The LOS oNe roster is perhaps the clearest example of how much faith has been placed into emerging talent in Brazil -- and how well it has been rewarded. It is not every day that a team that is not from APAC has all five of its making their Six Invitational debuts this week, but LOS oNe are about to do it tomorrow.
Formerly known as Team oNe, LOS oNe is the resulting name for the partnership between Los Grandes and Team oNe. And, while it wasn't easy, this fledgling team achieved its ultimate goal for the year -- the Brazilians will compete at the Six Invitational 2023.
SiegeGG spoke to Gabriel "Maia" Maia from LOS oNe ahead of the Six Invitational, with the Brazilian one of seven rookies from his country competing at the world championship.
"Experience helps a lot, and makes you play more confident, but it’s not everything. Hard work, I believe that is much more important. Besides, we work our minds pretty well," said Maia of what helped LOS oNe secure a place at the Invitational.
The current LOS oNe core was put together at the beginning of the 2022 season by Lorenzo "Lagonis" Volpi, who was then the last piece of the Six Mexico Major winning lineup. While Karl "Alem4o" Zarth joined G2 Esports and the rest of the team signed for 00 Nation, Lagonis decided to assemble a new roster by relying on Brazil's Challenger League.
That faith was rewarded immediately -- in just their first stage together, Team oNe qualified for their first, and so far only, Copa Elite Six. Days later, Team oNe also qualified for the Six Charlotte Major in what was an impressive achievement.
However, oNe's Six Charlotte Major apperance was one to forget. If not for Elevate, who had similar visa issues that prevented them from competing entirely, the Brazilians would most likely have finished in third place of their group.
"I think that the Charlotte Major was really unfair, they had a chance to make the matches in online servers with equal ping, but instead they choose to make it in LAN and we played with 130 ping," Maia recalled. His team, alongside FURIA Esports and w7m esports, had then been forced to play online with high latency against teams at the venue itself.
Following the team's appearance at the Six Charlotte Major, oNe finished the second stage in fifth, missing out on the Copa Elite Six by just one point. But the worst was yet to come for them.
Heading into the final stage of the season, oNe had to make changes to their roster. Lagonis, the leader and founder of the roster, joined Team Liquid after winning oNe the Copa do Brasil Stage 2.
"After Lagonis left, we decided to make a big change in the team and not bring someone in the same position he played," shared Maia. "[João "Dotz" Miranda] and [Leonardo "d4sh" Lopes] had already played with [Júlio "L0BIN" Gabriel] before and they brought his name, which we all accepted."
L0BIN had been part of the SuperNova Team roster that won the Copa do Brasil in Stage 1 of 2021, where he competed alongside d4sh and Dotz, his current teammates at LOS oNe. L0BIN had also played with Victor "Peres" Peres and Pedro "PpWs" Sabino, who played in the BR6 2022 with Black Dragons and TropiCaos, respectively.
"L0BIN is extremely confident in his skills and play style so he didn't have much trouble to achieve a high perfomance quickly," continued Maia.
The statistics back up Maia's praise, as L0BIN finished his first professional stage as the second-best player on the team with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.05, only behind Maia's 1.18 figure.
Despite the change, oNe kept their best trait: consistency. The rookie team finished every stage in the top five, even if it missed out on the top four in the final two stages. While in Stage 2 the difference was just one point, the difference in Stage 3 was even slimmer with round difference deciding a quadruple tie for second place.
As such, the team finished among the best four teams in the overall BR6 and qualified for the BR6 Finals.
"I think we deserved to qualify through the regular year, we got to the playoffs in the Charlotte Major and got fifth placein Stage 2 and 3. If we were like NA or EU we would already be qualified," Maia said, disappointed at the disparity between the regions that is set to be eliminated in 2023.
Had Brazil's top-flight worked like the EUL and NAL, oNe would have finished in 14th place of the Global Standings and would have avoided having to play in the LATAM SI 2023 Closed Qualifiers.
Moreover, FURIA Esports, who had qualified not for one but for two Six Majors, would have finished in 12th place, just in front of Soniqs. If that had been the case, Elevate and CAG would have dropped out of the top 16 in the Global Standings, which would have left APAC with just one roster at the Six Invitational 2023.
Unfortunately for Brazil, both teams faced off in the LATAM SI 2023 Closed Qualifier grand-final, where LOS oNe won 2-1 to book their place at the Invitational.
"We all agreed to cut a piece of our vacation to focus on the open qualifier so I think we were pretty confident and we didn't have much trouble, only the last map against NiP in Clubhouse," said Maia of his team's run.
"I don't think that we had much difficulty to beat FURIA, in my personal opinion they lost in the pick and ban when they picked Villa. That was one of our strongest maps and one of the weakest of them."
LOS oNe have been drawn in Group C of the Six Invitational 2023, where they will share it with Charlotte Major grand-finalists Astralis, the Jönköping Major champions Team BDS, Charlotte Major semi-finalists Oxygen Esports, and APAC hopefuls CAG.
Things will not be easy for them, but playoff qualification should well be in their grasp. Catch LOS oNe at the Six Invitational 2023, starting from tomorrow, Feb. 7.
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