guerri & kscerato: "I know I'm on the right path, whether it be in FURIA or MIBR"
With N3rd Street Gamers' Eastern Conference Championship underway, Dust2.us head honcho Joe "tolkienfanatic" Cardali had the opportunity to catch up with FURIA's coach, Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira, and star player, Kaike "kscerato" Cerato.
The two Brazilians talked about their experience playing in the USA over the past six months, MIBR's offer to kscerato, their plans for the Americas Minor, and what their expectations are for the event as well as the upcoming MDL season.
You guys moved to Miami a few months ago, and have accomplished a lot since then. You made MDL, made it to the Americas Minor — what has your time in America been like?
guerri: It has been a good time, we've played a lot of games and tournaments and qualifiers. We didn't qualify for any tournament besides the Americas Minor. For us, we've had a lot of struggles with the playstyle here in NA compared to Brazil, but I think we adapted to it very well, and fast.
We haven't been here even six months, and we're already beating some teams from Pro League. It's a big achievement for us, and we know we have a lot of potential to be in Pro League and beat those guys again. It's been a good second semester for us, and I think we can do better in the first semester of 2019.
You weren't able to qualify for StarSeries, but you put in a pretty good performance. What did you think of your results there?
guerri: I think this qualifier was the most hurtful to us, because we know we have the potential to play at StarSeries. We were really prepared to make the finals, but in CS, you need to make less mistakes, and we made a lot of mistakes on Nuke and Overpass. But I say this a lot for my guys, we need to lose to learn some things, and these losses make us better for sure.
I think Rogue put up a good fight against us, they are pretty good, and the addition from MSL makes them a better team. He's a tough guy to play against, not just killing other people, but his supporting and the calls he makes. This StarSeries qualifier was a good tournament because we made it from the open qualifier, beat Singularity and Envy, had a good match against Ghost, and started very well against Rogue. Overall, it was a good tournament for us, and it's like a warmup for the Americas Minor.
This one is for kscerato, obviously you've been in the news a lot with a rumored link to MIBR. Can you comment on what happened there, and what do you think of their new roster?
kscerato: For me, individually, it was a pretty good opportunity. My performance grew really fast, and to be in MIBR it's a dream and I'm very happy that the offer happened. I know I'm on the right path, whether it be in FURIA, MIBR, or independent of the team. I need to do more of what I'm doing, and continue to improve, and something good will come, whether it be on FURIA, MIBR, or something else.
Looking forward to next year, what kind of preparation are you guys going to do ahead of the Minor?
guerri: We are thinking of having a bootcamp in Poland, I think one week before the Minor. It's an idea, we don't anything confirmed yet, but we are thinking America is a good place to bootcamp too. We have our home there, we have a lot of good teams to play against.
For sure it's better to play in Europe because we can practice against teams we don't fight in the Americas Minor, but we are thinking about that and it will be decided this year.
What do you think of the inclusion of a South American group into ESL Pro League for next season, and do you know how that group will be filled out? Will you be participating, or have a chance to participate?
guerri: I'm not sure yet, but I think there's three American groups and one South American group. It's a huge achievement for the Brazilian scene, we know we have a lot of ksceratos and those sorts of players in Brazil who have a lot of potential, and they can show something in this Pro League.
I don't know if we will play in Brazil or continue playing in NA, but I know we will be in the path to play Pro League for sure. We know it's one of the main tournaments in the scene.
What're your expectations at this event?
guerri: We came here because we want to play all of the tournaments we can. We are new here, and we need to play and get some experience on LAN. We played at ZOTAC and the Americas Minor, but we don't have a lot of LAN experience. My boys are very young players, and we need to play a lot of LANs, and for us that's it.
We need to come here and make our plays, do what we want to do, what we like to do, and we have some MDL teams and players here so we can put a good fight against them. We need to put ourselves in places to play against these teams, and here is a good place.
Looking forward to MDL next season, what're the goals? Are there any teams that you are worried about?
kscerato: I think the Brazilian teams in MDL are the best teams in MDL, like Luminosity and oNe. We practiced against both teams and we know they're pretty good.
guerri: When we have a match against Brazilians, we don't have a "best team." When Brazilians play against Brazilians and Americans play against Americans, we have a lot of struggles, good plays and bad plays. I think Brazilians are our kyrptonite *laughs*, but I know yuurih likes to play against Brazilians.
FURIA have advanced to the semifinals of N3rd Street Gamers' Eastern Conference Championship, where they'll take on Singularity at 11 AM EST tomorrow for a spot in the grand finals and a shot at the lion's share of $30,000.
