paiN started off their 2025 strong with playoff finishes at both BLAST Bounty and PGL Cluj-Napoca, but have since slowed down following the benching of kauez.
After a difficult 0-3 exit at PGL Bucharest the obstacles keep on coming, captain biguzera announced that he will be absent from the team's campaign at IEM Melbourne.
With the team now set to play the event with two stand-ins ahead of finalising their roster for BLAST Rivals and the BLAST.tv Austin Major, we sat down with biguzera to discuss paiN's year, the benching of kauez, and his individual form in 2025.
We're four months into the year, how are you feeling about the year so far?
I think we had a great start to the year. In the beginning we beat FaZe and had a couple of good results against NAVI, we got to the stage at PGL Cluj-Napoca, so it was a good beginning. But recently, we've had some bad results, some bad moments. kauez is not in the team anymore, so we have to replace in, so right now we're playing incomplete and with a young guy. But we're getting better.
As you said, you made that move to bench kauez, what was the reasoning behind that?
I think it was a case of thinking about roles, kauez wasn't the role that we needed. Of course, he was doing it, but it's not his natural role. We need a guy for clutching and winning hard rounds, an anchor. kauez is not that guy, he was just doing what we needed.
Right now, we've got to find someone who naturally plays that role.
You've been playing with deemO in a trial period, how do you feel like he's been doing?
It's been good, actually. I think we had three very difficult games [at PGL Bucharest] and he did a great job in them. They were just difficult games, and for a player like him, just 17 and at his first tournament, it wasn't easy for him.
So you're not concerned about the result in Bucharest then given the circumstances?
Yeah, not at all. It's not just about the games we played, we have to respect the time that we're in and face the reality of it. We're playing with a new guy, who is just 17, and we didn't have a lot of time to practice. We can't put our expectations high right now. We just have to think about the next day and playing Counter-Strike.
In terms of deemO's trial period, how long will that be for?
He will play one more tournament with us at IEM Melbourne, and then after that we will have the fifth player.
Your ratings have dropped slightly in 2025 compared to 2024, how are you feeling about your own individual level and what do you think the reason for the drop is?
I think that right now, my individual level is down because I have to talk more and more, but I did change a lot of positions at the start of the year, too.
Right now, I'm just comfortable with all of the roles I've changed, but in the beginning of the year I was feeling a little bit weird in them, I'm used to them now, though, so my individual level is going up now and I'm feeling better and better.
Being an IGL and a player is comfortable for me, before I was even an IGL I used to talk a lot, I was very communicative. So, when I switched into the role, it wasn't difficult for me, it was the same plays and the same amount of talking at the same times.
I know I'm not in the best form, but I promise I'll be back.
You aren't the only team making moves in the region at the moment, FURIA recently signed molodoy, do you have any thoughts on that move?
I think that it's a great fit, considering that the players in Brazil have talent, but it's so difficult to get them from other teams. The organsiations have to pay a lot of money.
It's a great move, FalleN has been a great AWPer for as long as I've known about CS, but his form as an AWPer isn't as high as it should be.
They don't have a lot of people they could bring in within Brazil, so FURIA have to adapt and change, especially in terms of communication, so we have to wait and see.
It can be a great move, but it could be a very bad move as well. I guess that molodoy is good, I've seen a lot of plays of his and he has a lot of talent, so now we just have to wait and see how it goes and how they adapt to English.
Looking a little bit into the future, how are you feeling about BLAST Rivals?
I love BLAST, they're some of my favourite tournaments to play and I'm always comfortable whenever I get to play them. I'm excited to play there, there's a lot of good teams there and it's a huge tournament. I love to compete in the big tournaments.
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