biguzera: "I play B Mirage, I hate it, but someone has to sacrifice"

biguzera discusses making everyone comfortable in paiN's new role setup, dav1deuS' fearless mentality and the team's LAN debut in Copenhagen.

paiN headed into the new season fresh off of the addition of David "⁠dav1deuS⁠" Tapia Maldonado instead of Lucas "⁠lux⁠" Meneghini and have gotten off to a great start.

With the former 9z star spearheading their campaign with a 1.27 rating, the Brazilians have made it to the LAN portion of BLAST Bounty following online wins over the new GamerLegion and the Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski-infused FaZe.

While at media day ahead of the finals in Copenhagen, HLTV spoke to Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt about the change. The addition of the Chilean came with a lot of changes to paiN's role setup, and the in-game leader shared just how he's trying to make everyone feel comfortable.

That included some changes, especially on the CT side, where biguzera has given up space for dav1deuS to be more in his comfort zone. "I was thinking that, if I put dav1deuS in six new positions, it'll be too much for him. I decided to give him my positions because they are the same as he used to play,"

That came with some unwanted positions for the in-game leader himself, but that's "part of the job," biguzera shares with a laugh. "B Mirage, I play there, I hate it, but someone has to sacrifice. That's something I always do, so for me it's not a huge thing."

You can read or listen to the full interview below, in which the Brazilian also talks about his loyalty to paiN, his new player's fearless mentality, and their promising start to the new season.

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

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Last year you came so close to big playoffs a few times. Do you feel like this is now the lineup that can make that step?

Yeah, of course. Right now with the boys with more experience — dav1deuS is older than lux as well, a more experienced player —, I think now we can get there.

Tell me a bit more about what dav1deuS offers. He's someone we've known for a long time but became a star player in RED Canids last year. What does he bring to the team?

He used to play as a star player back then, he also liked to play this role. He's so aggressive, he has insane aim, he's a smart guy. The best point of him, he is not afraid to do anything. If he plays against FaZe, NAVI, Spirit, donk, he wants to play against these kinds of guys. He wants to go, 'guys, I'll kill donk, relax.' He always says things like that, so it's good.

Trying to compare that to lux, who was a lot younger and really good in the Brazilian tournaments, why do you think he didn't have that attitude?

Actually, it was not inside the game, it was other things that we can't talk about. It was completely out of the game, so it wasn't about something we could change.

In terms of the in-game stuff then, I was checking and it looks like you've taken step back in terms of some positions. We know you as a star IGL, but how do you see your role in this five-man lineup now?

Right now, I think on the T side I will be more aggressive. I'm still an aggressive player, in a bit of a different role. Sometimes lux was the first playmaker and I was the second, and now I'm the first.

On CT side I gave a lot of my positions to dav1deuS because I was thinking that, if I put dav1deuS in six new positions on CT side, it was going to be too much for him. I decided to give him my positions because it was the same that he used to play. B Mirage, I play there, I hate it, but someone has to sacrifice (laughs). That's something I always do, so for me it's not a huge thing.

Someone like kauez, who is a specialist anchor in your team, how different is his role with you moving around and snow wanting to be aggressive as well at times?

Here in the team, we like to do something different to other teams. Other teams have someone who always gets these kinds of positions, like B Mirage, B Vertigo, maybe Pit on Inferno, and he's always the anchor. Here in paiN, we like to mix some positions.

Some players don't like to play in this kind of role all the time, so we have a lot of anchors that like, I don't know, B Inferno, so we put him in B Inferno and some playmaker plays in Pit on Inferno. We like to mix to make everyone comfortable sometimes. Of course, on some maps someone has to make a sacrifice, but that's part of the job.

Something on snow more specifically. In terms of his rookie year, it's pretty good, right, but do you see his development exceeding that this year?

Yeah, of course. This year will be his rookie year. He will grow a lot with us this year, I think it will be the best year for him.

How would you see the firepower on the team? Would he be one of the star players now, or is it an even mix?

Right now he plays more like a...

He's got some tough positions, right?

Yeah, he got some tough positions, but he wanted to play outside on Nuke on T side, and I gave that to him. I let him play there because he likes to. I told him that it's different in CS2 because they can blow up the smoke, and he says, 'it's okay, I'll do my part there.' I let him play there to have some fun. Like I said, we like to mix the roles. I like to make everyone comfortable, that's the thing.

I've got to ask: Every off-season there are always talks of potential moves for you, but it seems like you're so loyal to paiN, you never really considered it, there are never any reports or anything. Can you tell me a bit about what it is that makes you so loyal to paiN?

I don't know, I really don't know. Since the beginning, when I was here as a rifle, not a star player, and I was just a normal player that got some difficult roles. I just like the mood, the people that are here working with me, and I just like to be here.

Do you like developing the types of players like snow? Is that something you enjoy, or do you sometimes look at KSCERATO and be like, 'it'd be nice to work with a star player like that one day'?

Of course some day I want to play with these guys, FalleN, KSCERATO, these good players from Brazil. But at the same time, I just want to grow with the team. If I see someone that's playing with me, growing and becoming a new star player, I will be very happy for him. It's a different happiness. But of course I'd like to play with FalleN and KSCERATO one day.

On this tournament, making the LAN is a good start to the year already, of course. How do you see your prospects going into it?

Right now we are so confident to play against any team here. If we're like that, I think we can have good results this year. Our mentality always has to be like it is right now, always thinking we can beat any team. If we keep this thinking, we can beat anyone. For me it wouldn't be a surprise if we beat one, two or three teams here.

Is it harder as an underdog, with the four best teams being here, when you don't know your opponent until Wednesday? How hard is it, not having that time to prepare.

We know who we're gonna pick. For me, it's so clear who the first team [BetBoom] will pick. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. We know who we're gonna pick, so we prepared three days before. It's not that close, you know?

Are you preparing for just that team, then? How risky is that, do you think?

Just that team. I don't have time to think about two teams at the same time (laughs).

Do you like this format?

Yeah, of course. Everything that is new we face with more... I don't know, if we have some new thing we always look at it with good eyes. Of course we really want to play these different formats even more. So yeah, of course.