"No pressure": Twister delighted with Team Secret improvements since end of Stage 3, keeps Invitational expectations low

_{Banner image: Ubisoft / Kiril B}

Four years ago, after winning the Allied Esports Las Vegas minor, Team Secret qualified for the Raleigh Major. More than 1,250 days later, and following a relegation, two failed promotion attempts, and multiple roster changes, the organization is back at a major international competition in Siege.

Team Secret’s most recent history in Europe’s top-flight has been, put simply, very poor. In the European League, the organization has always been a lower-table team, no matter the players in the squad. No matter the formula, the result was always the same: fighting to avoid relegation until the last few weeks.

Unlucky for Secret, the 2022 season wasn't different, as the team avoided playing in the relegation matches thanks to Ubisoft’s restructuring of the esports competition format.

Marlon “Twister” Mello is the man behind the current Secret roster, which has gone through significant changes since the start of Stage 2. Lucas “Savage” Alves, who had previously competed for TENSTAR, joined the team in June. Heading into the final stage of the season, the Brazilian coach joined Secret, bringing Reece “ASTRO” Lambert and Dawid “Gruby” Marciniak.

SiegeGG talked with Twister days after the Brazilian coach joined Secret, as he described ASTRO as a “fearless” player who’s always “willing to evolve”, and said Gruby was a “very friendly guy” with a great “gunskill and clutch capacity”.

Coming from Brazil, Twister faced challenges in adapting to the EUL. His previous experiences include various years as a coach for Black Dragons, Ninjas in Pyjamas, FaZe Clan, and FURIA Esports, and a very brief stay at ALPHA Team. Heading to Europe, the jump was huge.

“Basically the strats at the same, but in Europe people are just more sticked to the plan, they just keep playing what they are supposed to without many adaptations, without many new stuff,” Twister explained.

Comparatively, he said that Brazilian teams by “the next round” will adapt within a round of seeing their opponents’ strategies. 

“Here is more about doing what you need to do more correctly than fitting the situation of the match,” said Twister.

Despite the changes, Team Secret couldn’t improve in Stage 3 and finished in ninth place. With no regulation victories throughout Stage 3, Secret’s last regulation win in Europe against a top-flight team before the closed qualifier dated back to July 2022, as they took down Wolves Esports 7-3.

But Twister was possibly the best man to lead the project for the final run of the season. The former FURIA man, who has experience not just in competing at international tournaments but also at facing the struggles of relegation battles and qualifiers, fit the Secret’s needs to a tee.

At FURIA, Twister led the squad for two years. He was known as the panthers’ godfather, with most of his players being extremely young and inexperienced. Since Twister’s arrival, the Brazilians didn’t miss out on any international competition until the Six Jönköping Major in Nov. 2022, an impressive feat in its own regard.

More impressively, Twister’s first season as part of FURIA was heavily influenced by the efforts of avoiding relegation. And after a whole season of being at the bottom of the standings, the roster qualified for the Six Invitational one month after their relegation match against Falkol.

“For sure my experience in FURIA helped, even with examples and understanding no where and when to push the players,” Twisters shared with SiegeGG after the team’s qualifier win.

And in the past month, Team Secret’s play has visibly improved. After defeating the European Challenger League champions Dunlimited, the squad went berserk in Europe’s SI 2023 Closed Qualifier and won their three matches by 2-0 scorelines. Moreover, Secret defeated Outsiders twice, a squad that included four Six Invitational 2022 grand-finalists.

“We prepared totally focused on getting the Secret group to another level, nothing really special about the other teams,” said Twister of his team’s preparation.

“We worked focused on building more knowledge across the map pool, making the team able to face the adversities in maps that they were not comfortable before. I do think that being in 9th on that case just give us a boost, to prove that we had something to show.”

Today, Team Secret will make their debut at the Six Invitational 2023, the organization’s first international Major competition in Siege in almost four years. Secret share Group D alongside the likes of DarkZero Esports, FaZe Clan, M80, and Heroic, teams with plenty of international experience behind their backs.

However, the team’s approach to the world championship is to play as if it was an “extension to the qualifiers” while “improving on some aspects and facing higher level but same challenges”.

“No pressure on this tournament, everyone knows what they came to do here, and how far they can go dealing properly with the adversities, I guess you will have to wait and see,” Twister concluded.