fer: "Now we need to focus more on quality than quantity"

We caught up with Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga following MIBR's 3rd-4th finish at the IEM Katowice Major and talked to him about where they are as a team and what the next steps are.

In their first tournament outing with the new-old roster, MIBR placed top-four, losing in the semi-finals to the eventual winners Astralis 2-0. Up to that point, the Brazilian team looked solid, barring a crushing 16-3 loss to Cloud9 in the opening game of the tournament.

Just before the grand final of the IEM Katowice Major was about to be played, we sat down with fer in the press room and learned his thoughts on the RFRSH model, playing with João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos again, and reuniting with Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado.

You finished top four in the first tournament with this roster. Where are you as a team right now, what is the feeling like?

We came to this tournament with two goals, one was to be Legends again and the other one was to have fun—I think we achieved both of those goals. But it is sad to lose every time, even though we only had 30 days, we prepared for 20 days at a bootcamp, I think it was a good bootcamp for us and we felt prepared for this tournament, but Astralis have a year and a half together, or something like that, so they are more prepared than us.

I think the match was kind of good for us, the first map [Overpass] I think we should've won, but we lost both pistols, we lost ecos, so it was kind of hard for us. And on Inferno they are one of the best... We were prepared for them on Train, so we felt like we could've won the series [if we reached the third map]. Unfortunately, we lost, and we are ok with the loss. Of course, everyone was sad yesterday, but today is a new day and we just have to practice more to win the next tournament.

In the AMA you did at the bootcamp, there was a mention about Astralis forcing this "RFRSH Model" way, professionalism, they want to treat it like a real sport. On the other hand, you guys, as you said now, want to have fun, play how you feel you should. With that in mind, how did the bootcamp go? Was it the classic approach, just playing the game?

At the bootcamp, as we are a new team, we thought that we have to play a lot of maps because we have to play some situations together, to get the teamplay down. That is what we did, we played a lot of maps, 6-7 a day, and we know that is too much. Now, we think that we need to focus more on quality than quantity. But on the bootcamp, we had to play a lot, and that is what we did, practiced a lot of maps so we can be prepared.

The model that Astralis have, being more professional and stuff, I think it is good, but as I said during the AMA, I don't think we have to copy someone else. We have to find our own way to prepare. If you want to play five maps a day, you play five maps a day. If you want to play two hours of DM, you play. If you feel prepared by doing certain stuff, you should do it. If it is not working, you should change and try new stuff, but I don't think you have to copy anyone.

With felps coming into the team you reformed that SK lineup. Back then there was the whole "felps and fer playing similar roles" thing that didn't work, what is it like nowdays with you and felps?

I think that in this team we tried to get new stuff from Liquid because zews and TACO came and they had success in the past there, so they tried to bring us some new ideas and we are trying to recreate ourselves. I think felps changed a lot of his game style to fit in this team, because we have the trio of me, FalleN and coldzera for so long and now we have TACO who we had for so long as well. So felps is the guy that needs to change more than us, but I think that everyone changed a little bit, mentality-wise, in-game stuff, and I think felps is doing amazingly as well. And I think our team is going the right way.

What do you think are the things, details you need to work on in-game? What are your goals for the next period?

I think we have to watch more demos from other teams to see what they are doing, because as I said, we just played. On the bootcamp, we just played as much as we could. So we didn't have enough time to watch their demos and see what they are doing, try to bring some new stuff which we don't have. We were thinking: 'We have these things, let's play using them and get better in our stuff'. But I think we need some new ideas and now our goal is to get these new ideas, watch other teams' demos, watch our demos to see our weaknesses and work on them. And I think we are going to do that.

You are reunited with zews now, for a long time you didn't have a coach, then you had YNk at the beggining of MIBR and now zews is back. What is it like working with him and his experience from coaching Liquid? How does that transfer to MIBR?

I think zews is an amazing person in real life. He is a guy that, every time you talk to him, you learn something about life and the game. This is the thing that helps in-game. On Liquid he was pretty good, but I think that people there trusted zews too much, they were trying to do whatever he says. In our team, zews knows that we also have some ideas and the trust is mutual. If you say 'zews, we should do this, it is going to be good', he thinks about it and prepares our idea to be played.

What you are trying to say is that Liquid relied on him too much, and now on MIBR, you have this back-and-forth where everyone has their ideas?

Yeah, that is what I mean. I think it is amazing to have him again, we didn't have a coach for a while as you said, but it was good for us because we still won like seven tournaments. However, with zews added to our team it is going to be even better. I'm looking to be working with him again and it is been pretty good so far.