Opinion: No paiN, no gain; will the Brazilians shine in Bucharest?

For paiN, the Americas RMR could set the pace for the team for the next several months. Their opening match against Evil Geniuses is both daunting and tantalizing; the squad beat paiN in the second Americas RMR open qualifier, but since then has shown obvious signs of weakness against international competition. This opening match is not only a prime opportunity for paiN to get revenge on Evil Geniuses but also a chance to get off to a strong start in their Major qualifying campaign. Doing well in the Americas RMR would bode nicely for the team's future efforts in other crucial upcoming events for the squad.

In recent months, paiN has been a team that has been performing well at the upper level of regional North American Counter-Strike. This has been a pleasant surprise considering the loss of the team's star AWPer Rafael "saffee" Costa to FURIA at the beginning of the year, with his replacement Gabriel "nython" Lino so far doing a stellar job at filling saffee's shoes. Despite being able to mostly make up for the lost firepower of saffee, paiN has struggled to move past the teams residing at the apex of the domestic scene, such as Carpe Diem and compatriots MIBR.

For paiN, the Americas RMR is an incredibly important test on multiple levels. Qualifying for the Major would be an obvious boon, but success here also sets a positive tone for several critical upcoming events for the team. Thanks to ChocoCheck's grand final forfeiture in ESEA Premier Season 39, paiN was granted a spot in the ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference in mid-June, an important opportunity for the team to get a chance to play in EPL Season 16. A strong performance at the Americas RMR, in addition to netting the team a Major spot, would also be great LAN practice for the EPL Conference.

Even sooner than their EPL Season 16 Conference appearance is the NA Blast Premier Spring Showdown. In their final outing before the Americas RMR, paiN made quick work of their opposition in the NA BLAST Premier Spring Showdown qualifier, not dropping a single map en route to victory. Although the BLAST Showdown is in NA rather than in Europe, the event will still feature top teams like Liquid and FURIA, providing both the opportunity for paiN to reach the BLAST Premier Spring Finals but also to spar with elite teams that spend a considerable amount of time in Europe.

While paiN does have a nice sequence of important events lined up, domestically the team has been unable to cement themselves at the very top, often finding themselves narrowly missing out on securing first-place finishes. paiN has finished the last two seasons of ECL/Premier in third place, with losses to RBG (now Carpe Diem) and ChocoCheck (now Gaimin Gladiators) in Season 39, while in Season 40 the squad was bested again by Carpe Diem as well as MIBR. MIBR has been a tough opponent for paiN, with MIBR coming out on top in the three BO3s the team have played against each other in the last month, often stopping paiN short of tournament victories.

There is a notable hiccup in paiN's event history though; the Americas RMR open qualifiers. The first open qualifier saw the team get upset by Bad News Bears in the quarterfinals, a team that the Brazilians had already taken down during the ECL regular season. In the second open qualifier, paiN faltered in their semifinal game against Evil Geniuses, getting trounced in the first map before being narrowly edged out in the second map. Ultimately paiN did secure qualification for the RMR, making quick work of Snakes Den to claim the tenth seed in the event.

While the Americas RMR open qualifiers took a little extra effort from the squad, those results should not at all detract from other strong placings paiN has managed, like third place in ECL and first in the NA Blast Premier Spring Showdown qualifier. Although paiN have had trouble consistently taking down the strongest local teams like MIBR and Carpe Diem, the squad has been able to move past many other notable teams in the region, including ATK, Gaimin Gladiators, Party Astronauts, and Strife, just to name a few. These wins should not be taken lightly, as they show that the individuals on paiN are very capable of dealing with most local opposition.

Elaborating more on the individuals in the team, the player that currently stands out the most is nython, the AWPer brought on to replace saffee at the beginning of the season. The loss of saffee on paper was a significant loss of firepower for the team, as saffee averaged an astounding 1.28 rating during his roughly year and a half long tenure with the team. So far, nython has averaged a 1.18 rating with paiN since joining, and although this falls short of matching saffee's rating, this still shows that nython is capable of putting up strong numbers for his team.

In addition to the AWPing prowess of nython, paiN can also find solace in the fact that they have a cast of heavy-hitters just as capable of taking over games. Over the past three months, Rodridgo "biguzera" Bittencourt and Wesley "hardzao" Lopes have been integral to paiN's success, posting 1.13 and 1.11 average ratings respectively. Gabriel "NEKIZ" Schenato and IGL Vinicios "PKL" Coelho bring up the rear, but by no means are the two players liablities, with NEKIZ close behind hardzao with a 1.10 rating, while PKL has posted a respectable 1.03 rating.

If paiN are able to replicate their domestic performances, both individually and as a unit, the team will surely be one to be reckoned with in Bucharest. A strong showing here could pay dividends in the months to come, but for that to happen paiN will want to deal a decisive blow to Evil Geniuses in their opening match, slated for April 11th at 07:30AM.