boltz: "Maybe it will be not only FalleN talking to other teams"

Ahead of the BLAST Premier Spring Finals, Imperial have had a mixed showing in 2023. Although the team looked strong in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown versus domestic teams in order to secure qualification, the Brazilian side have struggled to replicate that showing in subsequent events, with early exits at the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR and Brazy Party.

A day before matches get underway in Washington D.C., Imperial player Ricardo "boltz" Prass spoke with Dust2.us' Samuel "Draik04" Popkes regarding the team's recent qualification for ESL Pro League, the expectations for the Fall Finals, and the future of Imperial in the midst of an uncertain period for the team.

Before coming here you guys won the Brazil Premier League, qualifying you for EPL Season 18. How are you feeling after that qualification?

It's very important for us and for the organization to be part of the Pro League. The title doesn't matter as much as the Pro League spot. It was good for us to have the spot in Pro League for sure.

In the Premier League you played close games versus ODDIK, Red Canids, and Paqueta. What are your thoughts on the strengths of these teams and other domestic teams?

South America is growing a lot, we have a lot of different teams and young talent. It's not that easy anymore to just go to South America and win titles and play like "Okay they're not so good", not anymore. We need to prepare, we need to play good Counter-Strike to beat these teams. They are growing and learning. We lost one map to each of these teams we played, so it's not that easy, South American teams are improving.

How much has changed on Imperial since adding JOTA and zakk?

Our style changed a little bit because JOTA is a little bit more passive than fer was. fer is super aggressive, everyone knows about that, so JOTA is not the same style as him playing on CT; as T, the same. zakk has been helping us a lot bringing new stuff, because we come from a different style; me and FalleN have been growing our style for years, zakk with 9z was playing a different style of game. He brings some things from the new generation, the new CS, rotations, gambles, stuff like that. I think these changes [make us] a little bit more passive with JOTA than fer, with zakk bringing the new style of modern CS.

You've had mixed results in 2023, but you did well at the BLAST Spring Showdown. What do you think went right for you guys there?

In BLAST Showdown, everyone was playing very good individually and not doing a lot mistakes. When we watched the games, what we did on BLAST we didn't do at the RMR or the other tournaments. Everyone was just playing right and making good decisions, it just clicked on BLAST. We hope for that here again so we can show good CS again.

Recently you went to Europe to play in the Brazy Party. You didn't have chelo, but do you still think the experience was valuable?

It's always a good experience to practice in Europe and play against teams. We played against 9INE, who played very good at the RMR and stuff like that. For me, it's always a good experience to play in the bootcamps in Europe and play tournaments because you always improve, you always learn some new stuff. Even though we didn't have chelo, we had lux who is a very good talent from Brazil, young and growing, for me it was a good experience.

What are the goals and expectations for this event?

Our goal is first we know that we have six or seven of the best teams in the world in the tournament; us and maybe Complexity are maybe not on the same level as the other guys, but we hope to show good Counter-Strike so we can battle the top teams and maybe win to play in front of the crowd. This would be super cool.

Your first match is against Major winners, Vitality. How does that feel?

We come here to play the most stacked tournament, six top teams in the world right here. We start seeing Vitality, the Major winner with ZyWoo performing insane, so we know [it's] going to be super hard, but we hope to show some good Counter-Strike and maybe, who knows, maybe we can beat them.

There's been a lot of talk about FalleN and a potential move to FURIA, with him set to meet FURIA CEO Andre Akkari at some point. Do you have any comments on the possibility of his departure from the team?

Yeah, we have just determined that after this tournament we will have a break. Of course, we didn't match the expectations of the Imperial roster and the organization. So, of course, people are gonna talk. We have a good shuffle in Brazil happening right now, so maybe it will not be only FalleN talking to other teams. I think all the teams are trying to shuffle around; maybe we can keep all together or maybe everyone goes to another team. I don't know what's going to happen.

With that in mind I suppose it's hard to make goals for the second half of the year. Do you have any plans for the second half?

We don't have any goals. This is the last tournament before the break, so when we played Brazil Premier League and got the spot for ESL Pro League, it does matter if the team is going to be together or not. We're going to try our best to show good CS and, playing Counter-Strike is what we like to do.

Any plans for the player break?

Just rest. Don't have any plans, just being with family, because we travel a lot. Coming from Brazil, we're living in hotels travelling the world all the time and we don't have a home. Just going to be with my family, with my girlfriend, chilling.

Before boltz and the rest of Imperial get to chilling, they first need to prepare for their opening match versus Vitality, slated to kick off tomorrow at 10:00AM.