Rating NA's Brazilian teams: A shaky start to the year for most

While the first half of 2022 has been a largely downbeat affair for the American and Canadian players that call North America home, there is another demographic of players that form a third pillar of our community — Brazilians. Now, I can already hear people telling me I'm a moron and to look at a map, so let me explain my premise.

In mid-2015 off the back of their top eight performance at ESL One Katowice 2015, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo left the Brazilian organization and joined up with Canadian organization Luminosity. Under their new roof, FalleN and co. were able to move to North America and compete full-time in the blossoming ESL ESEA Pro League alongside the likes of Liquid, compLexity, and Cloud9. Since then, a number of Brazilian squads have made the journey North, with oNe breaking new ground in 2018 as the first of a number of smaller teams to make the journey.

As a result, there has been a relatively consistent "émigré" community of Brazilian teams and Brazilian players that have helped to enrich the North American scene and provide a challenge to the NA players, especially as the likes of Liquid and Complexity find themselves increasingly away in Europe for months on end. As such, let's take a look at this group of teams and see how they've fared heading into the player break.

FURIA – Last call for Brazil's best team

FURIA will likely head into the player break with thoughts of what could've been. While being ranked eighth in the world on HLTV's rankings is nothing to scoff at, this FURIA core is close to entering its fifth year together without any S-tier trophies to validate that leap of faith. With their AWPing situation worked out with the addition of Rafael "saffee" Costa at the start of the year, FURIA have come close to grabbing the silverware on multiple occasions but have yet to find their way into a big finals this year. This failure is magnified when you consider their recent underwhelming performances against new squads or squads with stand-ins like Liquid, ENCE, 9z, or 00 Nation. Much has been said about whether FURIA and Andrei "arT" Piovezan's hyper-aggressive playstyle has been figured out, and these results may suggest it's time to go back to the drawing board.

Hopefully, FURIA will take the player break as an opportunity to refresh and figure out a way to reinvent themselves as despite their recent shortcomings they are Brazil's best team and the one most likely to meet the crowd at the upcoming Rio Major.

Imperial – The lights come on at the Last Dance

After smashing viewership records on Gaules' Twitch channel and lighting up the imaginations of fans at the PGL Antwerp Major, Imperial have settled into a rut that matches what the most pessimistic pundits envisioned for FalleN's "Last Dance" squad. After rolling back the years at the Major, Imperial have done little to demonstrate that they are a serious title contender even among their Brazilian colleagues. At their last three events, Imperial only managed a best-of-one win against Finest and a best-of-three win against ORDER, while being taken down by oNe, FURIA, and 00 Nation.

The loss to "TACOLD" is especially biting as Marcelo "coldzera" David turned down joining his old SK flames to focus more on developing the next generation of talent as a leader. As Imperial look towards the Rio Major, a holy Mecca for the Godfather of Brazilian CS, they may consider the same. On one hand you can see them giving Lincoln "fnx" Lau one last chance to shine for all he's done for the scene, but if they want to remain competitive he is the squeaky wheel they will likely need to switch out as his performances leave a lot to be desired.

MIBR – Under Construction in Brazil

MIBR is an interesting project to evaluate as while the brand suggests a team that should be locking horns with FURIA and Imperial, they are unique as a squad of journeymen and youngsters. This iteration of MIBR is also far newer than FURIA or Imperial, having only added Breno "brnz4n" Poletto at the start of May.

Since then, MIBR topped ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference in brnz4n's offline debut with wins over cowana and TYLOO. While these are hardly high-profile teams, making it to Pro League is important as it will give MIBR more chances to rub shoulders with top-tier oppositions. Despite the strong performance at Conference, MIBR ended the first half of the year with early exits in Valencia and Cologne. In Spain, the team bested Rare Atom in a Bo1 before losing to Movistar Riders in a Bo1 and then Rare Atom in a Bo3. MIBR's results were much the same in Cologne, as they lost a Bo1 to Movistar Riders before being sent packing by TYLOO in a somewhat one-sided Bo3.

In hindsight losing to Movistar Riders isn't that damning as they've been cracking skulls in Cologne, but losing to TYLOO and Rare Atom is not a good look as China is perpetually out of lock step with world Counter-Strike. Ultimately though, MIBR are progressing acceptably as a team without Adriano "WOOD7" Cerato and can rest easy knowing they're on track heading into the player break. The most important thing for them to do moving forward is to keep working with Bruno "BIT" Lima and Renato "nak" Nakano as they look to slowly continue their upward rise through the rankings.

paiN – saffee who?

After losing saffee to FURIA at the start of the year, many thought paiN's ascendancy would be over, but despite his lack of experience, Gabriel "nython" Lino has proven to be a more than capable replacement. With nython in the squad, paiN are one of North America's best domestic squads which is in line with expectations as they peaked at 28th in the world at the end of 2021. While the squad missed out on the Antwerp Major, they only missed out on a spot at the very end of the tournament to 9z, a squad that has proven themselves as a capable match for the best in Brazil. Speaking of the best in Brazil, paiN impressed in the middle of the season when they managed to qualify for the BLAST Spring Finals after besting Liquid, MIBR, and FURIA.

Despite not doing anything in the main event, making it there to face off against the likes of FaZe and Vitality is nothing to scoff at for a squad of paiN's stature and prestige. In line with that, winning ECL Season 41 proves they are one of the best squads to call North America home. paiN likely looked to do more in Cologne, but they can hold their heads high as one of a few Brazilian squads to exceed expectations in the first half of 2022.

oNe – Inconsistency and Turnover

oNe operates with the least resources of any of the émigré Brazilian teams in North America, so they aren't expected to produce results anywhere close to the likes of MIBR and even paiN. However, with a number of experienced players, including oNe lifer Pedro "Maluk3" Campos, the team's biggest problem is settling on an actual stable lineup.

In six months, oNe has changed players three times while churning through four coaches in that timeframe. The team has now seemingly settled on reuniting their old core of Maluk3, Alencar "trk" Rossato, Victor "iDk" Torraca, however this constant experimentation has caused oNe to play ECL Relegation for the first time since initially qualifying to MDL nearly four years ago. The team look set to make it out of Relegation without any trouble, but it should be a moment for reflection as they end this year with very little to show for it outside of a 3rd-4th place finish at Fragadelphia 16.

While oNe is always a longshot to qualify to big events or make a deep run in the Americas RMR, if they can secure a long-term loan for Bruno "b4rtiN" Câmara, their goal needs to be a somewhat generic aspiration to qualify to the Rio Major. As Maluk3 is climbing in the years, the organization are realistically running out of time to reward their long-time IGL with a roster that is capable of doing more than winning the occasional ECL season.

Honorable Mentions: 00 Nation, GODSENT – Come to America?

00 Nation's new squad is still only a few weeks old so it's hard to evaluate what their long term prospects will be like once they come out of the player break. However, early results are looking quite positive, with the team built around TACOLD featuring some of the best youngsters in Brazil. However, it seems unlikely they will join the NA Brazilian community as their organization is Norwegian and has the majority of its infrastructure in Europe.

It also felt fair to mention GODSENT as, despite them not having a team right now, they have publicly committed to fielding a Brazilian roster again in the future. As GODSENT are seemingly an organization built around supporting young talent, they would be a welcome addition should they return to North America.

In conclusion, while many of the sub-top Brazilian teams that call America home have seen strong to modest results as we come up to the halfway point of 2022, the lack of S-tier title wins for many years makes it hard to say the top teams are fully successful.