saffee: "The spot for the best Brazilian team opened up after the transition to CS2"

The 29-year-old says the next RMR will decide the best team in the region.

MIBR have been on a tear since missing out on a PGL Major Copenhagen spot, winning five regional tournaments and qualifiers in a row before placing third at GET Rio and securing a title at ESL Challenger Melbourne.

After their trophy lift in Australia, Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa says the team went to Portugal for a bootcamp to prepare for the upcoming BetBoom Dacha and CCT Online Finals tournaments.

MIBR lost their opener in Belgrade against HEROIC but bounced back with a confident display against Aurora to give themselves a chance for revenge against Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski and company.

Date	Matches
BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024
17/05/2024	HEROIC 17:45 MIBR	Match

Ahead of the rematch, the Brazilian sniper spoke to HLTV about MIBR's recent success, AWPing in CS2, and the landscape of the Brazilian scene.

If you can't see the embed above, listen to the audio interview here.

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Congrats on your first win here in Belgrade. Talk me through your feelings right now.

It feels good. We had a really bad day yesterday, and to come back like this [is great]. We did a good job on Anubis, and on Nuke, we were calm to close it out. It feels good.

You talk about your first game here against HEROIC not being a great day for you. What do you feel went wrong in that game?

We had the wrong approach to the game on Anubis, the game plan we had wasn't that good, to be honest. And overall, they were hitting more shots than us. It was nice to play Dust2, the new map in the pool, and to win it, that's a positive point from that perspective. We had an off day with aim and things like this, and our game plan wasn't that good.

You will face them again tomorrow. Did you learn anything from the loss that will help you overcome them tomorrow?

Yeah, for sure. HEROIC is a really good team. They added degster, who is a really good AWPer, and they have NertZ, who is a really good player as well. It's going to be a good match to play again. Hopefully, with the game plan we have now, it's going to be different for us.

Today you had a great individual game as well. How are you finding AWPing in CS2? Because a lot of players are struggling with the weapon.

It's hard, to be honest. I think you have to forget about CS:GO AWPing and try to adapt as much as possible. And for me, I like to rifle as well, so I'm trying to adapt and find a mix to help the team. That is the sweet spot that I always look for.

Talking about your team, you've been in pretty good form lately. Ever since you missed out on the Major, you've been very good in Brazilian tournaments and qualifiers and also won the ESL Challenger Melbourne. How did it feel to win an international LAN title?

Winning in Melbourne felt really good, we needed that as a team, to show us that the work that we're putting in is actually working out. It felt really good, and I hope we can keep it up. The main point is to keep it up until the next Major cycle, and I think that's what we'll do.

The Brazilian scene right now is not in the greatest spot, with FURIA making changes and some of the other teams struggling. Do you feel like this is the moment when MIBR can take the number-one spot in the country?

After the transition to CS2, the spot for the best Brazilian team kind of opened up. It's hard to say if there is one Brazilian team that is by far the best, everyone is kind of in the same position right now. We have FURIA, we have paiN, we have us, and we have Imperial, who are all quite similar. You can only say who the best team is going to be after the next RMR, I don't think you can talk about it right now.

You're playing here in Belgrade, then you're playing the CCT Online Finals, and then you're going to Jonkoping as well. Is this part of a long European bootcamp for you?

Yes, but after the CCT Finals, we're going back to Brazil to have some days off. We've been on the road for quite a long time. We went to Melbourne, then we went to bootcamp in Portugal, and then we came here to Belgrade. So we're going to go back to Brazil after the CCT tournament and chill for a little bit. I think we're going to play some tournaments there, and then we'll go back to Europe.

You say you prefer to bootcamp in Europe, but how much of a difference is it to practice in Europe compared to Brazil?

I think the level in Brazil is rising. There are a lot of good teams that you can scrim against, but here in Europe you can find a lot of different game styles, and it's where the best players are. I think for a team to develop, it needs to come to Europe and try to bootcamp as much as possible.