TACO: “[zews] is an amazing coach, an amazing friend and for me he’s the best in the world.”

Having once claimed five titles across six events and held the crown as the world’s best, such a lineup should be revered. Tainted by memories of an early exit at PGL Krakow into a player change rounding out 2017, few appreciate the quality of felps’ SK lineup and being reunited ahead of the Katowice Major, the Brazilians are facing a tall order to replicate such successes.

Exiting SK (now MIBR) during the early stages of 2018 TACO outshone his former teammates as Liquid cemented themselves amongst the world’s elite. Entering 2019 the Brazilian would again find himself alongside FalleN, fer and coldzera, arriving coupled with a familiar face in zews from Team Liquid.

Highlighted as an potential future powerhouse by Astralis we spoke with TACO following their semifinals defeat at the hands of the Danes and discussed this Brazilian reunion alongside what to expect from the South American side heading into upcoming events.

Allan: A great strength of SK/Luminosity across 2016 and 2017 was excellence during late round scenarios, especially retakes and after-plants. Across 2018 I think this strength diminished and moving back to a fully Brazilian team will improved communication see this attribute return to its former heights?

TACO: I don’t think [MIBR’s English speaking lineups] can blame communication for everything, of course communication is important and a key part of the game but they could speak decent English. Even though it was difficult for the Brazilians in hard situations like the late round and after-plants where it’s even worse to communicate in English, I don’t think they can blame only that. The biggest difference I saw was that they had two players used to playing a different style and for me that was the biggest difference from then to the fully Brazilian team we had before. I am really happy to be back, of course I was used to communicating in English because of Liquid but it feels good to communicate in portuguese again.

Let's talk about felps who played for SK in 2017 and made way for boltz as the year closed. Has felps changed as a player since then, inside or out of the game and is he better suited to the spots you have him in now?

Felps is a more experienced player now, he is more mature. At the time he was a super aggressive player and he is still a super aggressive player, he is really good at what he does. I’ve played against felps in the past, when I was playing in Brazil in 2015 I played against felps a lot and he is super annoying to play against. For our team we already have a system, the system that we created a few years ago and the system we like to play Counter-Strike with. He understands now that he has to adapt, he has to change his style, in some spots on some maps he understands that better than he would have done two years ago. This makes him a much better team player and even though people think that we failed with felps in 2017, we didn’t, we won five tournaments, it was a great lineup. Winning five big tournaments, we were the best team in the world in the rankings. Of course it didn’t work out in the end but in the short team we had an amazing year with felps and now playing with him is even better.

Alongside yourself and felps, zews - who coached this core during 2015 and 2016 - also made his return, having played under zews in Liquid as well as the Brazilian teams, what does zews bring to MIBR?

I think zews is the best coach in the world, by far, he is really good at what he does. Not only in game but outside of the game as well, he is really good at putting the pieces of the puzzle in the right places and dealing with people. In game he brings a lot for our team, for example, zews normally brings stuff that not only wins rounds, but matches. An good example was on Train versus Renegades, they were doing a B execute and I was playing with fer, I just called “fer, let’s do the zews setup” and it destroyed them. It was something really fast that came to my mind, zews was showing me before some practice we had like two weeks ago and he was like “hey this setup is good, I think you should do this with fer, you should try to practice it” and this example of a setup helped us win a really important round that would’ve broke our economy. Zews brings a lot in the game but also outside of the game, he is an amazing coach, an amazing friend and for me he’s the best in the world.

Having joined Liquid in November 2016, I think zews played a sizable part in shaping the North American squad into the force they are today, do you agree?

To be honest I think everyone in Liquid is really good, they have really great players, they have NAF who is amazing, EliGE who is really good and I don’t even have to talk about Twistzz, he is just great. They also have nitr0 who is a really good teamplayer, great guy to have in the team and really good In Game Leader as well. They were already a really good team and we cannot take anything away from them but I also think that zews helped a lot. I also think that I helped a lot, I brought them some stuff they didn’t have before that I think was really important for them. I cannot give all the tales from within the team but zews definitely helped a lot.

Delving into MIBR’s play on the CT side, I think the stewie/tarik lineup was a sensational team on CT, Train comes to mind as a highlight map in terms of variation, aggressions and information plays. What should we expect on the CT side with this current MIBR lineup?

I think we’re going to be back to the style we always played, but better since we are mixing a lot of new styles and we know how to deal with many situations now. When you play for one team and then change to another it’s your responsibility to bring the positive stuff you had in the old team over to the new one. That’s what I did with the MIBR guys and I’m sure they’ve learnt a lot with me and zews bringing across loads of new stuff from Liquid.

Touching on MIBR’s approach to the Terrorist side, of course it is still early days but what styles are MIBR looking to employ: playing with added pace, more contact plays, execute heavy?

It usually depends on the game plan we have, FalleN and zews play a big role in these decisions and these choices are really important during the game, but we also have really good players that know how to exploit gaps in the CT side. We have coldzera who is always thinking, whilst playing he is always thinking, also calling and giving ideas. Also with me, playing the corners of the map and feeding FalleN with information, I am always trying to read the setups and give FalleN important information to aid the calls. I think, even though FalleN and zews are great, especially FalleN who’s an amazing In Game Leader, having good players like me, coldzera, fer and felps next to him makes it easier. Of course we have a lot to improve but we are really comfortable with playing as T.

Moving forward many already tout MIBR as a future title contender and placing top four at 2019’s inaugural Major is certainly a promising start for the Brazilian squad. Only time will tell what prospects lie ahead for TACO and company, although if the rich history of this core is anything to go by, fireworks could be on the horizon.

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Photo credit: StarLadder