MIBR looked promising at SI 2021, as the squad finished in third place just behind Team Liquid and the eventual champions, Ninjas in Pyjamas.
But what started as an exciting and optimistic year ended up being a nightmare. The squad finished in third place at the Brasileirão Stage 1, which was followed by a hopeful second place at the Copa Elite Six.
Everything was according to plan until the second stage. There, everything started to go wrong. Felipe “FelipoX” De Lucia picked up a shoulder injury which left MIBR in a very delicate situation, as the team didn’t have a sixth player. Out of nine matches the Brazilians just won one, missing out on the second Copa Elite Six of the year.
MIBR’s manager Guilherme “Guille” Scalfi went through this in a SiegeGG written interview.
“Our main issue was with FelipoX injury, because we were coming from a hyped and amazing S.I. 2021 season and then we ‘stopped’ in time. Our job was put aside and we started to fall. He's very important to our roster and we've missed his presence a lot during the 2º split,” said Guille.
Following FelipoX's injury, the team signed Luiz “SKaDinha” Salgado as a substitute, who played for this same roster back in its Team oNe days. Guille revealed that “the team had tried to create an MIBR Academy, but the project wasn’t able to start.” The organization wanted to have a “young roster with experience”, so he was the perfect man.
With FelipoX back in the squad for Stage 3, the team finished as the third-best roster in the third split. However, the team missed out on the Copa Elite Six final bracket, as their loss to Atheris Esports proved to be decisive.
Later on, Kaique “Faallz” Moreira would go through surgery. And if that wasn’t enough, some internal issues made the coach Matheus “Budega” Figueiredo take the decision to step down from the team.
Despite the problems experienced throughout 2021, it would be unfair to say that MIBR come to this weekend’s event in bad shape. The Brazilians recently defeated the Mexico Major champions Team oNe, and lost by a minimal margin against the eventual BR6 2021 champions Team Liquid.
“We had a great 2021, but it was with a lot of close results. We're trying to focus on consistency and improving our gameplay to be better than last year. It was a year of learning for our roster,” he said.
The schedule for this weekend's qualifier. (Photo: R6 Esports BR)
In order to qualify for the Sweden Six Invitational, MIBR will have to defeat two of the other five rosters in the competition – with four of them coming from Argentina or South America. These two regions have improved recently, especially the latest. It’s going to be interesting to see how these regions perform, with Guille saying that “they [SA and MX] are getting better and that we are very careful in our preparation.”
“I like the aggression and precision of blk. He is new in Malvinas and he was great during 3º Elite Six,” he concluded.
The Paraguayan player was in the spotlight on the last Copa Elite Six as he outshined the Brazilian teams, including the eventual Sweden Major champions FaZe Clan. Richard “blk” Rodríguez finished the event with a 1.31 SiegeGG rating, the highest in the competition.
MIBR won't be playing on Saturday, as the team will start from the final bracket on Sunday. If everything works well for them, the team could book their flights for Sweden.