fer: "I don't think we suffer much regarding roles; style is the thing that hurts us sometimes"

After MIBR came out on top of their opening match against MOUZ at ECS Season 6 Finals, we got a hold of Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga to ask him about recent struggles and their upcoming series against Astralis.

The 27-year-old touched on MIBR's issues at their latest tournaments, BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen and IEM Chicago, at which they placed last and 9th-12th, respectively.

We then asked fer about ECS, where the Brazilians got off to a good start after taking down MOUZ for the third time in a row. That sets them on a collision course with Astralis, with whom MIBR have shared close maps in recent times.

After looking like you were the right path around the Major, you have since fallen off again at the last couple of tournaments, last place at BLAST and a group stage exit in Chicago - what do you think has been going on at these past couple of events?

Despite the results, I think we didn't have a bad tournament at BLAST, we had three 13-16 or 14-16s, so it was close games. Actually, our mindset was a bit shaky, we had some stupid, unhealthy discussions. Sometimes we just waste too much time explaining things, talking shit, or things that are not going to help us improve. I think we are in the right mindset now so that's why I think everyone is comfortable playing with each other right now.

Analysts often bring up problems with clashing roles when talking about your team, is that something that you have gone up against? Do you agree with that?

Talking about the roles, I don't think it's a big deal for us, but we are actually used to playing another style. I think the style is the thing that hurts us sometimes because the Americans have a totally different style from us, so we're trying to adapt to their style and they're trying to adapt to ours. I think we are good now, sometimes they want to rush things and we're used to being patient, waiting for mistakes, so sometimes we have a clash of styles in some games.

But, regarding roles, I don't think we suffer too much. We don't have a real lurker and, in the past, we had fnx, we had boltz doing it sometimes, we are used to having a full lurker and we don't have one anymore. In this team, everyone is able to lurk, but it's not a set role. Sometimes it's bad because the lurker is like a specialist in doing this thing, but when you don't have it, you have to adjust and put someone there. So I think maybe the lurker thing, but I don't think the roles hurt us too much.

Talking about ECS, this was your third win in a row against mousesports and it has been quite convincing every time, but you had had problems against them in the past in previous versions of your team, is there something you figured out about them? Why does this version of MIBR work this well against mouz?

In the past, when we were struggling to beat them and they beat us something like three or four times in a row, when we saw them, we didn't expect too much from them. We weren't worried about them, but they beat us the first time and we were like 'these guys are good, we have to prepare more against them,' because they have fast strats, they know how to change the pace, they're really smart players, and chrisJ was calling for them and they were doing really well.

Now, they have STYKO again and they're trying to get in shape again, and I think it's more about us than about them, to be honest. I think we were struggling because we were playing badly and, of course, they're a really good team, but when we are in a good mindset, we can beat them.

You've got Astralis coming up in the winners' match, you mentioned the close games at BLAST and Astralis were one of them, what do you make of your chances in the upcoming series?

I think it's going to be a good game. They picked Overpass the last time against us and we were playing it really well, so we feel comfortable playing it against them, but I don't think they're going to make this "mistake" again.

They weren't cocky, but they were super confident on Overpass and we beat them, so I expect a good match against them. At BLAST, we made a lot of mistakes as we were making in other tournaments, but I think if we don't commit a lot of mistakes, we can beat them.