Note: The interview was done before the start of the BLAST R6 Major Montreal.
G2 Esports’ Manchester run ended disastrously after the two-time world champions were sent home by FearX in what was the South Koreans’ first BLAST R6 Major win since April 2023.
Following the squad’s brief stay in England, the team decided to make some roster changes. Between June 13 and June 15, G2 Esports unveiled the departures of Benjamin “Benjamaster” Dereli, Jake “Virtue” Grannan, and William “Titan” Antonio. Instead, the samurai signed Alexandre “BlaZ” Thomas and Roberto “Loira” Camargo.
Inevitably, all of the eyes fell on Loira, who would become the fourth Brazilian import to play in Europe, only behind his teammate Karl “Alem4o” Zarth and the former Team Secret players Luiz “Miracle” Abrantes and Kaique “Faallz” Moreira.
If the uniqueness of the move wasn’t enough, the Brazilian’s lack of top-flight experience was used by some fans as an argument to discredit G2 Esports’ decision – why would the most prestigious team in the scene trust a guy who had only played a handful of top-flight matches in Brazil?
Compared to other Brazilian players, Loira’s profile is extremely difficult to find. In the server, Loira has made it clear to everyone that he has a gift. Outside of it, life experiences have built him to become who he is now: independent and responsible.
For those unaware, before joining Black Dragons in September 2023, Loira had never played a scrimmage. Despite competing in some regional events as an underaged player, Loira’s first-ever tournament with top-flight players in Brazil was the off-season tournament Varzea’s Cup. Alongside his former teammate at LaQuimica Esports Caetano “Nyjil” Curbelo, the eventual world champions João “Jv92” Vitor and Gustavo “HerdsZ” Herdina, and Gabriel “AsK” Santos, Loira showed off his abilities.
Less than a month later, Loira officially joined AsK in Black Dragons as the team announced his arrival on September 6. Only one stage later, the Brazilian duo became the team’s backbone ahead of the 2024 campaign. Despite missing out on Manchester, G2 Esports’ offer meant he would be traveling to Serbia to compete for the samurai at the Europe League and any upcoming international event.
“When I joined Black Dragons I had no idea how my career was going to be, if I was going to be good or no, because I never scrimmed before I joined Black Dragons, I was just a ranked player, I played with friends and everything, they invited me so I basically started my professional career there, I played some tournaments for fun,” Loira admitted in an interview with SiegeGG.
“One of the players that most helped me to learn a lot of stuff about the game and know how to play the game was AsK, who still plays in Black Dragons, because I always followed him and in his past team, when he left Liquid and was playing Tier 2, he created a team with some friends of mine, so I was always with them and I was always hanging around with AsK, when I joined Black Dragons with him he was always the person closest to me, teaching me a lot of things,” Loira explained.
The team Loira mentioned in the interview was Escolinha do Bubu, an organization-less squad that stole the show in the region’s second tier between 2022 and 2023 with different rosters. When AsK joined, the team also added João “Nuxxga” Weiss, João “Florio” Vitor, and Gustavo “Guto” Vieira – who ended up joining AsK and Loira in Black Dragons before the start of the 2024 season.
Despite feeling great respect for AsK, the person who gave him a chance and helped him make his first steps in Brazil’s professional scene, when G2 Esports knocks on your door, the answer is clear: Loira accepted.
“When G2 Esports contacted Black Dragons I was so happy, the Black Dragons players were so happy for me as well, they were all proud of me and everything because we are really friends, but I think they knew they would have a challenge to replace me, and it took some while to realise what they needed to do to become a good team again, to identify the way they needed to play without me and Hornetao, it was a bit hard and a bit unexpected as well,” Loira explained.
The 19-year-old’s words perfectly match what AsK explained in our written interview with Black Dragons’ IGL, who described how difficult it was for the Brazilians to overcome Loira’s departure. Despite the situation, both sides knew Loira’s departure to G2 Esports was the right move, and, on June 17, the Brazilian’s signing was unveiled.
