In his latest interview for Ryze, Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov shared his deepest feelings about relationships with his ex-wife, drug usage, abuse, NAVI kick, and others.
We translated the original interview.
Original Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h76uUUkwvP4
‘I met her on a call in March 2021. Right after IEM Katowice I broke up with my first girlfriend, she did not congratulate me on winning the tournament and I decided that it was the last straw. And I broke up with her because of this. Then I decided to, let’s say, relax a little. Sometimes it happened before, to be honest. I came to meet her, she immediately seemed to me an open person, some kind of affection appeared. I wanted to continue communication, but there was no love from the first day, I just liked the person and it was nice to spend time.’
August, public breakup, Instagram posts. Got together a day later. The video says that there was also such a precedent in September, but it did not become public.
‘I broke up with her a couple of times, it turned out that way. Most often, I did this so that a person thought about the seriousness of my intentions. my nervous system could not stand it and I tried a thousand times to clarify some points peacefully. and ended the conversations by saying that I was f-king tired.’
November 7. Boombl4 makes a proposal after winning the Major.
‘It’s a long story. It all started in Mexico, where we flew together. From that moment, we officially got together. Before the major, we broke up, although we moved into our first apartment together. I felt f-king awesome. I moved out of my parents for the first time and started living my life with a girl; I liked everything, and it was great. Pre-Major Bootcamp was on the horizon. And then she comes up and asks for a serious conversation. We just played a BLAST online group, everything was fine. And she says: we need to break up. I say, are you sure? Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that, and you just don’t do it again.
‘I’ve been monitoring her morale all week. The schedule was as follows: I got up and went to training, and she went to her son (from another man) in another apartment. In general, I would not say that I spent a lot of time with her child, but there were days when we went on walks together, or I came to her apartment. We met her parents. I understood that this was my new responsibility. I myself grew up with a stepfather, never saw my biological father. I know what it’s like to be a bad or good stepfather. And I wanted to be good for the kid.’
His teammates knew that Kirill would propose. Yet, S1mple on his streams said that almost everyone present tried to dissuade Boombl4.
‘That’s true.’
The proposal.
‘Before the bootcamp, we broke up. I moved out of the apartment, there was a bootcamp and a Major. Long time ago, I made a promise that as soon as I won the World Cup, I would propose on stage. It happened somewhere in Mexico. It was my man’s word.’
They did not communicate at the Bootcamp and did not communicate at the beginning of the Major. At the end of the Major, she began to remind Kirill about the promise.
‘She did not name the reasons [for the breakup], but over time I found out that it was her mother’s idea. She said that nothing good would come of us, we would have sick children, and so on.’
Kirill returned from the Major. A lot of dirt has spilled onto the Internet: people unveiled Lika’s past, including her job and photos and videos. She was shocked; her morale was crushed. She did not know what to do; there was too much news and hype.
Yet, they both denied these leaks.
‘Well, I can’t help but support a person in this situation. I tried to tell her to let go of the situation, and time will heal.’
‘I wasn’t high emotionally after winning the Major. But I wanted to make decisions in favor of my girlfriend, already my future wife. I loved her very much and believed that I would be with her until the end of my life, and therefore I made all decisions for her.’
About trips to tournaments:
‘I can’t know 100% if she was faithful to me. But I know that at the moment I proposed to her, I know that, let’s just say, I was not the last person to ‘spend time with her.’ She went to another man out of grief, out of happiness? I don’t know.’
On whether it interfered with the game:
‘She was a strong motivator for me. Tried to support. There were emotional slides, but in many ways I was supported by NAVI psychologists, Gleb and Marina, many thanks to them. They did a fantastic job, thanks to which we achieved such success last year and the team continues this year. When I came to the bootcamp and worked with the team, I gave myself completely, only in the evenings me and Lika corresponded, there were some text messages. Even without video calls.’
“In fact, she didn’t cheat on me. We broke up, then she went to another man, and then I proposed to her.”
“During one of our fights, she told me about it herself. Just for information, and I honestly was f-king shocked. Emotional, maybe. I don’t remember the specifics.”
About posting nude breasts in support of NAVI:
‘I didn’t know about it. It was her idea, she really wanted to support everyone, but I did not believe that it could happen. I can say that this is definitely not our common idea. she wanted the hype, she loves it very much. I saw this and thought, well, okay, have your hype.’
