While the rivalry between Furia Fe and Nigma Galaxy may have overshadowed Womens’ CS:GO for a while now, NAVI Javelins have put in a strong performance thus far in ESL Impact Katowice to reach the final in front of their home fans.
We sat down with one of their stars Hania ‘Hanka’ Pudlis at the event to discuss their chances at bringing home the trophy.
Sam ‘AN1MO’ McKenzie: Congratulations on making the final, could you take me through the series?
Hania ‘Hanka’ Pudlis: We just won the Semi-Finals versus an impressive team, we’ve never played against each other before so it was pretty interesting and nice for us. We won and I’m really proud of my team.
BLIX: Does your preparation change when you’ve never played the team before?
Hanka: No, we are sure about our playstyle. We’re really comfortable, so we are ready for everyone and can easily adapt to new opponents.
BLIX: In the second map they won quite a few rounds in the second half before you won however many in a row to win the game, were you worried it would go to map three?
Hanka: Not really, we were sure about our strong CT side. The rounds we lost were more about our mistakes, we knew if we could fix them we would win it, and then it was quite easy on the CT side.
BLIX: You’re a Polish team playing in front of a home crowd, how much does it mean to make the finals?
Hanka: It means a lot, actually it was our dream before coming here. So for us, playing in the Spodek and in Katowice just means a lot. We are speechless when we hear the crowd and everyone is cheering for us.
BLIX: Do you think that will help you in the final?
Hanka: Yeah of course. To be honest, I have never played in front of such a crowd so it feels special, I think it will give us more energy to play and not give up.
BLIX: Does playing in front of a crowd like this for the first time give you more of a hunger to do this more?
Hanka: Yeah, 100%. When we hear this crowd we are just smiling at each other and it gives us a lot of energy.
BLIX: The next Semi-Final is Furia versus Nigma, they’re kind of like the number one and two teams. Which one of them would you rather be facing?
Hanka: I want a Final against Nigma Galaxy because they are the best team, and we want to go against the team at the top. I would look forward to playing against them.
BLIX: Nigma has been the dominant team for a while, do you think you will be the ones to stop that dominance?
Hanka: Yeah I think so, I’m pretty sure that now we are prepared to win against them, but of course, anything could happen.
BLIX: Why do you think it is that Nigma has been so dominant?
Hanka: I think they just have really good individual players, they are good individually for sure. They just have really solid gameplay, and that’s it.
BLIX: What does the women’s CS:GO scene need to continue growing?
Hanka: More tournaments to play, offline or online, it doesn’t matter. We just need more opportunities to show up across the whole scene, I think it would be really nice.
BLIX: I was talking to twenty3 yesterday and she said it was really difficult to get practice against men’s teams, how important do you think that would be?
Hanka: We are practicing against only male teams when we are training to be honest. So yeah, I think it’s the most important part because everyone needs the chance to train and practice versus better opponents.
