biguzera on his clutches: "I told the team, 'today I'm going to bait'"

paiN's captain has been outspoken in claiming issues with practice rooms and the schedule at the Major, but his team now sit one win away from the Elimination stage.

Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt has come into his third Major with a point to prove. He is the only remaining member from paiN's roster that attended the Paris Major last year, and has taken on a true father role for a young side that is once again punching above their weight.

The latest scalp is of ENCE, with biguzera posting a 2.01 rating and three back-to-back clutches as he led by example once again.

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biguzera has also been critical about conditions at the PGL Major, around "small issues" like a lack of snack rooms, adjustable desks in practice rooms, and not having enough time to prepare for their 1-0 game against Eternal Fire.

"I have played a lot of tournaments, not just in Brazil, and for me this tournament is crazy," he said. "It's not like a Major. It doesn't feel like a Major."

PGL responded to HLTV with a comment — that can be found in full at the end of the article —, denying some of his claims and re-iterating that teams were given financial support for snacks and drinks. paiN were also given help, they say, to try and adjust biguzera's desk height in the practice room.

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Here with biguzera, crazy game stomping ENCE, mostly off the back of your three huge clutches. Tell me how it went for you.

I was super confident today. I told the guys, 'Today I'm going to bait,' because I don't know, I was just confident, I don't go first. And it worked. So I'm pretty happy.

What's it like to play against an IGL like gla1ve? A lot's been made of Brazilian teams against European teams, the NEKIZ comment, so what's it like to match up with these teams, and outcall them too?

gla1ve won a lot, when we play against this type of guy it's so big for us. But in the server, you cannot respect them, because then they will disrespect us. We just have to be confident all the time, that's all.

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You're the only one here from the last paiN roster that was at Paris. Do you feel the burden on you as the franchise player, the player that defines paiN?

Yeah, I know I'm the face of paiN Gaming, they always say this in Brazil because I've been here for five years. But I don't feel the pressure, I can see this as a good thing. For me, it's so good to be the face of paiN. I'm so happy to be here, and so happy with the team, and the organization overall.

Having such a young team, Lynn Vision was a glaring example yesterday, how hard is it to close these games out? You had this round near the end where you froze and caught them off right, that patience. How hard is it to stop your team getting over-excited in moments like that?

I have to say it's so difficult [laughs]. Younger players always think negative things and not positive things. They always think 'We cannot beat ENCE,' and I always try and tell them that it's a normal match. We practice every day, every week, against these kinds of teams so we just have to play our game the same. It's normal, and the result comes.

Is it a bit of a benefit for Brazilian teams? You do get to practice against them, you're in Portugal a lot, but in officials is it an advantage that Brazil is often a bit isolated?

Of course, there's a big difference, a big gap. Most of the time we are in Brazil but when we can bootcamp in Portugal it's so good for us. The good teams are here, the good pracs are here. We have to be here, to learn, and to improve all of the time. The gap is so huge.

Looking forward to your next games, 2-1 now, with a really good chance to go through?

Of course. Other people said that ENCE was the best team at the tournament, some people said, but I think every team is on the same level. Every team can beat every team. So I think we'll go through.

And I have to ask, you did make some comments about the practice rooms. Can you maybe elaborate on that?

I have a lot of problems. I have to say, I'm professional, and since PGL Major Stockholm in 2021 I was there, and I said to the guys from PGL that we cannot play on a table with no adjustable height. For me, it's so crazy because on the stage I play so high, but in the practice room I play this high [gestures low] and there, this high [gestures higher]. It's like 5cm of gap. It's so different.

It's the small mistakes, that are coming every day. Yesterday, we had no water. There's no bathroom in the prac room. Every tournament we played had a bathroom, it's super normal. We don't have a snack room, that kind of thing to get water. For me it's basic. We don't have a lot of things which, for me, isn't fair. These kinds of things can snowball, and keep going and going, and now for me, everything is wrong, almost everything.

Do you think it's a case of players having really high standards, with the way ESL and BLAST treat their players? Is it hard for PGL to meet those standards? Or is it a case of 'it's a Major, things should be here'?

Yeah, for me, it's a Major. If PGL knows they're going to host a Major, it has to be like a Major. We cannot play a Major like it's a small tournament with my neighbor. I have played a lot of tournaments, not just in Brazil, and for me this tournament is crazy. It's not like a Major. It doesn't feel like a Major.

This is less of a PGL issue, but when you have the 1-0 and 0-1 games straight after the opening matches there's no time to prep. I saw you comment on that too, what do you think of the format more generally?

For me, it is their fault as well. We were told we would have an hour to prepare at least, and we didn't. It was like 30 minutes before, they said 'You have to be here right now' when the game finished and we knew our opponent was Eternal Fire. For me it was... 'How!', I would be there and just play. It was so crazy, we are professional.

When we go to the server it's not just to play, to have fun. We have to prepare and know about them, anti-strat, we need these things all the time. When I was there yesterday I was completely lost in the server. Against Eternal Fire, I told the guys, 'Just play like a practice', because we don't know anything about them. I think they didn't either, but they had the advantage because Anubis is a T-sided map. It was so hard to read, we didn't know anything about them.

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PGL responded to HLTV with the following comment:

About the tables: "All the Tournament tables are height-adjustable, while the Practice room tables are not. paiN Gaming requested some help to increase the height of the table, which we helped with."

About Practice Rooms: "Compared to most other tournaments, each team has a much larger Meeting Room this time around, in the Business Center. In order to offer maximum flexibility, each team competing received financial support before the arrival so they could order lunch, dinner, and snacks. Additionally, we are paying the hotel to deliver water, nuts, and fruits to each practice room. Once a team runs out of water, the hotel is refilling it. Since the practice rooms are in the Business center, the toilets are within a few meters of each practice room."

About preparation time: "We have a dedicated communication channel with each team, and no one ever said anything about how much time they have to prepare. And the exact words were 'Please come to the Tournament Area; you can start setting up in the booth.'"