Team oNe coach Arthur "TchubZ" Martins is new to Team oNe, having helped fellow Brazilian team FURIA secure qualification to the same Six Invitational that he is now preparing for with Team oNe.
The Team oNe project, says TchubZ, is not some haphazard assortment of players, as much as it may seem so.
In the transfer-mania sparked by FaZe Clan dropping four of its players and signing all but one MIBR players prior to the start of this season, Team oNe seemed the only one that was reactive. The organisation was, in fact, just third in line in the knock-on effect, as MIBR signed all of the former Team oNe players that secured qualification to the Invitational by accruing enough SI Points in 2020.
Current Team oNe duo joined this roster from Team Singularity in the Serie B.
Players from different rosters had come together to form this team, from FaZe Clan to Team Singularity. The duo of Caio "Neskin" Szazi and Juliano "Levy" Andrade dos Santos Benos were particular surprises, as they had been signed from a Singularity roster that had only finished fourth in Serie B.
Despite predictions, however, Team oNe has been performing rather well, apparently due to a careful selection of the players and analyst -- not a random assortment of whoever was available.
This season, Team oNe finished Stage 1 of the BR6 in sixth place, but far bettered that performance with an impressive third place at the Copa Elite Six, losing to eventual champions Team Liquid in a very close contest.
The former Team oNe roster, now on MIBR, would also lose to Team Liquid in the grand final, by very similar scorelines.
Its players of Karl "Alem4o" Zarth and Eduardo "KDS" Santos were both fourth-best in terms of rating in the BR6 and the Copa Elite Six, respectively, with the former also fourth-highest in terms of KOST.
Statistics from Stage 1 of the BR6 2021.
Alem4o also had the second-highest K-D split and fourth-highest KOST in the BR6, while Lorenzo "Lagonis" Volpi had the second-greatest number of plants in both events.
The impressive stat-lines continue, with Alem4o and Lagonis sharing the fourth-highest number of clutches at four each.
To understand how this new Team oNe roster has found itself as a dark-horse candidate, SiegeGG spoke to its new coach of TchubZ.
First off, wow. What a crazy season it’s been so far, hasn’t it? Your current roster, coach included, was formed from five different rosters! How did this ‘melting pot’ of players settle in together?
Lagonis called me to help him build this Team oNe project and we discussed a lot; not just names that we wanted, but profiles. So we didnt care about the 'names' we would bring, but the profiles instead, so that the team could be a true team. Alem4o had the second-best rating in the world amongst players that were not going to the Invitational, he and Lagonis had played together before on amateur teams, and he is ULTRA hardworking and also a clown (which makes everything funnier). KDS is the reflection of your whole team; if you have a hard working team, he will be the one who works the most, but if you have a sloppy team, he will be the worst too. And if we talk about raw talent, he is the best in LATAM right now. We studied every single player, even my analyst, before we signed them, so that the team could be perfect.
Do you anticipate such massive roster changes -- roster swaps, really -- becoming more commonplace? We saw quite a bit of shuffling in LATAM and even in NA this previous transfer window.
Your team took its time to get going, presumably due to it, effectively, being an all-new roster. A sixth place in the regular BR6 season became a third place in the Copa Elite Six; how did this leap come about and how are you continuously working on improving?
We are still a new team, we barely have had two months since we got together. First, the profiles gelled together REALLY WELL, that created a incredible atmosphere to work in. Then, I started to introduce my work philosophy and they bought into it immediately. Secondly, we have no pressure on our shoulders, because we are a long-term project and, at the same time, we are obsessed with winning, so we always give our 200% in every single game to bring results as fast as we can.
How nerve-wracking was it when you were informed that you (and all the other Brazilian teams) could miss out on the Invitational? How did your team react?
This will be the first-ever international event for your team, and it will play out rather differently with three other regions in the mix. How are you guys preparing for it?
We are focusing on our game, developing our macro-strategies, and we will put it to test. How our style will be against the others will be incredible.
What is your goal for the Invitational and how confident are you that you'll achieve it?
Of course we want to win. That's our first goal; no one who step up onto the bigger stage of the game will tell you that they don't care. But, our ultimate goal is to learn and get the maximum out of this Invitational experience. We are going to play against different styles and tempos, so how good our style is against all of these styles? How efficient we are being? What did we learn today? Having all of these answers is our ultimate goal. So, winning is when there are advances in competition, which means more games and more dificult games, which means more learning. We will keep this in mind until we lift the hammer this year.
What is your opinion on the changed format for the Invitational and how do you rate your chances in the group?
I love the format, to be honest, though I would just make it longer so you can face the other teams twice, because one Best-of-One can be really tricky against some teams. I do love my team's group; there won't be an easy game at all and it will be fun to compete against the others there.
Is there anything you want to say to your fans and maybe your competitors?
Just want to say that not just me, but everyone here, is really greatful for all the support that the fans are giving to us. Thank you for that, really. And, we are going into every single game with the same passion that we showed in the Copa Elite Six; we are willing to 'die' for every single victory. Doesn't matter if it is a Bo1, Bo3, or Bo5, we go game-by-game. See you soon!
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Catch Team oNe next in action on the 11th of May at 6 AM BRT (UTC-3), when they take on Cloud9 live from Paris.