zakk joins Imperial

14-1-2023 17:57

The Brazilian skipper links up with the quintet to round out the roster ahead of the 2023 season.

Imperial have announced the addition of Rafael "⁠zakk⁠" Fernandes as the team's new head coach. The 31-year-old takes the reins from Lincoln "⁠fnx⁠" Lau, who stood behind the squad for close to five months following his benching back in August.

The move also comes just one day after the Brazilian ensemble welcomed Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian into the fold, who joins the side as a replacement for the outgoing Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga.

Imperial add JOTA; bid farewell to fer

zakk returns to a coaching position after departing 9z a fortnight ago

zakk makes the move to Imperial after previously representing 9z since March 2020. His tutelage proved to be a boon for the South American composition, who went on to secure a handful of local titles during the online era before following this up with a LAN victory at the Flow FiReLEAGUE Finals in November 2021.

More recently, the Brazilian skipper stood behind 9z in their runs through the Challengers Stage of both the PGL Antwerp and IEM Rio Majors. The side went winless at the Valve-sponsored event in Belgium, but rebounded in time for the tournament on home soil, where they put up a respectable 2-3 record to narrowly miss out on a Legends Stage berth.

Imperial's addition of the 31-year-old comes as the side attempts to recreate the strong showings witnessed towards the start of the roster's inception. The Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo-led squad notably made a Cinderella run to the Legends Stage of the PGL Antwerp Major to reach a peak of No. 14 on the world ranking. This run of good form wasn't built to last, however, with the Brazilian outfit exiting the following Major in Rio de Janeiro in joint-last place, and now sit outside the top 30 for the first time since May 2022.

Imperial now have the following roster:

Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass
Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo
Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo
Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes
Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian

Rafael "⁠zakk⁠" Fernandes (coach)

Cool

2023-01-14 17:57

12 replies

actually good addition to coaching

2023-01-14 17:58

11 replies

forkish

2023-01-14 18:12

still bad team with boltz.... they need a more agro guy ...

2023-01-14 18:16

8 replies

cant disagree

2023-01-14 18:43

With Vini, Chelo, and Jota? They need more agro? Imperial problem is not the players, even FNX was not that bad, the problem is tactical.

2023-01-14 19:15

4 replies

?? Jota is like coldzera , not agro. chelo only agro player vini also passive holder. all can play agressive , but not as good as they can play passive.

2023-01-14 19:30

3 replies

he prob doesnt know what agro means. That being said, VINI is not passive, but boltz is passive by nature. When boltz were at his prime and joined SK to replace fnx/felps, it was nice because even having to play a little more passive than we used to in Imortals, he was still a beast. And they had Taco, so. Now he has to be the most passive player and he cant play like that. So its probably going to be changed in 2023.

2023-01-14 22:35

1 reply

"he prob doesnt know what agro means" You probably never watched Jota play.

2023-01-15 07:48

Jota is NOTHING like Coldzera lol That player on mibr was exit

2023-01-15 07:47

-boltz+brnzan

2023-01-14 20:02

would be nice

2023-01-14 20:23

zakk after the first loss: pbs.twimg.com/media/FmcZdbMXkAIOnSD?form..

Not bad

2023-01-14 17:59

Man this team might actually be quite decent this year

2023-01-14 18:00

5 replies

they wont even get to top 20 i assure you, the only br team that can achieve something is furia, sad but true

2023-01-14 18:25

U are talking like that only because he left 9z haha

2023-01-14 18:32

im not talking about zakk, this teams are nothing but a mix of players from the SA scene. If they really want to achieve something they need to start from scratch, like luminostity or furia did back then.

2023-01-14 18:41