We sat down with Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo after MIBR's opening match at BLAST Pro Series Lisbon to ask him about the recent rumours surrounding the team, attending the Portuguese event with a stand-in and his goals for 2019.

With day one of BLAST Pro Series already behind us, MIBR are sitting in third place in the round-robin stage, bouncing back from a 14-16 defeat to Cloud9 in their opening match with a comprehensive 16-6 victory over NiP.

FalleN says that nothing is set in stone as there are still things to clear up

After the game against the North American side, we had a quick chat with FalleN in the mixed zone to discuss the decision to field Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce as a stand-in for Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga, the reports linking Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip and Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik with the exit door in the team, and his goals for 2019 after a rollercoaster of a year.

Why did you decide to pick swag for this event to replace fer and not a Brazilian player, for example?

We picked him because he speaks English, we all know him and he is not tied to any contract, so inviting him did not require much bureaucracy. It was also because he is a great player, we really like him and he played well.

He is a different player than fer. What kind of positions is he taking? How did you decide what he is doing in the server?

We have adapted some things, including now on Mirage, a map we will be playing a lot in this tournament. We have changed some things, putting Stewie where he likes to play the most, he usually plays on the A site. swag is a very complete player, he plays with every weapon, including the AWP, so he can really pull things off with any weapon.

What can you say about the situation that the team is currently going through? When can we expect some news?

For now, there is no news. Probably only next year. We are still discussing this with the players, looking at our options, but nothing is certain. There is nothing to say yet.

What are your goals for 2019?