snow: "I'm very confident going into the playoffs"

paiN are riding a high after going 3-0 in the PGL Masters Bucharest Swiss group stage and qualifying for the playoffs with a clean record.

paiN went throughb the PGL Masters Bucharest group stage cleanly with a 3-0 record after tallying victories against Gentle Mates, GamerLegion, and B8, and are now waiting to know the playoff draw after securing a spot in the quarter-finals.

We caught up with João "⁠snow⁠" Vinicius after the team's successful run in the group stage to hear his thoughts on the feat, his personal performances and his role as a supportive element in the team.

You can listen to the interview, here.

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I’m here with snow from paiN. Congratulations, you just got your third win here in Bucharest and you’re through to the playoffs after dropping only one map across three games. How are you feeling?

Feeling really good. I’m happy that the team played very good CS throughout the group stage. It was very important for us to qualify with a 3-0, and yeah, I’m feeling confident and so happy with this result.

How were you feeling going into the B8 matchup? They just took down 3DMAX 2-0 yesterday and were going into today in a good shape. What was the preparation like?

Of course, they are a really good team. They play aggressive CS, so we had to play our own game and just kill them whenever they tried doing something aggressive. We prepared very well for this game. biguzera, rikz, and raiinn, our analyst, told us a lot of things. It was a good game for us, and the preparation was good.

You have been playing with dav1deuS and dgt for some time now, and you just qualified for your second playoffs of the season. Does it feel like things are finally clicking and you can be a bit more consistent?

Yes, of course. The Major was a peak for us — a very good result. We have to know how to play with this pressure. To reach the semifinals of a Major is insane, and you have to know how to play the next tournaments and play well with this pressure. I feel like things are starting to go this way, you know? I think we are playing good CS right now and it’s good for us.

I have a question about your own performance. You are the highest-rated CT side player on your team for the last month, but the T side doesn’t seem as comfortable for you. What is the reason behind the discrepancy?

I think everyone knows that I’m playing whatever function my team needs. If I’m playing CT side, some anchor positions, I will play them if my team needs it. And if my team needs someone to play aggressively on Outside on the T side of Nuke, I will play it. I don’t really care about my individual performance. I think I have to work more on my T side, of course, it’s pretty low, but I will work with my team and the coaches and ask them to get better. That’s it.

You were actually a star player when you were a little bit younger. Are you saying that you have no issues whatsoever with being a support player and doing whatever the team needs now?

Yeah, of course. As I told you, I’ll do what my team needs. If my team needs a guy to just jump with a knife, I’ll do it. I’m here to win tournaments and to win the matches. I’m not here to play star player positions, but If my team needs it, I’m here [laughs]. I don’t care about the good positions, I just try my best to evolve as a person and player, you know? I’m too young. Maybe one day I could be a star player.

Lastly, does it feel good to be the only Brazilian team to make it out of the group stage with a 3-0 score, considering both Legacy and MIBR are also here in Bucharest?

Yeah, of course it’s important. I hope the guys from the other Brazilian teams qualify too. And yeah, it’s very important for us to show to the people who are paiN Gaming, who the semifinalists from the Major are. And yeah, I'm very confident going into the playoffs.