“I know the team is prepared”: NAVI’s Head Coach ANGE1 at VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026

Kyrylo ‘ANGE1’ Karasov is a true esports veteran, carrying nearly 20 years of competitive experience in Counter-Strike and VALORANT.

Following a three-year tenure as NAVI’s in-game leader (IGL),  ANGE1 announced his retirement in late 2025. But rather than enjoying a well-deserved break from competition, the VALORANT legend has returned to support his organisation as its new Head Coach.

“I know the team is prepared,” ANGE1 told Esports Insider in an exclusive interview following his first series win against Karmine Corp at the 2026 VCT EMEA Kickoff. “Obviously, not everything works. We still have a lot of gaps and some misunderstandings. […] But I’m not sure if I went back in time, I could have done the preparation better.”

ANGE1 spent almost 15 years as a professional Counter-Strike athlete before making the switch to VALORANT in 2020. Throughout his time in VALORANT esports and VCT, the Ukrainian player became known for his fearless Omen playstyle and unique strategies. 

When asked how his unconventional in-game leadership might affect his coaching style, ANGE1 responded: “I’m not always going for it to be unique strats or unique comps. I have a few priorities. First priority is players’ comfortability. […] I want my players to deliver so I want to make sure they’re playing comfortable agents, comfortable spots. Sometimes it even makes me use an agent which I would not, that I don’t think it is optimal for the map.”

However, the new coach still sees value in playing off-meta team compositions and throwing the occasional curveball at his opponents.

“It’s much better if you play comps outside the meta because enemies are not practising against it. They’re not playing officials against it. So each new game will be something new. And it adds up. Like two or three rounds per game, we just win by surprise factor. […]  And then of course, if I see both of these click, you might see something special. But in the end, the win is what matters.”

ANGE1’s coaching vision appears to be right on target so far, as NAVI secured a confident 2-0 victory against KC, also marking his first appearance sitting in the VCT coaching booth.

“It was fine. You’d think I’d be more nervous, but when you prepare the team, when you see that the team is actually prepared, that it has all the tools to deal with most things – both inside and outside the game – you feel pretty calm,” explained the retired player.

“Maybe it’s gonna become more nervous later […] when it’s gonna get too shaky, but right now, I’m good.”

When ANGE1 stepped away from NAVI’s active roster to pursue coaching, he left a significant structural gap within the lineup. For nearly three years, the players relied on his decisive leadership, both on and off the server, to establish the team a consistent top-three contender in VCT EMEA.

It seems self-explanatory why Andrei ‘Shao’ Kiprskii, the only person to have played alongside ANGE1 for the longest time, was chosen as his IGL successor on NAVI. 

Just like ANGE1, Shao started his VALORANT esports journey with orgless team PartyParrots before joining FunPlus Phoenix in mid-2020 and NAVI two years later. This makes him the longest-standing active player on the roster, followed by Emirhan ‘hiro’ Kat and Uğur ‘Ruxic’ Gü, who were signed in 2024.

“I’m 90% sure that with any other IGL, it would be much harder. Because we played so much with Shao. We have the same vision. We went through the same wins, the same losses, and we actually understand the game the same way,” emphasised ANGE1.

As a retired IGL turned Head Coach, ANGE1 has focused on making Shao’s transition into the IGL role as seamless as possible.

“Right now, I’m trying to take off as much work from Shao’s shoulders as possible. I’m trying to do strats. I’m trying to do defaults, game plans. I want to give him all the tools possible to react to anything happening on the server,” explained ANGE1 in the post-match interview.

“Yes, it might be sloppy in the beginning because, for example, even though we both love playing rounds slow to burn down the time, sometimes he’s not experienced enough to manipulate rotations properly. And it’s fine. We lost today, even 3/2 rounds because of it. But it will come with time, and it’s an important part of the game.”

Heading into the 2026 VCT season, ANGE1’s retirement was not the only major change to the NAVI roster.

The organisation bid farewell to Alex ‘alexiiik’ Hawlasek, signing former KOI duelist Dawid ‘Filu’ Czarnecki and BBL Esports’ Volkan ‘sociablEE’ Yönal. According to Ange1, hiro has also gone through some role adjustments.

With this in mind, ANGE1 has set fundamental goals for his team: “My goal for Kickoff is for us to be consistent. […] Care about advantage. Make sure we have the mentals on the proper level and this the main focus. Yeah, we might be a bit off in individual decisions still, but I want to have structure.

“I want to start with a structure and then out of that give more and more freedom when people actually have something to go back to. Because I don’t want them to join the server and they have to improvise to win. I want them to have a basic structure where they go and play with.”

Similarly, while NAVI has showcased the potential to become a top-performing team in VCT EMEA, ANGE1 is not seeking result-based targets or qualification for a global event. Instead, he aims to keep his players focused on whatever match comes next.

“I never set goals to like top three or top two. I tell my team that our goal is to win the next game,” shared ANGE1 with Esports Insider. “Focus on this task and do your best. Whatever happens happens. It’s a game. It’s like if you think too much about some goals, results or qualifying to LAN or getting top two […] you’re gonna lose the focus on what is important.”

NAVI will return to stage on January 23rd to face Team Heretics and the match will be streamed live on VCT EMEA’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.