“We are trying to not think about how far we can get”: Reduct expects MIBR to give its best after rollercoaster year

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Brazil’s dynasty began with Team Liquid and Ninjas in Pyjamas reaching the Six Invitational 2021 Grand Final, but people usually forget who finished in third place.

MIBR’s regional season has been one to forget. Everything started according to plan, as the roster finished in second place at the Copa Elite Six Stage 1. It was all downhill from there.

Stage 2 saw MIBR struggling for the whole stage as Felipe “FelipoX” De Lucia picked up a shoulder injury which kept him out from the servers for a great part of the split. He even tried to play with a controller instead of a keyboard, with no success. Eventually, the team would fall out of the Top 6, which prevented the roster from playing the CES Stage 2 – and with that the team’s chances of picking up SI Points in that split.

Tassus “Reduct” Issi went through the team’s season, admitting that “the team didn’t play in Mexico because of FelipoX injury” but such experience helped the team at growing to the point where “we consider ourselves as brothers, we are capable of going through any difficulty together.”

With FelipoX back to the main line-up, the team was back to pre-injury results and was the third-best team of the third split. However, things didn’t go as planned in the very last CES of the year, and were knocked out in the group stage, leaving the event empty-handed. 

MIBR would end the year proving to the fans that the team had plenty to offer, as the roster defeated Team oNe (2-0) and felt to Team Liquid (1-2) to end in 3rd - 4th place of the toughest regional league in the Siege scene.

Two weeks later, Kaique “Faallz” Moreira would undergo surgery. Luckily for MiBR this time, there was plenty of time for the team to get back on track again. If MIBR wanted to be in the Six Invitational 2022, the Brazilians would have to win the LATAM Closed Qualifier. Said and done. 

Due to some issues and wrongly followed sanitary measures when players traveled to Brazil to compete at the LATAM SI 2022 Closed Qualifier, the tournament was rescheduled and moved to Sweden. Such a change forced teams to travel to a new continent, and Reduct admitted that the team “didn’t have time to scrim, just to be on quarantine.”

Despite the difficulties experienced this year, MIBR proved the world to be in good shape. The Brazilians had really strong showings this week, especially on attack, where the team succeeded in maps such as Villa against Akave, or Kafe against Black Dragons. 

The qualifier Grand Final ended after the five maps were played, with both MIBR and BD giving their best. After playing a combined amount of 14 maps (seven each) the final game ended at 1 am local time, and Reduct admitted that “we knew BD was spending a lot of energy because they were yelling a lot, so we focused on not letting our level go down and always staying calm.”

Although playing such an important qualifier in such circumstances and one week before the main event could mean a disadvantage for some teams, Reduct thinks just the opposite. “All the teams went two months without playing so nobody was affected, but now we have some advantage because the qualifier was a good warmup for us.”

MIBR will compete against Team oNe, DWG KIA, Natus Vincere, and Oxygen Esports for a place in the final qualifier. “We are not trying to think about how far we can get, we’re just thinking of giving our best in every game.”

The Brazilians debut in the Six Invitational 2022 will be on Feb. 9 against the Korean giants DWG KIA at 10 am CET.