FalleN: "Huge hug to all who helped"

KaBuM started off with a loss to mousesports, but managed to overcome INSHOCK in the lower bracket, and at this moment are waiting for their next match.

The team's captain and leader Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo gave us a few minutes to talk about KaBuM's preparation in the last week, specific match-ups and plans for the upcoming major in case they managed to qualify.

You only managed to get a few days of practice because you didn't know whether you'd be able to come here or not, how has your preparation been?

"We have been practicing for like one week after ClutchCon, we stayed in the arena, I'm very thankful for them, they let us play there for a week. We played almost thirteen hours a day, we have been practicing against NA teams, CLG, Denial, this kind of teams. Our preparation was good, it's different to play against Europeans, but we liked to play against NA teams."

You knew you'd meet mousesports and then either Cloud9 or INSHOCK, did you prepare for specific match-ups?

"Mousesports, we watched a few demos from them, we expected to play dust2. They changed some stuff on CT side, but we took some time to understand what was happening, so we started losing it. I think we could have won this game, but we lost two pistols and two ecos, so it's pretty difficult to win a match with this happening. The two ecos and pistols made us lose the game."

What about the other teams from group B, was there anybody who you focused on in practice?

"We didn't practice a lot against Cloud9, because they weren't online too much. We know they are good, they had good maps against top teams, but we had a good match against them at MLG on mirage, which we won. We could have had a good match against them, it's a good opponent."

Do you feel like teams are afraid of your de_mirage now after you beat fnatic and Cloud9 on it? 

"It's funny because we don't know why our mirage is so good, to be honest. We have a lot of tactics, but we also do other maps too. We have been figuring out how to make the other maps look like mirage, so we could bring the same level for our game. But I don't know, they're scared, everyone's just vetoing mirage, I think that makes sense. I guess they think we're only playing mirage after doing some good maps."

You already got into the match with mousesports a little bit, but is there something else that stood out to you in the match, something you could've done better?

"I guess we should have won some pistols, I think this changed the game. About the eco round, I think fer was going lower dark and zqk was covering him, but for some reason zqk went to B and a guy with a glock came from behind fer and we lost that eco, starting like this. This round changed a lot, we had a good start as CT, we won an eco round against them too."

Now the match with INSHOCK, it was even closer, you got off to a good start, then they picked up, but you won the match as CT in the end.

"It's nuke, when you start as T, it's pretty difficult and five rounds is still good. We only did five rounds because we won the pistol, so it was not that good. We should've done better. But they played really well on CT side, but us as CT, we just did our job, we lost one or two rounds only."

You don't know who you're going to face right now, but it's going to be one of the other four teams, which one of them would you rather play?

"I can't pick one. I'll be watching the games, looking for some weakness from the teams, I don't know, I just want to pass the groups, because our team was putting a lot of effort in it, we practiced a lot, dedicated ourselves a lot. I mean, it would be so cool for the Brazilian community, they helped us a lot to go there. I just want to pass the group for them."

In case you do pass the groups and you go to Katowice next month, what's going to be the plan for the month? Is there a possibility of going to a bootcamp in Europe?

"There is, there is. We are saving some money and of course talk to sponsors and stuff. If we manage to pass the group and go to the major, we'll probably gonna try to go for a bootcamp for like ten days or something, maybe in Sweden or something. We need to play against the best teams so we can compete against them."

Do you have any last words, shoutouts to donators, fans, sponsors?

"I would like to send a huge hug to all Brazilian people who donated to us, they are cheering right now, they are suffering for us. And there are some of the people too from outside Brazil, people from Europe, some NA guys, flusha from fnatic actually did a lot of help for us, ESEA, they helped us a lot. So thanks for these guys, we wouldn't be here without you guys, I hope we can pass the group and go to the major for you."

You can expect at least a few more interviews like this one as the day progresses and we get to learn more names advancing to the main event in Katowice in mid-March.