“I am still proud of the boys, I feel like we evolved a lot inside the game and outside the game” MIBR bzkA talks about MIBR’s journey in VCT Americas 2023

Coming in as the third Brazil representative alongside LOUD and Furia, MIBR had a long season. The team started the season strong winning over NRG and KRU but could not qualify for the playoffs. Coming into the LCQ, MIBR and bzkA faced the red hot KRU. KRU themselves had a pretty terrible season, but in the LCQ they defeated MIBR. With the loss, MIBR’s 2023 season comes to an end and we’d see them in the next year. After the team’s elimination, MIBR’s coach Mathew “bzkA” Tarasconi sat down with Strafe. In an exclusive one-on-one interview, bzkA talks about the teams’ journey, the loss and more. 

Q. It was a tough loss, you tried fighting back but couldn’t win either of the maps. What do you think went wrong in today’s game?

MIBR bzkA: “We started on Bind, I think they were completely different situations really. I think on Bind we started really slow. They started Cypher, using a lot of weak silent B sites, with Cypher and Skye there and we had some troubles just adapting to that. In Lotus, it just felt like, we made so many mistakes, we knew what would happen and still couldn’t adjust to it, so yeah”

Q. With the season over, what would improve upon coming into the next season?

MIBR bzkA: “I think it’s hard to choose just one thing to improve. We have been trying to improve a lot of stuff. We have been trying to focus a lot on the game itself and the environment. I thought something that could affect us during the season was our mind. We had trouble during the season, some people can call it burnout or stuff like that. But at the same time the competition, the highest level, the VCT Americas is just so much higher than we are used to in Brazil. So I think that the main focus should be our mind right now”

Q. Can you elaborate on what you mean when you say mind has been the issue for MIBR. How has it been a struggle for you guys?

MIBR bzkA: “Yeah, once season started, the first two games, the first three games we had, it was much more of the preparation we did for Brazil before and I felt like the whole preparation we did for the start of VCT Americas was great and we started having good matches here. But as soon as the players started to have so much time away from the family, away from the friends and the first loss, everything just crumbled together. And that makes it even harder to get out. At the same time for our time, we tried several different strategies, being more consistent, trying to be more consistent. trying to have a lighter environment, less pressure on players. We tried several things and none of them worked so this is the time we need to go back and just learn from whatever we got this year.”

Q. Do you think a crammed season might have been the reason some teams struggled to be consistent with their performance?

MIBR bzkA: “I think that it may affect the teams yes but at the same time, everyone in the tournament had the same situation so I don’t think it is an excuse. The team that knew how to handle it better got better results. And I just feel like the format was easier, it’s only understandable and they wanted to do a lock//in the tournament and it was better so it doesn’t matter what the format is, we need to do our best. And just it feels bad because we leave this year knowing we didn’t do our best on the server. We tried work it a lot and we were the team that worked the most but inside the tournament we weren’t able to show what we practice”

Q. Who do you have your bets on winning in the LCQ?

MIBR bzkA: “It’s hard to choose just one team this year. I am going to be cheering for Brazil. That includes Furia and it includes Sacy and Pancada as well. So those are the teams I am going to cheer for, those are from my country, are my friends and I have spent a lot of time with them so”

Q. Would there be one highlight player for MIBR this year?

MIBR bzkA: “It’s hard to choose one because everyone worked the same, everyone gave themselves the best they could in the moment. If I just say one name, I won’t be fair to the rest of the players. But I am just glad we took the journey even if the result was not what we expected. I am still proud of the boys. I feel like we evolved a lot inside the game and outside the game. But the competition is like, just one team wins at the end of the year and this year wasn’t us.”

Q. Any parting notes to your fans just to conclude your season?

MIBR bzkA: “I just want to appreciate all the support. I think all the fans were amazing. I think the fans can and they have the option to be mad at us and we didn’t get the best of results so it’s totally understandable but at the same time it feels like they were actually there for us. They were actually cheering, they were actually following the game and that’s something I am very happy about. All I can say is that we tried our best with what I had here and I hope I can show some better results.”

Obviously every game has a winner and a loser, Unfortunately, MIBR’s VCT Americas’ journey concludes with the loss. The team will definitely comeback stronger next year with the help of coach bzkA and the young talented players. With one team gone, six teams are left in VCT Americas LCQ. You can follow the updates regarding the same on VCT NA twitter. 

Credits: Riot Games // VCT Americas 

You can also follow VCT Americas on Strafe.