FalleN: "Believe we can go through"

After winning a number of domestic online tournaments and LAN events, KaBuM will now take things to a whole new level as they will attend their first international competition, something that only two of their players, Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and Lincoln "⁠fnx⁠" Lau, have experienced in their careers.

It is thus with hope that KaBuM go into the French event, knowing also that they have been placed in a very hard group, with Titan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, CPH Wolves, HellRaisers and Platinium.

In this interview, which was conducted before the French ESWC qualifier and before it was known that E4US would not be able to attend the event, FalleN discusses the team's preparation for the tournament, his expectations and also his mission to give more exposure to countries that have so far been left out of the spotlight in CS:GO.

How did you prepare for the ESWC finals? Do you feel adequately prepared for this tournament?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: Our team gathered at my place for little over a month, we prepared for some local tournaments and, in my opinion, we have the best possible preparation considering the conditions we had. We want to move to a more appropriate gaming house when we go back. It has been a while since I have attended an international event, but I am confident we can do really well.

What kind of teams do you usually play against? Is it just Brazilian teams or also other South American teams?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: We usually practice against the best Brazilian teams and sometimes against rEAK, who are a good Chilean team.

This will be your first international CS:GO event. Not many teams know how you play. Do you think that can work in your favor, or do you miss that experience from competing at the highest level?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: The fact that we can surprise other teams on a tactical level is positive. However, we will have just five matches to use everything we prepared in the last weeks. Only the results of this group stage will answer that question. fnx and I are the only players with international experience, but I think the other three players on the team will surprise some people.

FalleN will attend his first big CS:GO event

It has been almost two years since Brazil last had a CS:GO team competing at a big event. Do you think the Brazilian scene took too long to embrace CS:GO?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: It is not about taking too long. We are distant from the European and the North American scenes, which is where Counter-Strike has really gone big. I think Valve's investment policy should reach out to other countries. We have thousands of players in South America and there is not even one qualifier for a major event here. Argentinians, Brazilians and Chileans play against each other online. It needs to change. My goal is to perform well at ESWC to make people realise that there are other regions out there that deserve some attention and investment.

Recently, your team took part in a showmatch against ProGaming.TD, which you won 2-1. Did you expect such a close game?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: We prepared for the ESWC finals for more than a month, and the opponents are always the same. Practicing against the same teams teams and having to play two tournament finals in less than two months, all that makes it hard for you to come up with something new. Our goal was always to prepare for ESWC, and we accomplished that, while still winning everything. ProGaming.TD are a great team, and I do not see the close outcome of that match as something negative. I just think we need to reinvent ourselves to make our domestic matches easier and to get those big wins we used to get during the first events on LAN.

Don't you think that the fact you are an FPS squad, not just a CS:GO one, which means that you play more than one game, can hinder your growth?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: When we started to play CrossFire it was because there were no CS:GO tournaments in Brazil. We have not played CrossFire since June. We are focused just on CS:GO.

fnx and FalleN to meet markeloff again

In Paris you will face Titan, NiP, HellRaisers, CPH Wolves and Platinium. Can you go through each team one at a time, and tell us what you think about them, and your chances against them?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: I followed on a daily basis all the matches played by French teams, HellRaisers and NiP. They have different styles. It seems NiP tried to reinvent themselves in the last online matches that I followed, and I am sure they will bring something new to this tournament. HellRaisers are trying to adapt to playing with one AWP following the addition of s1mple, who seems to be a great player. It will be nice to see markeloff again and relive the good moments we had from our coL - Na`Vi matches at IEM 2011.

CPH Wolves are a strong team who have been posting some good results against top teams online. I do not see them being that distant from us. The difference is that they practice and compete against those teams, and we do not.

Inside the game, our first expectation is to try to go through the group stage. We need to evaluate if we are going in the right direction in terms of our tactics and skill when pitted against the best teams in the world. Outside the game, my mission is to open the eyes of the CS community in general, because regions that are very active in the CS:GO market (in terms of keys, e-Sports cases, stream viewers, etc) are being left out of the global circuit.

What are your expectations going into the tournament? Do you think you can reach the playoffs?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: We strongly believe we can reach the next stage, even though we know there are far too many quality teams for just two slots. This group is very strong, but that is what happens when you have good teams as challengers.

Will we see KaBuM attending more events in the future?

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo: It is a huge investment to take a Brazilian team to an event like this. Our plane tickets cost $7,000 and were purchased by KaBuM. Then there is also hotel, food and other expenses, and we got the money for that with help of the community, through Games Academy. A lot of people helped us raise the money through donations and by participating in the activities we put together with our GA project. It was incredible, and our duty is to give our best in the tournament!