Sep 6, 2026 · 2 hr 18 min · 16 segments
Thorin and Mauisnake are joined by Paladin to unpack why NaVi look more miserable than they have in years, how Falcons ran out of maps, and the moment North American CS quietly ran out of prospects…
Alex EllenbergHostPaladinGuestYeah, we've talked about Na'Vi on the show quite a bit, or at least I've heard of it.
And I mean, I think it's a very obvious situation that's going on.
But for me, I think the body language is what's most worrying to me.
It's like the players that are trying to be molded and become better, players like Mikaze, wonderful to maintain superstardom.
I feel like they require even better environments than, you know, like a player that's more storied like Alexi or a player that's like seeing already some difficult rosters previously as far as like culture goes with like Bit and some of those previous, you know, CIS rosters of Na'Vi that we had of old.
So I feel like that is what's really worrying to me is that the culture of something that was, I think, really touted as one of my favorite orgs from the bird's eye view of like, okay, Blade and Alexi is a combo that I would like to see for years because they foster such a tactical environment and an environment that breeds, you know, the parts are better together rather than separately.
That idea is very exciting on paper, but when... you know, the body language is off base.
You know, the map pool isn't going in their way.
You know, individuals aren't necessarily popping off.
I think you just need to be able to foster a better environment altogether.
And I just don't see that.
And this is like the first time in a long time, I feel like for Navi as an org to look this miserable from like a outside looking in perspective.
I don't know if you guys have seen that more so in the behind the scenes, but for me, that's kind of how I see it whenever I see the moment to moment.
It's like they could be up a map And they could still look a little questionable in kind of how they're operating.
And that's what's very worrying to me in the long run.
Na'Vi, to me, have realized that they're running on the fumes of what 2024 still has.
And now you're seeing players and even the way that previous players are expressing their feelings about Na'Vi is that it's almost like they're working through a relic of what was a good system.
And what's funny about watching Na'Vi today is that they, this is just an eye test feeling thing, but when watching some of their games at Blast, for example, they almost play better when it's just Tech Nines and Deagles versus when they actually have to construct a real T-side round that is, and that just kind of is to me because everybody knows what's coming.
tells me that teams have studied Navi to the point that they understand without a shred of doubt what's coming next.
Whereas before, it was a system that created misdirection, that applied pressure in multiple areas, and then you didn't really know who was going to be the first person to strike.
Is it going to be Bit from Palace? Is it going to be Ema from Connector with Alexi? Is it going to be...
somebody else from ramp is gonna be like jl or something you never really knew but now teams are just saying okay well you're constricting us in this very specific fashion that we feel it so we're gonna react with ways that we know have been counters and i now i almost just the the fact that navi has oh what's the number i wish i knew it off the top of my head but it's something like Like, seven out of the eight last map picks they've made for themselves, they lose them.
Just says, and yet, they are going frequently to three maps in the series that they're playing.
Yeah, we've talked about Na'Vi on the show quite a bit, or at least I've heard of it.
And I mean, I think it's a very obvious situation that's going on.
But for me, I think the body language is what's most worrying to me.
It's like the players that are trying to be molded and become better, players like Mikaze, wonderful to maintain superstardom.
I feel like they require even better environments than, you know, like a player that's more storied like Alexi or a player that's like seeing already some difficult rosters previously as far as like culture goes with like Bit and some of those previous, you know, CIS rosters of Na'Vi that we had of old.
So I feel like that is what's really worrying to me is that the culture of something that was, I think, really touted as one of my favorite orgs from the bird's eye view of like, okay, Blade and Alexi is a combo that I would like to see for years because they foster such a tactical environment and an environment that breeds, you know, the parts are better together rather than separately.
That idea is very exciting on paper, but when... you know, the body language is off base.
You know, the map pool isn't going in their way.
You know, individuals aren't necessarily popping off.
I think you just need to be able to foster a better environment altogether.
And I just don't see that.
And this is like the first time in a long time, I feel like for Navi as an org to look this miserable from like a outside looking in perspective.
I don't know if you guys have seen that more so in the behind the scenes, but for me, that's kind of how I see it whenever I see the moment to moment.
It's like they could be up a map And they could still look a little questionable in kind of how they're operating.
And that's what's very worrying to me in the long run.
Na'Vi, to me, have realized that they're running on the fumes of what 2024 still has.
And now you're seeing players and even the way that previous players are expressing their feelings about Na'Vi is that it's almost like they're working through a relic of what was a good system.
And what's funny about watching Na'Vi today is that they, this is just an eye test feeling thing, but when watching some of their games at Blast, for example, they almost play better when it's just Tech Nines and Deagles versus when they actually have to construct a real T-side round that is, and that just kind of is to me because everybody knows what's coming.
tells me that teams have studied Navi to the point that they understand without a shred of doubt what's coming next.
Whereas before, it was a system that created misdirection, that applied pressure in multiple areas, and then you didn't really know who was going to be the first person to strike.
Is it going to be Bit from Palace? Is it going to be Ema from Connector with Alexi? Is it going to be...
somebody else from ramp is gonna be like jl or something you never really knew but now teams are just saying okay well you're constricting us in this very specific fashion that we feel it so we're gonna react with ways that we know have been counters and i now i almost just the the fact that navi has oh what's the number i wish i knew it off the top of my head but it's something like Like, seven out of the eight last map picks they've made for themselves, they lose them.
Just says, and yet, they are going frequently to three maps in the series that they're playing.
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