exit: "nicks will grow with time. We will polish him up"

The Brazilian IGL has high hopes for the team's newest addition.

MIBR staved off elimination at FISSURE Playground 1 with a 2-0 victory over Virtus.pro, mounting a valiant comeback from 3-9 down on Train before running out 13-8 victors on Mirage.

The Brazilian team entered the season with a new face, Nicollas "⁠nicks⁠" Polonio, who replaced Lucas "⁠Lucaozy⁠" Neves in the starting lineup. The change came after a disappointing season in which MIBR only made the playoffs at PGL Astana.

"These past few months have been very hard, but one thing I can say is that we're working really hard, we're giving it our all," Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda told HLTV after the match.

The MIBR captain also shared insight into Lucaozy's departure and the surprise signing of nicks, a former Fortnite pro who is getting to play his first international tournament in Counter-Strike.

"He will grow with time," he said. "He has a good mind for the game, he is dedicated, he was one of the best in the world in another game [Fortnite], he quit because he didn't want to play anymore and came to CS. He has had a meteoric rise. You can see that he is talented at videogames. We will polish him up."

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A very important 2-0 victory against VP that keeps MIBR in the running for the playoffs. Are you happy with the way the team played today?

Today it went a lot better than yesterday. I think we managed to show what we've been doing in practice. Yesterday, I felt we weren't playing with confidence, we were scared to get into duels with them, and when we were reviewing the game we saw several situations where we just needed to get the kill, get to the end of the round with a trade. Today, we were able to do that, and I think that gives us a really big confidence boost.

The last few months haven't been easy, and consistency has been hard to come by. What has this process of bringing the team back to the top been like for you, as the captain?

It's been a really tough time. I'm really hard on myself, I put a lot of pressure on myself, especially as the team captain. I really feel bad about the losses, and I put a lot of pressure on myself because I really want to win. These past few months have been very hard, but one thing I can say is that we're working really hard, we're giving it our all.

 It's that thing we talk about every day, giving it your all and being able to sleep with a clear conscience, so we're trying really hard, we've tried different ways of playing, we're trying new ideas, and now with nicks on the team, I think in terms of roles, we'll fit together better in the next few months.

When Lucaozy was signed, he had already played at a good level with Sharks and Fluxo. In his post on social media when he got benched, he said that the way he played did not fit the team's style. Why wasn't the team able to get the best out of him?

I think what happened with Lucao was a mix of things. He joined the team at a turbulent time, after we had done really well in Pro League. So he arrived and there was this pressure that we had to continue to do well, because we had been to the semi-finals. And insani was already comfortable doing some of the positions Lucao played on Fluxo. But we had a lot of talks about making him more comfortable. He is someone who is a bit more explosive, just by watching him, you can see that he is someone who plays without fear, who makes aggressive moves a lot of the time, and sometimes that did not fit our style of play.

But we had a lot of talks and we tried many different ways to bring Lucao back into the team, to restore his confidence, but we just couldn't do it. So I think his departure was natural, and he also also understood that the time had come for him to move back to Fluxo. I think he will feel a lot more comfortable playing there.

Looking back, would you say that his signing was a mistake, since his style didn't fit yours and you already had someone else playing some of his positions?

I don't think it was a mistake. I remember that when he joined, I really thought he would fit the role that we needed for the guy who is in the pack, not the kind of playmaker like insani, who is playing, I don't know, mid on Ancient, but the guy who is playing middle on Mirage, taking space in some moments. I think that when we brought him in, he was going to be a perfect fit. I remember we had done really well in Pro League but I was really happy with his arrival. But it just didn't work out.

What I can say is that we tried in many different ways to make it work. We had good moments. I'm not going to say that it was a horrible period for the team. We did well at the Major in China. This Major in Austin, we did well against BetBoom, against Falcons, but we threw the game against FaZe. I don't think it was all bad, but it just wasn't what we expected.

nicks' signing was a bit unexpected, also because he was on Fluxo's bench. Was he the player you needed or the player you could get?

nicks was always one of the strongest names to join the team after Lucao left, mostly because of his role. I don't know if people know why we got nicks, but we wanted to put Breno [brnz4n] as part of the pack. When he got back on the team and replaced drop, he was playing lurker and anchor, which is something he had never done, and we felt it wasn't natural to him. So we wanted to put him as part of the pack. When he is playing with the kind of confidence he showed today, making plays and talking a lot, that's something we needed on our team.

And that meant we needed an anchor. We had good feedback from people who had played with nicks and we saw some of his games. It was something a bit natural. We needed someone like that, a calm guy who can hold down B on Train and buy us some time. I see in nicks a little bit of myself, the way he plays and the way he communicates. I was a little bit like him. So I think this addition will bear fruit.

And how would you rate nicks' first games with the team? He is averaging a 0.76 rating, but this is just his first international tournament in CS.

We were talking about that as well. We were, like, 'Man, let's play without pressure.' If I'm not mistaken, this is nicks' third big tournament. 'Play without pressure, we will have plenty more tournaments.' He needs to play his role and he did it well today. In a lot of moments on Train he was communicating well, holding the bombsite down for us. That's what we need. That's the most important thing. He will grow with time. He has a good mind for the game, he is dedicated, he was one of the best in the world in another game [Fortnite], he quit because he didn't want to play anymore and came to CS. He has had a meteoric rise. You can see that he is talented at videogames. We will polish him up.

A lot of people look at insani as the team's true star player, but it's curious to see how Breno has become more important in the last tournaments, like against Falcons on Inferno or on this last map against Virtus.pro. How do you look at his evolution as a player?

He is very important to the team. If you listen to him when he is at his best, the atmosphere on the team is a lot different. By putting him as part of the pack again, we know our team can improve a lot because he is very good individually. If we get the best out of him and he performs consistently, by putting him together with insani, our potential is really high.

You are now one victory away from the playoffs. What are your goals for this tournament and for Cologne?

I think we are now taking it one game at a time, but we came here to make a deep run. I think the only top-10 team in the world is FURIA, so it's a tournament where we can't just come here to participate. We're not putting pressure on ourselves, but we're taking it one game at a time. Our goal is to make it far here. We know that getting VRS points is very important, to get invites to more tournaments and to the Major. One game at a time. I think for Cologne, it will be a bit of a consequence of what happens here. If we do very well here, our confidence will be much higher for Cologne, so I think things will happen naturally. Now we have to wait for our opponent; we don't know if it will be Astralis or TYLOO tomorrow, and take it one game at a time.

I also wanted to ask about last night's update. What are your thoughts on it, especially the return of Overpass to replace Anubis? And I also wanted to ask about the fact you won't have much time to practice Overpass before Cologne.

It seems like Valve is a little bit against us. They took Vertigo for Train when that was our best map at the time and now they're taking Anubis, which is statistically our best map. But I think the other changes were good. The incendiary change was good. I haven't had the chance to test the new economy, the update came out at two in the morning and we had to prepare for this match. I think Overpass will be a nice map to play. But I think it was a very update, one that CS really needed. The MP9 was also too strong, very overpowered.

It will be tough not having more time before Cologne, but everyone on the team is dedicated and will definitely be up late looking at the map and talking about it. We will have to work hard to do well.