t think there’s a big gap between us.

Today’s result against GIANTX was not really a surprise—though I thought we’d go 2-0 and lock in top 4. We were quite close, but my ADC inted it [laughs]. It’s okay—he got a bit frustrated that we were not fighting when we were really ahead. I kind of see his point. I still love him [laughs]. It was a good try. At least he showed confidence.

Parus: Vitality are definitely not on the same level. They’re a good team, but G2, KC are different level. The difference is in decisiveness in the mid to late game. I think that, because they have so much more experience and confidence, they see opportunities fast, they are fast at deciding, and they punish well.

They have this decisiveness and confidence that they can outplay you. It feels like they can do whatever they want in game—they will play in your face even when they are behind. It becomes harder to finish the game.

Parus: I wouldn’t say we are really close, but I don’t think there’s a gap that can’t be closed. Every team is inting right now. Even KC were throwing really hard against SK today, and they struggled against Shifters. Everyone is making mistakes. There are no teams that are playing to a level that isn’t beatable.

G2 have not been showing good performance in officials either—they lost with some pretty egregious mistakes against GIANTX. We’re also making some really bad mistakes too, but I wouldn’t say they’re untouchable.

Parus: I would say any of the non-top two teams can get third place. We are just a better team overall than we used to be, and everyone is making a lot of mistakes currently.

Last time, we had to face KC in our first and only match, and we still managed to take a game from them even if we didn’t play that well. There’s a bit of luck to it. Even if you do have to beat KC or G2 to win the LEC, if you have to face them in their second match after they got to warm up, you play at a bit of a disadvantage.

Overall, though, compared to last split, we play more champions, we know the game better, and we are a really strong early game team. We are capable of punishing every team. Most games we played this split had us in the lead. We won both early games against KC, and won one of them against G2. If we just capitalize on these leads, I don’t see why we couldn’t win against those teams.

Parus: To be honest, I'm not sure. I don't think there was anything special that was said. We just started playing better. We just started making fewer mistakes. We chatted a bit about the interview, but since I heard he was mostly negative in it, I didn’t read it. I didn’t want to be affected by it. We just focused on the games ahead of us and looked ahead.

Maybe TheRock was kind of sad when he gave the interview, and he said some stuff that he didn't mean to, or it came out of his mouth wrong. I don’t think he thinks of us badly. I would say he believes in us.

Our results from last week's scrims are showing in officials. Even though we don't win every game, I think we are showing decent performance. I'm proud of it so far.

Parus: Obviously, the goal is to go Worlds. We’d be really happy to achieve that, and I think we’re capable of it. We're just going to play our game.

Last year in BDS, I had way less confidence in the team and myself. The environment we had was worse, way worse. But right now, I'm happy. We are showing good performance. I'm confident in what we can do. We will just see who our opponent will be, play good League of Legends, and go to Worlds. That's the plan.”