Banner image: Ubisoft / @itsmeERROR
00 Nation has announced the purchase of Santos e-Sports’ license, as well as the signings of Team oNe’s core Juliano “Levy” Andrade, Eduardo “KDS” Santos, and Caio “Neskin” Szazi, who will share team with ex-Black Dragons player Vinícius “live” Monteiro and ex-Team Liquid’s IGL Thiago “xS3xyCake” Reis.
The roster will be coached by the ex-Team oNe staff pair Arthur “TchubZ” Figueira and Rafael “RafadeLL” Oliveira.
With this announcement, a part of Team oNe’s legacy moves to a new home as five of their seven members have joined the Norwegian team. While Karl “Alem4o” Zarth’s move to G2 Esports was made official about a week ago, Lorenzo “Lagonis” Volpi’s future remains unclear.
Prior to Sep. 2021, the team was known as Nordabind AS. That same month the organization rebranded to 00 Nation and announced the acquisition of Brazilian CS:GO roster “O Plano”. Right now, the team has rosters not just in CS:GO but also in other video games such as Fortnite and Rocket League.
Brazil’s top-flight division now has three teams based in Europe, as 00 Nation (Norway) joins Team Liquid (The Netherlands) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (Sweden).
“Foreign organizations help the Brazilian scene a lot. Esports are taken very seriously in EU and NA, much more than Brazil. They force the BR organizations to raise their game and try to match theirs, otherwise every single time that a foreigner organization tries to buy a player or a coach from the BR organization, the answer will always be ‘yes, I wanna go!’. Now the world has started to look at the Brazilian market and import people from here, Alem4o and Budega were the first but we will probably see this happening more often,” stated 00 Nation’s coach TchubZ in a pre-announcement interview with SiegeGG.
xS3xyCake at the Six Invitational 2021. (Photo: Ubisoft / João Ferreira)
Despite the roster being formed by five ex-Team oNe members, the truth is that 00 Nation first approached xS3xyCake and live. “When I got the job offer for 00 Nation, they already had Live and Sexy and they were thinking about KDS, Neskin and Levy as well to complete the team. Those three plus me and Rafadell,” TchubZ explained.
It was completely different to Team oNe’s creation, where TchubZ created the roster from scratch. “The first thing was to gather the roster and discuss the project with them, the ideas that I had for this team, listen to theirs and create something unique that everyone feels part of,” TchubZ explained.
KDS at the Six Invitational 2022. (Photo: Ubisoft / Kiril. B)
Roles-wise, 00 Nation is going to differ from Team oNe’s structure. Without Lagonis and Alem4o, xS3xyCake will be the squad’s main leader. “Lagonis was the primary IGL but Alem4o had a great part on IGLing as well. For us, Sexy is our Captain and primary IGL,” said TchubZ.
Regarding the other non-Team oNe member, TchubZ explained that “live will play in a different role that people are used to see him”. According to him, live is “one of the most aggressive players in Brazil” but people didn’t notice because he was playing as a support. “He is now developing into a Flex player, playing more loose and gathering the team around him.”
Overall, a squad that combines youth, experience, and success. Although TchubZ is aware of the potential of his team, everyone must be realistic. “My first goal is making this team dominate the fundamentals of Siege. When we reach that goal, the next one will be bringing the hammer home because nothing else matters.”
00 Nation’s first match in the region will be on March 26, when the Brasileirão 2022 kicks off.