nqz: "We've never been this excited for the future; good things are coming"

The Brazilian AWPer is hopeful that paiN will show their best form at the Austin Major.

paiN have been knocked out of IEM Melbourne 2025 following a 0-2 loss to Complexity, bowing out of the tournament without a single map after the defeat to FaZe on day one.

With head coach Henrique "⁠rikz⁠" Waku standing in for Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt because of health issues, it was always going to be a tall order for the Braziians, but Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares still has positives to take from the event, including how close they came to winning both maps against FaZe.

"The main positive is that we managed, even without bigu, to have good ideas," the Brazilian AWPer told HLTV after the series. "I believe we could have won both games against FaZe, which I think shows we have to be a much more vocal team. And that's something that bigu always asks from us, that we don't rely on him too much in terms of making plays and reading the game."

nqz confirmed that biguzera is expected to be available for paiN's next tournament, BLAST Rivals. The Danish event should mark the much-awaited debut of Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia for the team as the Uruguayan star will fill the void created by Kaue "⁠kauez⁠" Kaschuk's benching.

Read more

kauez confirms paiN benching: "I was in an endless loop of self-blame"

BLAST Rivals and PGL Astana might come a bit too soon for paiN, but nqz is optimistic about the team's chances at the Major.

"We've never been this excited for the future," he said. "Good things are coming, and I think that, especially at the Major, God willing, we will be able to see the best paiN we've ever seen."

---

A 2-0 defeat to Complexity and paiN are out of the tournament. This was expected to be a tall order, especially with biguzera missing. How are you feeling?

There's obviously a lot of sadness because, like every tournament from ESL, this is a great event to play and all the best teams in the world are here. So playing a tournament like this is very important to us, and with bigu's unlucky situation, we leave the tournament with the feeling that we could have gotten more out of the tournament, we could have gone further into it and played good matches, you know? So we came here with no pressure because we knew it was going to be very hard, given the circumstances. Still… It's sad.

What positives can you take from these two matches, especially the first one, against FaZe, where you played out two very close games?

The main positive is that we managed, even without bigu, to have good ideas. I believe we could have won both games against FaZe, which I think shows we have to be a much more vocal team. And that's something that bigu always asks from us, that we don't rely on him too much in terms of making plays and reading the game. We were able to show ourselves that we need to speak more, that we don't need to rely on the IGL all the time. It was also a lot of fun to play with rikz, whom we really like. He's always with us, so [it was also great] to sit next to him, celebrate with him, and see him work hard and give his best.

Your next event is going to be BLAST Rivals. Will biguzera be available for that one?

I believe so. We're talking to him every day, and he's feeling much better. His condition is improving, so I believe he will play with us, almost certainly.

What was it like to prepare for this event? Did biguzera help you in any way?

biguzera couldn't play, but he still wanted to be involved. So he watched the games, he told us what we should do, what the teams we faced liked to do, but it's still very hard. He wanted to be involved. He's that kind of a guy, he likes to study the game, and I believe that it has been quite hard for him to watch his team play from afar because he wanted to be here. So he tried to help us the best way he could.

What is the plan now? Are you flying back to Serbia to prepare for Rivals?

We are flying to Serbia and we will spend some days there practicing and getting good preparation for this tournament. Because just like IEM, BLAST Rivals will have only top teams. And it's a tournament that can be very short. From what I've seen, if you lose two games, you're out, so we want to prepare as well as possible to be able to finally show good CS.

You've had some good results this year, like getting to the quarter-finals at BLAST Rivals and Cluj-Napoca, but you haven't been able to find the consistency that was expected after what you achieved in 2024. What are your thoughts on your results this year so far?

It's like you said, I think we have had some flashes of good moments, but I think inconsistency has defined us. We did well at BLAST, we did well in Cluj-Napoca, but at the same time, we lost matches in Brazil against teams we shouldn't be losing to. We've struggled against teams we shouldn't be struggling against, our level of CS wasn't good enough, so I think there has been a lot of inconsistency this semester, but we've been working on it.

We still have to look at the bright side, which is that we've finally managed to break that playoff barrier. We saw that we can do it, we saw that it is possible, and I think the team as a whole has matured and is closing the gap on the top teams a bit. We understand that we make a lot of mistakes in those matches against tier-S opponents, so we're trying to cut out those mistakes to evolve and do well at the Major, which is our main focus.

biguzera has said that this was deemO's final event and that the new player will be announced shortly. You probably won't be able to comment on the dgt reports, so I want to ask you: Are you excited about paiN's future? Do you think you will be at your best at the Major? Because you'll have two tournaments before Austin, and I guess it will take you some time to find your groove with the new player. Is that what you're focused on?

Absolutely. I think the focus for every team will be the Major. What I can say about the team is that we've never been this excited for the future. Good things are coming, and I think that, especially at the Major, God willing, we will be able to see the best paiN we've ever seen.