In the last year and a half, we have watched the setting sun of the Brazilian empire. At the end of 2017 they look primed to take over the world. They ended that year with two victories at EPL Season 6 Finals and BLAST Copenhagen. MIBR never reached that strength again as they have struggled trying to find a coherent identity amidst multiple roster changes. After watching them, I believe that MIBR’s root problem is their inability to challenge and overturn the truisms that made them the best team in the world years ago.





The loss of FalleN’s GMing was the first domino to fall





To understand MIBR’s current situation, we have to look at why they are in this situation to begin with. If you look through Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo’s entrance into the international CS:GO scene from 2015-2017, you will notice a significant pattern in his lineups. Every lineup FalleN was a part of during that period consistently made the right roster moves at the right times. FalleN consistently recognized when his teams were stagnating, which players to remove, and which to add.





That is no longer possible. When FalleN tried to pull the same move in early 2018, buyouts of the Brazilian players were too high and MIBR couldn’t justify the cost. That is when MIBR started to look for international players and eventually settled on Jake “Stewie2K” Yip and Tarik “tarik” Celik.





The MIBR&NA lineup and the first truism





MIBR’s 2018 lineup is one of the odder ones in history. The lineup was: FalleN, Marcelo “Coldzera” David, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Stewie2K, and tarik. It was strange seeing two NA players in a team called Made in Brazil, but what was even stranger was the style of play that MIBR decided to go with.





Both Stewie2K and tarik had just come off of winning the Major in early 2018 using a loose and aggressive style of play. The composition of MIBR had three naturally aggressive players: Stewie2K, tarik, and fer. FalleN could play both aggressive and passive styles and Coldzera was a passive player.





On paper, this was a lineup that should have played an aggressive loose style built around their three aggressive riflers: Fer, Stewie2K, and tarik. Instead the team stuck to the SK style of play which had made them the best from 2016-2017. The squad failed to live up to the amount of firepower they had and it didn’t turn things around until Janko “YNk” Paunovic joined the team. The squad’s best results came during this period with a top four at the FACEIT Major, and two second place finishes at BLAST Istanbul and ECS Season 6 finals.





MIBR started to incorporate more of the explosive NA style tactics, but eventually reverted back to a similar style of play they used with the all Brazilian lineups. The MIBR squad decided that an international mix wasn’t for them and they eventually recruited Epitacio “TACO” de Melo, Joao “felps” Vasconcellos, and Wilton “zews” Prado.





If you look at the games, their chosen style of play, and their eventual roster moves, there is a theme that runs through all of those events. MIBR played with this inherent truism, they believed that their SK style of play which had dominated the world from 2016-2017 was the best answer for them. They refused to change or alter their style even in the face of a lineup that whose natural strengths were in the polar opposite direction.





Style is a tricky thing however as it’s effectiveness is dependent on the players you have and the form you are in. Going into 2019, MIBR had FalleN, Coldzera, TACO, fer, and felps. While I disagree with their stylistic choice in 2018, it made sense to play the SK style in 2019. However they ran into a second truism which has haunted their 2019 run.





The second truism, Fer must be a superstar

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When the MIBR reunion was announced, there was hype surrounding the announcement. While the MIBR 2018 lineup had some successes, they had lost a lot of what had made them exciting. They no longer had the amazing team play or great clutch moments that characterized them in 2017. So the return of TACO and zews to the lineup felt like a great move for the team.





MIBR’s first choice for a fifth was Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato according to a report from VPEsports. Dekay later reported that they were in talks with Vito “kNgV-” Guiseppe. MIBR eventually landed on felps. The felps roster died in 2017 as he couldn’t play the role the SK players wanted of him and their map pool disintegrated as a result.





However there were legitimate reasons to be positive about the potential reunion. Zews was a great coach on Liquid and helped them become the second best team in the world in 2018. He could use his coaching to help felps reintegrate back into the lineup. TACO had just come off a great year with Liquid and proved why he was a valuable support player to have around.





The final reason to be hyped for the Brazilian reunion was a potential change in felps’ role. In 2018 fer was nowhere close to the superstar rifler he was in 2017. The other top players had started to neutralize his game. In terms of raw stats, fer went from a 1.14 rating in 2017 to a 1.01 rating in 2018 in LAN games. So with felps coming back into the squad in 2019, it looked like it could be felps’ turn to become the superstar rifler with fer taking a backseat as a supportive player. This was exactly what fer did back in 2016 when FalleN took the space as the aggressive playmaker of the team.





Thus we come to the second truism of MIBR, fer must be the aggressive superstar player. I don’t know why, but throughout all of 2019 fer has continued to play the same he has from 2017-2018. In 2017 fer could reliably surprise his opponents and win his duels. In 2019, he’s taking too many resources for the team and isn’t outputting enough starpower to justify his role as the aggressive star player.





MIBR tried to break the mold once before





While I have been critical of MIBR’s adherence to these old truisms, it’s worth pointing out that they have tried to break the mold once before. Back in 2017 when felps first joined the lineup, FalleN tried to do something radical with his lineup. He let both fer and felps off the chain. This got them second place at DreamHack master Las Vegas 2017. However it also bombed them out of IEM World Championship the following event.





Ever since that moment, SK/MIBR have refused to challenge either truism. They have stuck to their slow controlled default style and they have refused to consider having anyone else take fer’s roles as an aggressive rifler. The frustrating thing for MIBR is that they seem to realize that they need to change their style as well. On twitter, Coldzera replied to a fan tweeting, “Our problem is clear, we're missing skill sometimes when we need everyone, we need to understand how to change up our playstyle.”





FalleN mirrored these sentiments in a recent interview with HTLV where he said, “Somehow, I think this core, our core, we need to reinvent ourselves.”





It’s clear that something needs to change.





At the breaking point





In many ways, MIBR now remind me of NiP back when Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson left the team. Back them NiP stuck with the same style of play with the same core four players as they rotated a fifth player in and out. They deteriorated over time and refused to challenge their own truisms of how they should approached the game. By the time they realized something needed to change, it was too late. MIBR are now in the exact same situation. HLTV reported that is requesting the team to bench him. The core is on the verge of breaking apart. If MIBR fail to overcome these truisms in their next few events, it will be the death knell of this lineup.