paiN carry Bounty form into Poland with VP win

New CT Mirage roles didn't halt the momentum of biguzera and company as they smashed the new VP.

BLAST Bounty quarter-finalists paiN have continued to impress early in 2025 with a convincing win over Virtus.pro.

The signing of David "⁠dav1deuS⁠" Tapia Maldonado was intended to add some experience to a young rifling core but he has also been a significant firepower upgrade over Lucas "⁠lux⁠" Meneghini and had a great debut at Bounty.

That was the case again here, the Chilean starring on Mirage with a 1.73 rating and the whole team impressing on a 13-2 paddling on Dust2.

The win is validation for Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt's assessment that Virtus.pro replacing Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali as in-game leader with Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov is a "downgrade."

"I feel like electroNic, sometimes, is so tilted," the Brazilian said in a pre-game content segment on stream, and there were signs of frustration on the VP side as paiN swept to an easy victory.

paiN now await the result of GamerLegion against SAW with the Brazilians heavy favorites regardless the result.

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2025 Play-in
29/01/2025	SAW 13:00 GamerLegion	Match
29/01/2025	paiN Finished 2:0 Virtus.pro	Match

paiN throw Bounty blueprint out the window on Mirage

One week ago today, biguzera was moaning about having to play B Apartments in an interview with HLTV.

But in Katowice, with VP picking Mirage to start the series, all preparation went out of the window as all four paiN riflers took up new positions.

Read more

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

João "⁠snow⁠" Vinicius went from Short to A; Kaue "⁠kauez⁠" Kaschuk, from A to B, dav1deuS from Conn to Short, and biguzera, naturally, went from B back to his favored spot in Connector.

"We were a bit lost, honestly," biguzera told the desk post-match. "That's why we were laughing so much," he added as he went on to talk about a round where snow was getting team flashed from B as he extinguished a Molotov on Palace's balcony.

Even with those growing pains, however, it was VP that looked lost on the server as paiN's system reined supreme with a heavy emphasis on mid-control that played to their strengths and hid the lack of practice in new positions.

Virtus.pro need more time, but will they get it?

Questions remain over Virtus.pro — but don't expect the answers to come in interviews.

Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers said pre-game that she wanted to speak to electroNic, but ended up with a closed Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev who refused to answer any questions around the team's new system — a far cry from the honest manner he displayed in interviews last year.

"You'll have to see in-game" was the former GamerLegion man's answer to two questions around the tactical identity of the team but, it's safe to say, we did not see much in the server today.

There is also a stylistic difference between how paiN are interacting dav1deuS by keeping him comfortable and how VP have already moved FL4MUS into anchor roles on the four maps we have seen them play.

Initially at Bounty, FL4MUS had what he himself called "star roles" but at Katowice he has been moved from A Short on Dust2 to A Long.

He was frequently anchoring B on Mirage too next to electroNic, although it was hard to tell who was the true Short player given VP's use of two-player site setups.

With two changes and a leadership swap, it's understandable that Virtus.pro need more time.

But the team have already fallen to 22nd on the Valve Global Standings; fall much further, and invites will be hard to come by.