Drin “makazze” Shaqiri spoke to HLTV ahead of ESL Pro League Season 24 about NAVI’s difficult second half of the season, the pressure surrounding qualification for the PGL Singapore Major 2026 and the work the team completed before Katowice.
NAVI currently sit 24th in the European VRS and have two tournaments remaining to improve their position before the Major invitation cutoff. Despite the situation, makazze said the team is trying to avoid thinking about qualification while playing.
NAVI try to block out Major pressure
NAVI have struggled for results since the start of the second half of the season, finishing 9th-16th at Esports World Cup 2026, 9th-12th at BLAST Open Porto and 7th-8th at StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026.
makazze admitted the Major situation is clear inside the team, but said focusing on it would only add pressure.
“If you think about it, you cannot focus on the tournament, because you will have a lot of pressure.”
According to makazze, NAVI’s approach is to focus on each tournament individually and earn qualification through their level of play.
“If we don’t show our best CS, we don’t deserve to go.”
He also acknowledged NAVI’s history of attending every Major and said it would be important for the organization to maintain that record.
NAVI spent more than ten days working on mistakes
NAVI prepared for ESL Pro League Season 24 with more than ten days of practice from home rather than holding a bootcamp.
The team focused heavily on individual mistakes that had appeared during its recent poor run. makazze specifically mentioned unnecessary over-peeks, but stressed that NAVI’s problems were broader than one type of mistake.
“We were also in a bad period. The team, overall, was not playing the best CS. We were not shooting either.”
makazze added that NAVI have also improved their map pool during the preparation period and plan to continue playing all seven maps.
makazze feels in better form ahead of Pro League
makazze also admitted that his individual level dropped during NAVI’s recent tournaments.
The 19-year-old said repeated losses made it harder to show his best game, but believes his form has improved ahead of ESL Pro League Season 24.
“Right now I would say that I’m in better form than last tournaments, for sure.”
He added that spending time away from competition helped him refresh mentally and said he feels ready for the upcoming matches.
For NAVI, ESL Pro League Season 24 represents one of their final opportunities to gain VRS points before the Singapore Major cutoff while also trying to end a run of disappointing tournament results.