While going from Brazil to Europe may sound like a tough challenge for a 19-year-old, Loira’s previous lifestyle combined with Alem4o and Ramalho’s presence helped him adapt to Europe.
“At the beginning of this year my parents moved to the United States, they were living in Florida, and I was still playing in Black Dragons and living alone in Brazil for six months, and I had already lived alone for another time, I was living alone in another city, my parents were living alone in another country, so it wasn’t much of a challenge, of course I miss Brazil and it was hard to leave my friends there, not seeing much my family, but I think it was not that hard because I was used to not live alone.”
With Loira joining the team, G2 Esports headed to the second split of the season with three Brazilians in the team: the 19-year-old, Alem4o, and the roster’s coach Matheus “Ramalho” Ramalho. In other words, the jump from one region to another wasn’t as big as it could have been. “They have been here for a long time and I had some new ideas, me and the others, Karl and Ramalho, complete each other.”
Eventually, Loira traveled from his hometown to Europe, where he was going to play in the Europe League 2024 Stage 2 from Serbia. However, his first steps in the region were made in Berlin, Germany, from the team’s headquarters, to compete in the Esports World Cup qualifiers. Unfortunately, despite doing well in the open qualifiers, G2 Esports was beaten by a rejuvenated Wolves Esports.
“Wolves played pretty good and different to what we expected, but I think we were at the beginning of the team, I was adapting to the region, we were like facing new things together that we had never faced before, maybe we practiced for one month, also the format of the qualifier, we couldn’t lose any matches, and they just played better,” Loira admitted.
Despite the result, the bootcamp helped the team understand something crucial ahead of the start of the second stage. “After the bootcamp we all realized the team was good and everybody liked each other, we were on our way to be a great team.”
In September, G2 Esports started on the second stage on the right foot. Eventually, the team finished the group stage in third place with 15 points, only two less than Team Secret and five from Team BDS. Surprisingly, the team was shocked by Virtus.pro, who defeated the samurai with two one-sided victories on Consulate and Kafe Dostoyevsky.
“I think on that game, a lot of things happened. I think we felt some pressure, maybe we did not spect them to be so good, because they were not playing good in the group stage, maybe we weren’t ready for them to play that good, we didn’t face the opponent how we needed to face them,” Loira explained.
On the other hand, Loira admitted that the defeat against the Russian powerhouse made them become a “better team.” “We realized there was a lot of things, and also to prepare for the LCQ, pretty much a playoff for one spot, with another mentality we were a really different team in the LCQ from the playoffs.”
Eventually, G2 Esports qualified for Montreal after three back-to-back victories against Project X, Into The Breach, and ENCE. Loira defined the team’s run as “good for us.”
“Not thinking about SI Points for example, winning through the playoffs would have been better for us, but it was really good for us because the way we played and the way we felt, I don’t think we ever had it before, even the other guys said that it was more energy, a crazy feeling they never had, even in Major finals or, whatever, they said the energy was crazy and all the stuff, so I think that now that we know we can do this and play like this with this energy and everything it will be easier for us because we only have to remind ourselves how to do this, we don’t have to do it for the first time.”
Ahead of the BLAST R6 Major Montreal, G2 Esports currently sit in sixteenth place in the Global Standings with 250 SI Points. Therefore, a good performance in Canada is much needed to avoid having to play Europe’s qualifiers for the Six Invitational 2025.
So far, G2 Esports has had a great start to the BLAST R6 Major Montreal as they defeated CAG Osaka in the first game of the day. A couple of hours later, Black Dragons became G2 Esports' next opponent after defeating CL4L.
When asked about facing his former Black Dragons' teammates in Montreal, Loira was clear. “I even talked with them and I want that to happen, I want to destroy them,” Loira concluded.
The match between G2 Esports and Black Dragons will be played on November 8 at 3 PM UTC as the winner will qualify for the BLAST R6 Major Montreal Phase 2.