Brehze: "It was demotivating to not play as well as I used to; I'm just hoping to get that ball rolling again"

Evil Geniuses' long-time member had a chat with HLTV following their surprise win over Imperial in the Americas RMR's first round.

A slow start to the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR due to technical issues finally gave way to the first round of matches, in which Evil Geniuses lined up against Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo's Imperial on Inferno. The North American squad came out ahead thanks to a fantastic offensive half, spearheaded by Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte and Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta, powering a 16-12 victory against the Brazilians.

Brehze, now the last remaining member of the original Evil Geniuses lineup from 2019, sat down with HLTV following their first win at the Americas RMR to talk about the team's recent woes, their unexpected invite to the event, and their upcoming fixture against FURIA.

Obviously a pretty good start for you here, unexpected would you say?

I think we've been playing pretty well in practice coming into this even if we weren't expected to use Jadan, but I think we are all in pretty good form right now. Maybe it was a little unexpected, but I don't doubt us at all.

You were telling me before that you found out you were coming here last minute. Can you walk me through learning about that last-second invite, just what the original conversation was in the team, and how you felt?

It was during our days off and I was completely off the internet. They found out and I did not even realize until like a day later so they already knew. When I found out I was like: "Oh wow! We're just going," so I mean we're all obviously super excited and we're not taking this chance for granted and obviously we did not earnt it to be here, but we're going to take this chance around with it.

I have to talk about the 'kassad Grand Slam' that was kind of happening, if you heard of it. Just having that kind of conversation during your whole run through the qualifier, did get in your heads at all? Did it add any pressure? What was it like internally for the team?

Nah, I have been in here for a while now and I have been through the ups and downs with Evil Geniuses with all the different rosters and all the talk that has been happening around the scene. It doesn't bother me, maybe for the other guys it's a little bit of pressure, but yeah, there's nothing there for me.

Evil Geniuses as an organization obviously had this 'Blueprint' program that was going on with multiple rosters and now it is kind of downsized into just having EG Black. For you as a member of the main team, what do you see that academy project as in terms of how players can progress now that there's just one lineup?

I guess it makes it a little easier, as they have fewer people to compete against with, I guess. I think for the academy players that are playing, it is an easier step up now that there are only two rosters. If I was in their shoes, I would look at it as a good opportunity.

Your game here was against Imperial and you won 16-12. You had a pretty decent performance, you and Tim [autimatic] were leading in frags at the end. You recently came under fire for your performances compared to the kind of level you used to put up back in the NRG and early EG days, can you tell me a little about how you feel about your performances and the discussion about it online and if it even affects you?

Yeah I mean for myself, during the whole COVID era when we stepped away from LAN it kind of hurt me. Obviously, the roster changes and the stuff we have been through over the years, at least for myself as I have been here for a while, It's never easy to start with a new group of guys every four or five months. It was definitely demotivating to not play as well as I used to, but I think in Counter-Strike once you get the ball rolling and you get that confidence, it doesn't stop. I know I can play at that level again, so I am just hoping to get that ball rolling again.

Is that confidence something you would say has generally just been missing based on the way the lineup is performing, or is it something more internal in terms of communication? What leads to that lack of confidence for you right now?

Yeah it all comes down to winning and obviously, we have been not winning for a while. Getting LAN wins and series wins, it all gives confidence and we are not having many of them, so when that starts happening and we have something going our way for once, that's when stuff will start to change.

How do you feel about your current lineup? Obviously, you have roster changes coming, but in general, how has it been playing with Tim and NeaLaN so far?

I love my team. We have a really good dynamic going on and we have a lot of help from a lot of different people, we have a huge support staff. I love my team and the players I am playing with, it's just that we have to put in all that work and get some wins.

Going into tomorrow and your match against FURIA. Looking at that, It's still a best-of-one match, how do you feel going up against them in the next game?

I mean, back in the day I loved playing against FURIA as I feel like that was a team I always performed well against. I think Brazilian teams in general I always have a pretty good stat record against, but obviously, they are a really hot team right now and have pretty good players, so we have to come out swinging, but yeah I don't think I have any problem playing FURIA.