Former Natus Vincere coach Mykhailo “kane” Blagin has issued a statement provided to VPEsports following a bit of controversy about a tweet he made yesterday.

The tweet was interpreted by many to be claiming Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev was jealous of Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut with the former’s ex-coach rooting for Vitality in their match against mousesports. There were those who claimed it was a misunderstanding though and the translation to English didn’t match up very well.

Зная , о том , как ревниво Саша относится к ZyWoO , хочется увидеть именно французов в полуфинале. Топлю сегодня за них , mousesports ничего личного. — Mike (@navi_kane) October 4, 2019

He’s confirmed, however, that the word jealous is exactly the one he intended to use and stated while he could have chosen a “light” way to say he wanted a Na’Vi vs. Vitality aka s1mple vs. ZywOo match up, he made the conscious decision to take this route instead.

He goes on to explain that the competition between the two extremely high level players is something special and he only wishes to add a little something to it. “this is what adds a twist to the match, which will take competition out of the game to the next level,” he said.

Na’Vi will take on Vitality today in a best-of-three match to determine who will move on to the grand finals of DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019.

You can read the full statement from kane below:

“My tweet caused a controversial reaction in community so I decided to give some explanation. I saw a lot of negativity addressed to me on the topic of who I am, what I should and should not do.

But my post is not about that, but about the context of the tweet. When I wrote that message, I understood that a lot of people would see it and therefore it is necessary to filter what you write. I could write that I just want to see the Na’Vi vs. Vitality match in the semifinals to watch the competition between two, if not the best, then some of the best players in the world. In such a calm, light style. I decided to use a slightly different style and chose a word such as “jealous”. And as I understand it, it was this word that caused such a resonance, so I’ll explain what I put in these words and what they mean to me.



I picked up these words, starting from players who could compete not only for the team award, but for the individual. Individual reward is, first of all, attention and glory. Recognition of excellence among all players. Sasha himself said that ZyWoo was as close to his level as possible.



And in the community it is known that ZyWoo at his peak is equal to the army. Only ZyWoo can boast the same stability as s1mple. Therefore, their competition is something special, at least for me.



Moreover, we had a fundamental situation with Vitality, when we were late for training, and the French reacted very rudely. This was unacceptable, so the match was very important and we were waiting for this match up for a long time even when I was a coach.

And as for the word “jealous” itself, I’ll say that it does not exclude a respectful attitude. It just seemed to me at some point it was was most suitable word for this correspondence rivalry. And again, it does not interfere in any way, treats each other with respect and dignity. It seems to me that this is a normal reaction between people who are competing with each other.

In the end, I want to add that Counter-Strike does not need to deprive of bright colors and integrity of matches, it is not necessary to remove the sharpness of the matches. On the contrary, this is what adds a twist to the match, which will take competition out of the game to the next level.”

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