biguzera: "If I had one word to describe this squad, it's 'motivated'"
paiN was considered a potential 0-3 candidate for those sharing their Pick 'Ems online. The team was not considered one of the stronger candidates from the Americas region. The Brazilian squad has been plying its trade in its home country for the past several months as it prepares to fight for a place amongst the best in the world this Spring in Copenhagen.
Now, paiN accomplished that goal and more. They've already knocked off Apeks thanks to a surprising 13-10 victory on Vertigo earlier today. The biggest difference maker was Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt who not only led his team to victory thanks to his excellent calling, but also with 22 kills, 104.5 ADR, and a 1.66 HLTV Rating. After the win, Dust2.us' Ryan Friend spoke with the IGL to learn more about the match, how this team compares to older version of paiN, and who he would like to face in the next round.
Below is a snippet of the conversation, you can find the full interview at the end of the article and on our YouTube.
The veto was somewhat interesting as Apeks chose to ban second, not first like many of the high seeds. Was that something you were expecting?
Yeah, actually the veto was super normal for us. We were expecting to play Vertigo. Apeks does not have a lot of good maps, only 50% or 40% win rates.
Despite going down 0-4, you continued to penetrate onto the bombsite, you had several plants. It seemed very, hyper-aggressive. Was that all part of the game plan?
We knew that nawwk is a passive-AWPer and we knew that A-site was a little bit weak. We decided to start forcing on the A-site and we started to play a lot there. I think that the beginning of the map was difficult for us because the four initial rounds came down to situations.
You've been with paiN for so long, how does this squad compare to the previous iterations that you've had?
I think if I had one word to describe this squad, it's "motivated". They want to be here, they want to win, and they want a lot. They wake up early everyday, work a lot, and I think they deserve it."
