Black Dragons might ring a bell in somebody’s head. Now known as a mid-table team with the potential to upset the big names of the region, this organization once ruled the region — and almost left its mark in the international circuit.
In 2018, BD signed players from Ninjas in Pyjamas, a roster that included the eventual Six Invitational champions Julio “JULIO” Giacomelli, João “Kamikaze” Gomes, and Gustavo “Psycho” Rigal. The roster move happened some weeks after Black Dragons' participation at the Six Invitational 2018, the teams’ last international appearance to date.
Almost four years later, Black Dragons are on the verge of an international return. All they have to do is win this weekend’s qualifier.
“I don’t feel the pressure. When I play I think of the things I can control. To me it is normal. Black Dragons is an organization with a lot of history in Siege, so we want to put them on the Six Invitational, we want to do it for us and for them. For the fans, and everyone,” said the Black Dragons player Vitor “Peres” Peres in a SiegeGG interview.
Black Dragons’ season hasn’t been the best, but their results have fans hopeful. The team was able to defy some of the big names in the region and even played in Copa Elite Six Stage 2. Lifting the Copa do Brasil Stage 3 and winning the BR SI 2022 Open Qualifiers were the icing on the cake.
However, in terms of transfers, the team had to improvise throughout the year. Black Dragons decided to sign two youngsters in Peres and Pablo “resetz” Oliveira, who came to replace the highly experienced players Vitor “hugzord” Hugo and João “yoona” Gabriel.
Following the roster movements, Black Dragons finished as the fifth-best team of the BR6 Stage 2, sneaking in the Top 6 of the region. But when things looked bright for Black Dragons, Team Liquid signed one of their most recent acquisitions, resetz, as the Brazilian was the chosen one to replace João “HSnamuringa” Deam.
Black Dragons was back to the starting line.
Said Peres: “That change was really bad, but we couldn’t do anything because Team Liquid bought resetz. Bassetto played in the Challenger League so he had to learn many things, we just needed time to prepare ourselves. We were not playing like a team but like individual players. It was in Stage 3 when we started playing as a team, but it was too late to qualify for CES.”
Now with Guilherme “Bassetto” Bassetto in the line-up, the team had to find their roles and build a synergy again. On Stage 3, the results were not the expected ones despite winning against Team Liquid and delivering good performances against NiP and Team oNe. The roster would miss out on the Copa Elite Six Stage 3, which also moved them out of the Global Standings Top 16 race.
The schedule for this weekend's games. (Foto: R6 Esports BR)
But the team is still alive. Following their Copa do Brasil victory and their win at the SI 2022 BR Open Qualifiers, Black Dragons are one of the two favorites to get that last flight to Montreal. The other one is MIBR.
“They are trying to find their way, but I hope they don’t find it in this qualifier! To me, they are the bosses of the qualifier, but we have to beat them, and we are going to beat them,” Peres admitted.
With Team Liquid, Ninjas in Pyjamas, FaZe Clan, Team oNe, and FURIA all comfortably settled in the first five places, Black Dragons and MIBR had to fight for the final sixth place — which is the last one that guarantees a Copa Elite Six appearance. While BD competed in the Stage 2 edition, MIBR did so on Stages 1 and 3.
Said Peres: "We need to be aggressive, like NiP, like FaZe Clan, we need to play our game, not let our enemies play their game, if we aren't awake in our games we will probably lose, because if we they play their game we will lose, so these teams who won they played their game, not only Brazilians but others like DWG KIA."
However, it is not all about Brazil. South America and Mexico will also be in the fight this time, as these regions look forward to sending a team to an international competition for the first time in Siege’s history. But Peres still thinks that “they are not that good enough, despite getting better.”
“Maybe we lose, but it’s my opinion. They are getting better, back then we were nothing outside Brazil, and now we are the best,” he concluded.