BIT: "Right now we are trying to build a solid structure"

The start of IEM Katowice Play-In hasn't been kind for the Americas region as only FURIA was able to win a game for the continent but for Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda Lima, MIBR coach, the loss came with a strong showing from his side, leaving him hopeful for the future. During his interview with Dust2.us' reporter on site, Liam "Slevo" Slevin, BIT spoke about the recent addition of Felipe 'insani' Yuji, the lack of time to practice, and the plans for 2023.

After a solid T-side on the start of Nuke against NIP, tell me about the preparation going into that map and what went wrong for you guys in the end.

I think they had a good read on our CT-side. In a lot of rounds, they played heavily on the outside, and we were not aware enough and after this, they got into our minds. We tried to go heavy outside with two players and show inside on A, but they pop A. It was kind of a bad read on our side and a good read from them. I think we still could win this game, maybe one frag in one round and all that kind of stuff, the game was very close. I'm happy with how the team played today, to be honest, because we have had this team for just 10 or 15 days. We are quite a new team right now, we have insani who just played his first LAN tournament ever, and I'm happy he could perform at a very good level against a great team. Overall it was good even though we lost.

You said you only had 10 or 15 days with this team so far. Was there a chance to bootcamp or preseason preparation for this tournament?

Yeah, it was kind of hard at the start of the year for us because as soon as we got insani we had to work on his visa for Mexico. He got denied twice and it took a lot of time away from us in practice. We played EPL Conference without any practice pretty much. Of course, practicing in NA right now is not going very well. The only teams who can practice are Nouns and ATK, which are the teams we are going to play in other tournaments most of the time. We had two weeks in NA, but we didn't have time to practice, just to play tournaments, and then we came to Poland 10 days prior. There we had a very good bootcamp, where we started the process of getting the structure we want and it's six maps. The game is at a very high level right now, it takes time to get everyone on the same page. I think everything is kind of new to us, as we could only really practice for 10 days only.

insani is the new guy on the team and he played pretty well on Nuke. Away from his personal performance, what can you tell me about his temperaments coming into the team?

I think he has, like any younger player, a sick aim, that's the point of bringing a new kid, like b1t to NaVi or brnz4n. He is solid, he just kills very fast, besides this, I think he is very good at other things that are also important in CS. He is a smart guy, he is calm, he takes initiative a lot of times and we are helping develop this. He is playing in JOTA's positions on the CT-side, which he was very active in. We are helping him, but it's natural for him because he already played those positions and he's not afraid of calling stuff. I think he has good comms and a lot of feedback, he also hears a lot from me or from anyone else. He is a pretty good guy for us.

You mentioned JOTA being pretty active on the map and those are the roles insani is filling right now. What is it like for you as a coach losing a player like JOTA?

It's kind of hard, actually. JOTA was very active but at the same time, I think we have more balance between the players being active. I think we have players who can make plays and now have more freedom. JOTA was a very aggressive player and he wanted to make plays every round, and right now we have more balance between who wants to do some stuff, it's a mix of everyone right now, and I think it's going well for us.

You missed out on IEM Rio Major, but with the announcement of IEM Brazil, is that a big goal for the team at the moment?

It's hard. The schedule right now is going crazy because we missed the first open qualifier and then we are going to play the second, but I hope we are not going to play because if we go to the main stage here in Katowice, then we are not able to play the second open qualifier. At the moment there are a lot of tournaments, we have no idea about the RMR rules, we are just going tournament by tournament. We can't decide on a solid schedule because there is a lot of conflict between tournaments. I hope we are not going to be in Rio, but if we lose here, I hope we are going to be in Rio.

This is the start of 2023 and the start of the new season, what are the goals that you and the team set coming into this year?

I think the main lesson we learned last year was the lineup changes keep happening a lot of times because of personal problems and, right now, we are trying to build a team that can stay together for a longer time, that doesn't have those personal issues again. We have a calmer team right now, the players are younger, I think we are going to have problems at some point because every team has them but we need to stick together longer than we did last time. Right now we are trying to build a solid structure, maybe if we need to change someday, just change one guy, that's not going to change the whole thing. Last time we were always changing, it was kind of bad for us.

MIBR will now play against Grayhound on Friday at 01:30PM, in IEM Katowice Play-In lower bracket.