nak: "We set being able to beat some tier 1 teams as a goal"

We caught up with Renato "⁠nak⁠" Nakano, whose Sharks were able to upset North in Odense before being knocked out of the tournament on day three by Natus Vincere.

Sharks came to the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals as the big underdogs of the tournament, and were defeated convincingly by MIBR in their opener, 2-16. They then managed to inflict some damage of their own, however, beating North in a two-map series, before eventually being knocked out by the Ukrainian-Russian side Natus Vincere.

In the interview, nak talks about traveling between Brazil and Portugal, how that has affected the team, some of the matches played in Odense (including their upset against North), and the team's future goals, among other topics.

You’re a Brazilian team, but you have spent some time in Portugal. How has that helped you?

This time in Europe has helped us a lot in training. The variety and quality of the teams in Europe is very large, which makes it easier to train whenever we want, unlike Brazil where we have much less training time. In addition to training, we gained more experience in online qualifiers.

You’re in Brazil now, do you think you’ll come back to Europe?

We will spend time in Portugal and Brazil next year. We have to take advantage of the privilege that we have to train in Europe, these are the periods that we have evolved the most. So we can mix between the two continents, trying to play the most amount of tournaments and qualifiers.

You lost both matches at last season’s Pro League Finals. This time around you managed to upset North. Did you expect that?

To be honest, that was our goal this time. Last season we did an O.K. job. Being the team's first big tournament, we put up a good fight against mousesports. We started winning that game 7-1 and took one map off of Cloud9, who were back then the current Major champions. But shortly after Dallas, we set being able to beat some tier 1 teams as a goal, and break that barrier. Gladly, it happened, so we are happy that we achieved our goal.

What happened in the match against MIBR? Did you expect it would be so one-sided?

I knew it would be a very difficult match, especially emotionally. With a team like MIBR, you can't hesitate or make small mistakes at any moment because they grow and take advantage of it. It was a one team game. We expected a more balanced game, for sure, but it was a great challenge and we learned a lot from it.

You have PLG up next. Any particular preparation for that tournament?

We are training here every day and we will continue until Sunday. We have to prepare some new things, especially after beating North. Teams are going to be watching us and see what we did. We like to always prepare some different small strats tournament after tournament.

What are your goals for next year? How high do you think this lineup can go?

As I said before, the goals we set for the two ESL Pro League Finals were met. Now, we have to increase them to keep growing step by step. Next year we hope will be great for us, maybe we'll try to enter and stick in the top 30, and show up at more tier 1 level tournaments.

Lastly, a personal question. You played in teams like the old MIBR back in 1.6, but were coaching/managing Luminosity when they moved to North America early on in CS:GO. What was it that made you decide to start playing again?

It was after the coach period I spent with Luminosity. I saw all the big tournaments, the structure, the events, and I realized that what I like the most is the competition, and the competition in CS:GO is at a very high level.