VINI: "We made the right call picking up noway and decenty, they are incredible"

Imperial's captain was all smiles after his team went undefeated to make the Major.

Imperial dominated the Americas RMR with a 3-0 record to secure a Major berth, ravaging NRG, M80, and paiN while dropping just 14 rounds across four maps in the process.

The organization last fielded a team at the IEM Rio Major, one around Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, but missed the BLAST.tv Paris Major and built a new roster around Vinicius "⁠VINI⁠" Figueiredo, who transitioned into a full-time captain's role for the first time.

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Imperial add felps, HEN1; VINI takes up leadership duties

The former FURIA rifler was all smiles when HLTV spoke to him after Imperial qualified, excited about the team's result and their upcoming events. "it's the greatest start we could ever imagine because we're going to the Major 3-0, and after that we have a lot of tier-S tournaments, and that's all we can wish for," he said.

The 24-year-old also touched on his development as an in-game leader and creating a roster with younger and lesser-known Brazilian talent, including Kaiky "⁠noway⁠" Santos who had never played a LAN before the RMR. "I think we just did a good job of scouting and finding them," VINI stated. The Brazilian captain later touched on João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos and Henrique "⁠HEN1⁠" Teles's form on this roster, and spoke about the decision to stay in Brazil to practice before the RMR instead of bootcamping in Europe.

If you do not see the SoundCloud embed above, you can listen to the full interview here.

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You're through to the Major, huge result for you guys. How are you feeling after that?

An insane result, it feels amazing. I think everyone deserved that. We worked so hard the last three months since we built this lineup. We played a lot of qualifiers, tournaments, and I think it's the greatest start we could ever imagine because we're going to the Major 3-0, and after that we have a lot of tier-S tournaments, and that's all we can wish for. We just want to play the game.

Talk me through building this lineup a bit. You also took up in-game leading in July, so tell me about the journey of putting this lineup together.

I think it was a mess, actually, because we just had so many ups and downs, and with me turning IGL at the same time. When we picked up decenty and noway, everyone was just like, 'Why are we picking players that have no experience?' But we made the right call, they are incredible.

We are working really well as a team. Everyone has good chemistry, helping and trying to get better, and we know that everyone has the same dream, to play on the big stage. Personally, for me, it was a big motivation because I could focus on new things. I am focusing on how to be a leader with these guys, how to learn the maps in a new way, and how to counter strat the other teams, and at the same time play good. So I think everything is clicking.

Can you tell me more about that journey just from your perspective in terms of becoming a leader. What has that experience been like?

I think it was a little bit hard because first of all, I needed to figure out how I wanted to play the game, and then I needed to figure out how the players that I had were usually playing the game. So the thing was, I knew felps was hyper-aggressive, so I needed to build something around him and just put the new guys in comfortable positions.

That's something other teams do differently because normally you pick up the younger guys and just put them on B Mirage and tell them to try your best, and I think we're just giving them a lot of space to shine and it's paying off.

You said that when you picked up noway and decenty, people were questioning the decision. Talk to me about proving them wrong and also the process of picking up these players. who have now been able to make it to a Major with you.

It's the best feeling when you get it right, because noway never played a tournament before. This is his first LAN ever, and he was just streaming from his home. I think we just did a good job of scouting and finding them. He already had some previous experience but not of this caliber, so it was more about zakk and our staff giving opportunities to players and just playing a lot of CS. They're trying to fix the mistakes and listening to our feedback, and they are not choking their pressure situations. They just play insanely today.

When FalleN left this team and you took over leadership, that was a big transition for you. What's it been like for you trying to establish yourself as a leader and bring this team up through the practice environment due to not being able to go to Europe as much?

We chose a different path because we practiced against everyone in South America, and we can see that it's not the practice that fixes things, in my opinion, because it's a totally different game. They just run around and try to shoot you in scrims, and when you play tournaments against them, they're just hiding on sites.

So instead of sacrificing our whole semester because of a one-month bootcamp with European teams that we're not going to face, we wanted to wreck everyone in Brazil, get our confidence in tournaments, and I think that's why we got this result.

You were talking earlier about teams recycling talents a little bit and giving new players bad roles. felps had a down period in his career, HEN1 has kind of been up and down after FURIA. What has it been like bringing them back into the fold like this and helping them achieve better results?

They are key players in the team. I don't think you can have four youngsters because you need someone they can rely on. So we kind of have familyhood. I would say like noway is felps' child, and decency is HEN1's. They're fathers and I just take care of all the children.

It's kind of like that, because they need someone to rely on in the matches. In the first two games here we just stomped everyone and the guys were just like, 'Let's play. If the IGL is like that, why can't we do the same?' I think this mix of experience is really key for the team right now.

The transition to IGL is something that you don't see that many players do successfully. What do you think has helped differentiate you from the other players who've tried to do this transition?

It's a hard question, to be honest. I don't see myself as successful as maybe I should because I didn't play against the top teams as an IGL. I'm just evolving with the guys, with the lineup. I think every step is really important for my progression right now.

When people talk to me about my style, I'm just like, 'Man, I don't know. I just play the game.' [laughs] I'm just calling and doing things that we are comfortable with in practice. I think the more important part for me is just my leadership with them, and maintaining calmness in tough situations. That's why they rely so much on me.

To make it to a Major with this team after that whole period in FURIA, and doing it with an entirely different lineup. How does that feel for you?

It's a goal achieved. We're going to celebrate a lot, but just qualifying for the Major is not the big prize, it's just a step. We want to become a bigger team, so in four days we'll have an important match against Monte in the BLAST Showdown. After that, we're going to practice and probably have some qualifiers. We want to be in all the tournaments that we can and go the furthest we can. Our goal here is to win something big, not just qualify.

NEKIZ told me yesterday that a lot of Brazilian teams just want to be the best Brazilian team and not the best team in the world. What do you think about that?

I think it's more because of the fan base, to be honest. I think the fan base just doesn't see any big tournaments getting achieved by our region. So every little thing could be like a super surprise, but we don't see it like that. Obviously, we went 3-0 here, it's awesome, and everyone is super happy. But we know what our goal is and we're going to work towards that.