Interview with NaVi performance coach Xirreth: ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s the top management, or if it’s a player. Whenever there’s a moment, or someone needs support, they’re always there for us. I think from that angle, NaVi is very special’

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Urszula ‘Xirreth’ Klimczak has developed somewhat of a cult following in recent times. The Natus Vincere performance coach has garnered praise from fans of the legendary organisation due to the displays of mental resiliency from the Counter-Strike roster, since her introduction to the Ukrainian org in October 2023.

2024 saw NaVi lift four tier-one CS trophies. Yet none of those trophies came without struggle. NaVi consistently recovered from difficult maps, tilting rounds, or severe deficits to lift the Copenhagen Major, EWC, ESL Pro League and IEM Rio in what was an historic year for the organisation.

We caught up with Xirreth straight after NaVi’s 2-0 defeat in the IEM Katowice 2025 semi-finals. ENUK asked Xirreth about how they can recover from the defeat and prevent negative patterns of thinking, as well as what makes NaVi special, job satisfaction, and female CS.

Commiserations for your defeat here at IEM Katowice 2025. A tough loss. How are you gonna pick up the guys after that?

I mean, it depends. We haven’t spoken about it yet. We just need to see what was happening in the game. Probably, we need to look into Mirage. Why there was a slow start and if there was anything else we need to do.

But I think overall if you look at the fact that it’s just the beginning of the year and we’ve had, since the beginning, every tournament, very tough opponents – we always have Spirit – I think we should be proud and we should look into the positives, like what was good and what could we do even better. 

Comparing to last year that was definitely a good start. So I don’t think we’ll be focusing a lot on it. For sure, finding some gaps is one thing, but the other thing is just like positive reinforcement into what we can do even better to make sure that the remaining part of the year is smoother, basically. 

Speaking more generally, it can be human nature for people to go over the negatives in their head again and again. For CS players, they usually think of rounds and what they could have done. So how do you break that cycle? 

It’s not like just one moment that you ‘just break the cycle.’ You learn how to think in specific moments and how to control your thoughts.

Since I’ve joined Navi, just more than a year ago right now, we always work a lot on thought control and how to make sure that the unneeded thought, the unneeded negative thinking, is not hitting a player at the most important moment.

So we’ll definitely look into if that was working. We definitely work on breathing, we definitely work on visualising. Also, in the morning we have a full preparation. That is usually a focus for the day for the boys, especially the important games. So I guess we’ll be looking into reviewing all of that. 

But I think overall, if you look at Dust II, I think the boys were spinning the game fantastically. I think the mental side was there. So probably we just need to look at all those tweaks, what could we do a little bit better to make sure we close out the next time we play Spirit. 

You touched on being a NaVi for a year. You had a very successful period at Ence as well. Is there something about NaVi that is different or special to you? 

Overall Navi is a very special place, with both players and staff. Everything we do here is very personal. The people that work here are very passionate and I think if you look at the NaVi as an org, it’s definitely a home of passionate people, both players and staff as well.

So the thing that is very special is that everyone that works around CS or Valorant. Everyone is like, you know, with their whole heart in it, and they always are very supportive, always problem solving. So, whenever something is happening, you can always count [on them].

It doesn’t matter if it’s the top management, or if it’s a player. Whenever there’s a moment, or someone needs support, they’re always there for us. I think from that angle, NaVi is very special. And if you would look into the work environment, they’re also very facilitating and enabling, so they’re not blocking any ideas and they’re open to suggestions I think.

From my angle, I can say that I have full trust from both the org, and the team, and the players. All the things we do, they’re just spinning the growth and that’s something that I’m super grateful for, because the support we have is insane.

As you touched on, NaVi doesn’t just compete in Counter-Strike. Do you find that there’s a difference psychologically between a Counter-Strike player or someone who plays Valorant or a different game? 

It doesn’t matter if you work in business, sport, or esports. People need to learn to cope with emotions in a very stressful environment.

And once we learn that, it doesn’t matter if you play Counter-Strike, if you play League of Legends or a mobile game, It’s still the same. You need to have that ability to learn how your body reacts to specific situations and then master the skills to learn that ‘whatever is not needed in a specific moment can be solved later on.’

So I think it’s all about how you handle stressful situations without looking into what kind of title you play or what kind of job you do, because it’s all the same. 

I’ve seen a lot of praise of you because of NaVi consistently showing the mental resilience to be able to fight back in matches. When NaVi lift trophies, do you feel the satisfaction that it was in part due to your work?

One thing is feeling it. And then another thing is hearing it from the players after the game. Sometimes we finish the match, we finish the tournament and they always come and they always say, ‘thanks to you, we did this’. Sometimes when we work in practice and I ask them to practice visualising a little bit more like trying to focus on the things that they want to be better at.

I think a lot of that is also contributing to the games themselves and they build through everything we do with their own resilience. 

Sometimes things don’t need to be said out loud, you just feel that you have that support. Especially if you know players come to you and pat on the shoulder or just say, ‘thank you’.

So I think we are all contributing the same. I think everyone has their part of the job to do and, as [NaVi coach] B1ad3 said at the HLTV Awards, everyone is equally important and everyone equally contributes to the team. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s a player on stage or if it’s an analyst. We have a fantastic analyst Viktor (flashie), who is working a lot to make sure that the team can read whatever they need to, or if it’s my side of the working on players’ mentality. 

I wanted to talk about women’s CS. Imperial Valkyries were at IEM Katowice 2025. How does it feel to see women represented at the top level of CS?

You know, I’m definitely proud, and on top of that, there are not many women around in the male environment. We have a couple of managers, we have a lot of women from the tournament organiser side and we always hang out, so for me it’s like an extra boost to have that.

Bit I’m not gonna lie. I always feel a lot of respect in tournaments. I think it doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or a guy, as long as you do your job well I think you can just be proud, and I’m actually super proud of being able to do the job and contributing as much as I can, [regardless of] gender. 

It’s good to have that support.

It didn’t happen this year, unfortunately, but how special would it be to win this event working with NaVi or another team as a Pole?

Yeah, I mean, it definitely was important. Once we qualified, the guys said, ‘we got Spodek for you.’

I’ve been in esports for like in 11 years but this is my first tournament at the Spodek Arena. I was always here on different projects [before]. Inside projects supporting ESL or Intel, but on stage, it was my first team that we actually got here. 

So it felt special. I even had a flag with me because I’m the only Pole that actually qualified and ended up in the semi-finals of IEM Katowice this year. So it feels very special. 

I’m not gonna lie, after the game, I had tears in my eyes because we didn’t go any further, but It is what it is. It’s a project. It’s the beginning of the season, so you just need to take the lessons and move on, and even though it stings, I’m super excited for what’s coming.

Darragh Harbinson

Darragh Harbinson is a freelance writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK as well as the likes of UKCSGO, Dexerto and Rush B Media.