About selfies with Russian tanks and flags.
‘These were my most difficult days mentally. With the photo with the flag, it was like this: she shows that she took this photo. I say, don’t you dare post this. ‘Why?’ I said that it might reflect badly on my career. Two weeks go by; she’s posting it. I ask why; there is no answer, only tears, but I swallow it.”
About her past
‘I said that I want to buy an apartment, start dating her, and have her be done with it. But this also needed to be explained. She offered an open relationship, but I refused. I tried to change the person, invested in her with my soul. It was comparable to having a daughter, telling her about experiences, showing care, love, explaining what is worth doing in life, what is not worth it, that is important to learn from your mistakes. As Andrey [NAVI.B1ad3, coach] says, ‘You need to learn from mistakes, Kirill, analysis!’ So I told her the same. And in some moments she seemed to degrade, not learning from mistakes. I told her every time: please listen to me. And whenever a f-king disaster happened, she said: why didn’t I listen to you?’
About the divorce:
‘I made the decision myself. At some point, as a joke before we started dating, I told her: if I have to choose between my team or you, I will choose you. and this evil joke played against me. After I was kicked, she continued to act like everything was fine. and for me it was a blow. I lost what I’ve been doing all my life, my career, because of her. which she still denies. This was a big blow for me.’
About the drug usage video
‘Well, you saw the tests that I did. You can track them online. She said I was a drug addict. But this is not so, I have a very negative attitude towards drugs. Yes, I tried it once: it was when we flew to Mexico on vacation. I really didn’t like this experience.’
June 8. The Divorce Day.
This is the end?
‘Yes, yes. The last time we saw each other was when we were writing the contract and dissolution of the marriage. And after the ‘herring,’ I realized this was the last straw and went home.”
[Lika posted a video claiming she woke Kirill up by facesitting with her ‘herring’ smell].
Blackmail
‘She came [to the divorce center] with her mother. The day before, my mother communicated with her mother, asking her to come to the MFC [the divorce center] and do everything right. And Lika said: come without your mother, we are afraid of her. And my mother says to me: ‘what are you, a moron?’ So I took her. They don’t know what she looks like, so I put her on a bench near the MFC. Lika leaves her mother on the first floor; we go up to the second floor; she immediately grabs my phone and starts reading my messages. She does this for half an hour; then, I knock my phone out of her hands.
‘We sit next to a woman who is filing a divorce; I grab my phone, and people look at us strangely. At first, I asked: ‘what do you want to find there?’ There’s nothing to be found there. She is looking for some messages, she thinks that I am gay … I really have a close friend, but this is not it. At that moment, I consider her stupid. What for did I marry her if I’m gay? For cover?
‘She also blackmailed me with money. I don’t know what she can leak, what she has on me. In front of all the people, she shouted and trumpeted five million [$95k]. I’m already going to the first floor, I tell her mother to calm her daughter down. Lika starts to say: let’s figure it out for good. She grabs my gold chain, tears it, then my mother runs in, starts yelling at them too, the guard calls the police, and we scatter home.’
About the tooth:
‘I was lying at home, watching a movie, and she comes out of the shower, and I see that she has no tooth. She acts surprised, runs back to the bathroom, looks for it. It was an implant. Afterward, she wrote a statement to the police about domestic violence.”
How much money did he spend on her
‘There was no common property during our marriage. These statements are all fakes. Yesterday I looked in the bank’s application, how much I transferred to her card. This is approximately 28 million [$533k]. Part of it went to cover her mortgage, but otherwise to the needs of life, epilation, depilation, a beautician, her child, and clothes.
Learnings
‘You need to listen to friends, close family, relatives more often. but unfortunately, I acted with my heart, but now I understand that I had to with my head.’
NAVI Kick
‘I woke up, and Lesha ‘xaoc’ [NAVI CEO] called and said that I was no longer part of the team. I took it unemotionally. I went to Lika and told her, but did not say that it was because of her. And she doesn’t understand it. I told her to do all the posts on social networks through me. It didn’t work. I called my mom, and she supported me. I told my friends, and they were like: well, you know why this happened.
Looking forward to the tier-1 scene?
‘I want to go back by any means. There is a goal to continue playing, I am 23, I know the taste of victory. I want to win, to feel morality. No matter with whom, this is my dream.’
