drop: "The last six months in FURIA, everything was going wrong"

Ahead of their ESL Pro League Season 18, MIBR have a lot prove as they have only played two maps offline after signing André "drop" Abreu and Rafael "saffee" Costa. Ahead of the Brazilians' return to the server tomorrow against MOUZ, Dust2.us' Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore had the chance to talk with drop about the playing finding himself again post-FURIA, MIBR's relatively slow return to action this season, and working under a new coach after two years under Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira, among other topics.

Your individual performance struggled a bit towards the end of FURIA, but has recently had an uptick on MIBR. Do you think the struggle was psychological or do you find it easier to play in MIBR’s system?

The last six months in FURIA, everything was going wrong. At the start, it was just my form, it wasn't good and the time passed, it turned more into a psychological thing. I was not feeling comfortable anymore, we couldn't fix the problems we had. In the end, it was much more about that than about the CS that I was playing. Here, in MIBR, I don't think I'm doing great but here we have a more structured and tactical game, we play slower, and we have more time to think and know if that decision is good or not. Is kind of different, but I'm not doing great, yet.

The team have spent a significant amount of time in Europe post-player break, you and saffee have experience being in Europe due to FURIA but how are the other guys taking it?

I think for them is becoming a normal thing now, they probably miss their families, but... they weren't in Europe last year, but they were in North America, away from home as well, so they have some experience. We just need to try to be a family because we are living together for nine months a year, sleeping in the same room, after that we go to the practice room, we eat together, we almost go to bed together. We need to become a family for things to work.

Looking post-player-break, due to the fact that MIBR wasn't at Cologne, you have only played two offline maps this half of the year, compared to the other teams that have had much more reps. Heading into Pro League, do you think that puts you guys at a disadvantage?

Yeah, of course. When you play LAN is when it really matters, and when the nerves come. If you are going to choke, you can't blame it on the Internet. The more you play, you'll feel more comfortable in these types of scenarios and that's where you can build your synergy as a team. We haven't had time to do it yet, but this format will give us at least three or four games, six to eight maps. Even if we don't reach playoffs, we are going to learn a lot. We play a lot of online tournaments and then we go back to practice, online tournaments, back to practice, bro, we need to play on LAN, that's where the real Counter-Strike is. We are really happy to be here and we will do everything we can to play as many maps as we can.

Even though you guys haven't been playing a lot of LAN maps, I've noticed you haven't played a ton of online maps as well. Since mid-August, MIBR has taken a break from playing in tournaments seemingly, even though in Europe you have CCTs going on. Was that a conscious decision, to play less, and what have you guys been doing in the last three weeks?

Yeah, it was because when we changed, when saffee and I joined, we needed to talk a lot, decide which map to play, which position I was going to play, where and how saffee was going to play, how to approach the game. We needed a lot of time to talk and understand each other, we can't just sit as a five and play a tournament and lose to a random team. It's just better to give up some tournaments and give the team some structure, and time to feel comfortable and confident.

With this being the first chance to really show what the team has been up to since forming, there's a lot of uncertainty in the Brazilian scene over who's the best squad. I don't think FURIA has hit the ground running as much as many would expect, same with Imperial, they have had a bit of a bumpy ride since their formation. Do you think MIBR has the tools on hand to overcome these two squads and take the crown as the top Brazilian squad?

I think we have a lot of potential to do it. We are still pretty young, not only as a team but as players. We need to get more experience and FURIA, the best BR team right now, they have it a lot, not only the core, but FalleN and chelo, as well. Of course, we can beat them, at some point, but for now they keep being the best team in Brazil.

In your whole career, you have only had one coach, guerri. How does it feel to work with a new coaching style from BIT and how do you rate him as a coach?

It's kind of interesting. I'm starting to see the game in another way. Now I think like, 'If I was playing for FURIA, I would probably playing this situation like this, and now I have to play this situation like that'. I need to think both ways so I think it makes me smarter each day. It demands more of me, and I like that. BIT is totally different from guerri and I like that.

What are your overall expectations for this event? Are you guys using this as a developmental event or do you think you have the players right now to make a playoff run?

We know this must be one of the last tournaments of CS:GO, so we are coming here to give everything we have. I think we are well prepared and I think we can reach the playoffs with what we have. If we do what we did during scrims, with the same confidence, with everyone being very communicative, we can go to the playoffs.

MIBR debut at ESL Pro League Season 18 will happen tomorrow against MOUZ at 01:30PM.