biguzera: "Everything changed in these 2-3 months for me"

The Brazilian rifler sat down with HLTV not long after paiN qualified for the last-ever Major in CS:GO.

paiN made the trip to Monterrey, Mexico, brimming with confidence after a solid performance at ESL Pro League, where the Brazilian roster had defeated the likes of Liquid and OG en route to a 9-12th place finish.

Date	Matches
BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Americas RMR
10/04/2023	paiN 00:10 FURIA	Match

Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt and company didn't let off the gas once the Major qualifier began, tearing up the competition with three confident victories on the trot to guarantee a place at the BLAST.tv Paris Major. paiN will hop back in the server one more time on Sunday at 01:30 in a battle versus FURIA, where the winner will pick up the lone Legends Stage berth up for grabs at the Americas RMR.

HLTV managed to speak with biguzera shortly after paiN punched their ticket to the Major in France. The Brazilian helmsman spoke about how it feels to qualify for a Major, the transition to a leadership role within the team, paiN's potential as a roster moving forward.

You're qualified for the Major, just tell me how you're feeling right now, the emotions, what's going through your mind?

To be honest I'm speechless, I have no words to describe this feeling that I am feeling right now. It's something great. I just have no words because everything changed in these 2-3 months for me, I mean in the game, so the role and the new playstyle that I have to adopt, these kind of things.

Tell me more about that role change for you, you've had a lot of success after that role change came in, so what has that been like for you and adapting to that?

Most of the things that I know I learned from PKL, our last IGL, so I have to say thank you to him for teaching me a lot of things. My playstyle, I became a player that is less aggressive, now I play more passively than I used to play, and I start to think more. I play more passively behind the guys and talk more. I used to be a player who talked a lot in the team, the second caller, so for me I would say it was not difficult to adapt to IGL because I used to talk a lot with the guys.

Who is stepping up in that secondary role for you now, who's helping you out?

Actually I think everyone is helping a little bit. When I became an IGL I said to the guys, guys now I have no second caller in the team because I was playing with all of them and I know about everyone, and each one of you guys have to help me more. And they are, they are helping me a lot, so thank you to them as well.

As I said earlier, a lot of really good results for you recently, obviously the run at EPL as well. Just in terms of the level that you are showing, especially against international teams, how do you feel about your prospects now that you are qualified for the Major?

I think that all of these things are just the beginning. We kind of step up the level, in the international level, and I hope all the best for us.

Is that a level you think you can maintain? Obviously once you make this step up, a lot of teams are anti-stratting you, you have a lot more focus on the way you're playing, so do you think that is a level you can maintain?
Yeah, yeah. I said yesterday, my book of strats is so huge bro [laughs], so they can't stop everything.

Over here the job isn't quite done, there's still a match to be played for the Legends spot against either FURIA or Liquid [editor's note: this interview was conducted before FURIA won their match]. How important is getting that Legends spot for you versus just being in the Major itself?

It's so important for us. It's like three steps in front of everyone because when you go there, if you are not Legends you have to win three matches, and if you're a Legend you just made these steps. So I think it's so important for us, and we're going to fight a lot.