We were able to talk to Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo for a brief moment after MIBR’s loss at IEM Katowice to Astralis in the semi-finals. We were curious about what MIBR could have done better, and if their preparation against Astralis was the best that it could have been. Here is what FalleN had to say.

Daily Esports: Congratulations on getting so far in the IEM Katowice Major. Getting to the semi-final must be a huge achievement in itself despite the fact that you probably wanted to get to the grand final. So, the first thing I wanted to ask is about your first map yesterday against Astralis. You nearly managed to close out Overpass. What do you think could have been executed better on Overpass that you think could have locked out the map in your favor?

FalleN: Definitely pistol rounds. If we could have won at least one of them it would have made our lives easier. Some clutch rounds in which we actually had the upper hand but we didn’t play them out properly. The fourteen-fourteen round was a five-versus-four that really decided the game. And even though we had the advantage in terms of numbers, they had a positional advantage as they had the bombsite. It was kinda a hard retake. And I had a lead that some guy would be trucking around the area during the retake, but I didn’t check it fully and some of my teammates didn’t follow me to really clear that part as well and that kinda cost us the round. But there were many, many detailed situations during that game that could bring us a round, or even take away a round from us. So you can’t really only think of the rounds that could have gone in your favor, right? There were some that could have gone in their favor as well. And that’s what a good match is about; it was a difficult one and a detailed one, I’d say.

DES: What about in terms of preparation? Do you think you were fully prepared, or could you have prepared a little bit more against Astralis?

FalleN: Oh, I’m pretty sure we did the most we could in terms of preparation. We have been practicing for more than 25 days almost, like, [for an insane] amount of time every day, and I think we got on a very good condition in terms of gameplay. We improved game after game during the competition as well. But we need more time, and we need more experience like playing the tournaments again, facing Astralis and dealing with the emotions that come with [failure], dealing with the emotions that come with playing on stage again. So there’s a lot of things you have to overcome individually and as a team to grow up and really get to this level. And that’s what Astralis did and that’s why they’re so superior right now, and that’s something that’s in progress for us. And so, right now our heads are up because we know we did a good job for our first tournament [of 2019 with the new MIBR lineup].

It is indeed impressive what MIBR has achieved. Coming into 2019 after the departure of Jake “Stewie2K” Yip and Tarik “tarik” Celik, the lineup has come back to its SK Gaming days with only Brazilian players and a Brazilian coach on board. The year looks promising off the bat. Perhaps we’ll finally see a worthy challenger to the Astralis era.

What do you think of MIBR’s lineup and FalleN’s answers? Let us know down below. For more CSGO coverage, check out our interviews with Lekr0, Jkaem, and CAth!