B1ad3 on electroNic's potential as a captain: "Much higher than Boombl4"

Dexerto interviewed Natus Vincere CS:GO roster coach Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodensky. They asked Gorodensky what he thinks about the captaining potential of Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov, who took over the coordinating duties instead of the departed Boombl4. Many fans were surprised by this decision by Natus Vincere, and NaVi fans did not know how to react to such news. Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodensky said that they shouldn't worry.

According to B1ad3, Denis Sharipov has not yet been in stressful situations and it is difficult to say how he can show himself, but he considers the potential of electroNic to be very high:

We didn't have much time to practice[forBLAST]and we will need to see the mistakes that will be made in stressful situations in games. But the potential of electroNic as an IGL is much higher than that of Boombl4. He has a better vision of the game and more experience. It depends on how much effort he puts into it.

Previously, Ukrainian star NaVi s1mple said similar things. Kostylev also believes that Sharipov has more ideas than Boombl4 and a better understanding of the game.

Supervising Natus Vincere is nothing new for electroNic. ESL Pro League Season 13 began with the team playing under the leadership of Denis Sharipov. This period did not last long in the life of electroNic, as soon Boombl4 came and took over the position of captain.

The difference between what was at ESL Pro League Season 13 and what will happen now lies in the approach to business. In the EPL, Sharipov did not treat the game as a full-fledged in-game leader, but said something like “Let's try”. For this reason, electroNic did not give himself up to his role, as he knew that the team could always return to what they were doing before.

According to Andrey, electroNic will work more on his new role:

Now the situation is different, more serious approach. Now he has to work harder on his role. His desire, his ambition was to try to become a leader. He said that he had a vision and that he knew how to lead.

We didn't ask him to do it, like, "Please, you have to do this for the team, you have to sacrifice yourself," because if you do that, the squad won't have a good future. But if he wants to do it, it's worth a try. I think he just needs time.

In esports, it is often said that the main stars of the teams cannot be captains. After they shift the focus from their personal performance to the team as a whole, esports players start to show poor results and the whole team suffers from this. So NaVi want s1mple to keep showing great individual results, with Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov taking over as captain.

B1ad3 said he was not worried about the loss of Sharipov's firepower, as the rest of the players, including the fifth undecided member of the roster, would make up for it:

I'm not worried[aboutthelossofelectroNic]firepower. This could come from a new fifth player, from b1t, or from Perfecto. As soon as we know the composition that we will have, we will start working in this direction.

According to Gorodensky, the new captain of NaVi can shine just like gla1ve did in Astralis in his time:

But electroNic can be something like gla1ve. It cannot be said that he was in anyone's shadow during the heyday of Astralis. I think he made a huge impact in terms of firepower. I think electroNic could easily be that IGL. Not like Karrigan, not like Boombl4. It can be like apEX.

B1ad3 also said that it is important for the team that the new captain is a person who already knows how the Natus Vincere system works:

We are trying to do the same. The IGL must be someone from our system. Our players are much easier to control someone from the system. If we took someone from the outside, it would be difficult, we would need to explain the system to this person, or he will bring his own system. It's doable, but plan A is for one of our players to take the lead.

The first attempts of electroNic to lead the team were crowned with success. Although Natus Vincere lost in the debut match of BLAST Premier Spring 2022 Final in the fight against OG with a score of 1-2, after that they won a landslide victory in the confrontation with BIG with a score of 2-0. Now NaVi have reached the quarter-finals of BLAST Premier Spring 2-22 Finals, where they will fight with FaZe for reaching the semi-finals, where they will be expected by OG. According to HLTV stats, electroNic currently performs with an average rating of 1.07.

Natus Vincere are prioritizing the growth of electroNic as a captain, rather than the specific results of NaVi in this event.

Gorodensky believes that it directly depends on electroNic whether Denis will be able to become an excellent captain or not:

It's a matter of adaptation. I think he needs to set himself the goal of becoming a great IGL and that's it. He has everything.