CGN Esports: The villains of VCT EMEA Ascension

Navid ‘Kapio’ Javadi, the head coach of CGN Esports and a former Counter-Strike champion, spoke with Dexerto about his unusual Valorant system and his team’s hopes for EMEA Ascension.

Kapio switched from Counter-Strike to Valorant very early on in the esport’s life cycle and has been with CGN for almost the entire time. The German coach is a tactical FPS veteran who enjoyed a trophy-laden CS 1.6 playing career before he moved into coaching in CS:GO.

As a player, Kapio won multiple international events, including IEM II, WSVG 2006, IEM III Global Challenge Dubai and the IEM IV European Championship. He played for two of Germany’s most famous teams in history, ALTERNATE aTTaX and mousesports.

Kapio retired from competition in 2012 and transitioned to a coaching role three years later with mousesports. There was a brief spell as an assistant coach with BIG.

Speaking with Dexerto, Kapio said that his dream was to create an all-German Valorant roster, like the ones he had played on.

While that dream has not come to fruition (CGN has four players from Germany and one from Serbia), Kapio has led the squad to EMEA Ascension, where the team will have the chance to qualify for the VCT EMEA league.

“Our grand goal is to win Ascension. This was the goal at the beginning of the year and we are not done yet,” he said.

The squad won both splits of the Valorant Challengers DACH: Evolution and was the first team to qualify for Ascension. Instead of relying on mechanical outplays or set executions, Kapio said his Valorant system is to have no system.

“F**k strats,” Kapio said.

His coaching philosophy is to make sure his players understand why they are doing something, instead of just telling them what to do. This way, in his opinion, players can react to the other team and also understand when to make proactive decisions.

This makes many of the DACH league teams dread facing CGN, according to Kapio.

“I am very amused that the German scene pretty much hates us,” the coach said. “Because we are playing differently. I think it’s insane. I don’t know. But it is what it is.”

He explained that other teams don’t find it fun to play against CGN because his squad can play at their own pace. They also take whatever the other team gives them and force the opponent to react.

This way, Kapio believes, his team can take on the best squads in the world. In his eyes, it’s better than developing a system specifically with tier-three or tier-two teams in mind.

“In the end, this should be the goal for every single player, every single coach, and this is how you should approach this game,” he said.

CGN Esports is poised for a deep EMEA Ascension run

Many former Counter-Strike players and coaches, like Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom, Nick ‘nitr0’ Cannella, or Chet ‘Chet’ Singh, made the switch to Valorant with noisy announcements from big-name esports organizations.

Kapio, on the other hand, is known more for his successful playing career in CS 1.6 than his coaching tenure in CS:GO. He said that he has turned down offers from big-name organizations since joining CGN Esports, a Cologne-based organization launched in 2020.

“I am a man of my word… I will never ever just go for the money or something. I care, of course I care. But, there are other things that are more important to me,” Kapio said.

Kapio hopes that his players will experience the same emotions that he did as a player. Winning IEM Season 2 with mousesports, he said, made him feel “weightless,” like he was flying off of the stage.

“If we win it would be a huge milestone for the org, for my players, and, of course, for me. I think it would be the greatest success in my esports career if we achieve that. The chances are slim. We are, as always, an underdog. But if there is a chance, there’s a way,” Kapio said.

CGN Esports will start their EMEA Ascension run on June 30 as they will battle through a group with Digital Athletics, Acend, DSYRE and SAW.