skullz: "We switched roles quite recently, so we didn't perform our best"

After a tough loss against ENCE, where paiN only won a single gun round, despite winning both pistols and the following two rounds, Felipe "skullz" Medeiros talked with Dust2.us' Liam "Slevo" Slevin about the match, the preparations for Katowice, and the main objectives for skullz and paiN.

Frustrating start to the day with the BO1 loss to ENCE. Tell me a bit about the preparation coming into that game, being a BO1.

I believe we had a good preparation. We expected to play Vertigo but we switched roles quite recently, so we didn't perform our best. We had good practice but it wasn't enough I think. This match comes to bring us experience and the next one will be better.

You mentioned the recent roles swap, what can you tell us about the roles that have switched around in the team?

Me and hardzao changed. I was the B player, the anchor, and now I'm playing A-site, so that's a big change.

Frustrating to lose that many rounds when you were standing on the CT-side. Tell me a bit about what was wrong in your eyes.

We started pretty well, we won the pistol. We lacked focus and that really made us lose.

Can you talk about the preseason preparation before coming to Katowice?

We had a 13-day bootcamp while we were here in Katowice. We did very well in practice. This is a very important tournament for us to get experience and become a better team.

This is one of the few Tier S tournaments you get to play, it's no surprise that you guys dominate back at home and NA, against the ECL teams. Is it frustrating when you come here and you don't get the results?

Not really because we have our feet on the ground so we know it's going to take a while for us to really get our space here in tier one. We have a lot of patience and we are not trying to be sad or anything, we are just learning and that's it.

Being one of the newer players on the team, do you feel like you have settled into the lineup at this point?

Yeah, of course. I'm pretty comfortable with everyone right now. There are a few changes, like role swaps, that we still have to figure out, but overall I am very comfortable.

With the announcement of IEM Brazil and you guys are going to be in the closed qualifier. Is that one of the big goals for the team this year?

Yeah. Everyone wants to play in Brazil so we are going to do our best to make it happen.

And outside of IEM Brazil, with the team starting the season in 2023, what are the goals that you set as a team for this year?

Major is definitely one. I haven't played a major yet so that's my main goal for this year.

paiN will now face IHC on Friday at 01:30PM in the lower bracket of IEM Katowice 2023 Play-In.