zakk and VINI: "FURIA and the old FalleN teams are like Gryffindoor and Slytherin"
Having qualified for the BLAST.tv Austin Major through the South American MRQ and having recently won the FiRE eLEAGUE tournament over in South America, Imperial are looking to make waves in the first Major of 2025.
Now established with a lineup that saw it's most recent addition, chayJESUS, join in January, their coach zakk says that anything less than Stage 2 will be considered a failure.
Ahead of the Major, we sat down with both zakk and IGL VINI to discuss the schools of CS within Brazil, their experiences of the VRS system, and what it was like to play an event in a subway station.
"We were just making little strats because we knew we could rush when trains went past"
We'll start with you VINI, we're five months into the year, so how have you been finding it?
VINI: Pretty challenging, I would say. There's been a lot of ups and downs, we qualify for tournaments, go to them, we lose at them, we suck [laughs] and then we win some things back home, and I don't know how, but Valve doesn't give us enough points to qualify.
So, we're in the middle ground that we're always trying to qualify for the bigger stages, but when we get those opportunities we need to do good otherwise it'll be three months of working hard to get another one.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenAnd how about you, zakk? From the coaching perspective, what are the things you're seeing that need to be worked on in the team?
zakk: Well, we changed a player in January, we had felps and brought in chayJESUS in his place, and I think that changed a lot of the structure in the team and how we approach CS, especially on the T side.
So, I think that it's a challenging first season because of that. We had to learn a new way to play, everything on our T side was very based on how felps likes to play, so it was hard to adapt.
It demands a lot of hard work, and I just think we need to keep going, we're on the right path.
You mentioned chayJESUS there, how do you think he's developing and fitting into the team?
zakk: The way that I see CS in Brazil is that there are different schools, different teachers in terms of how you approach the game.
chay was playing with TACO before coming here, and I think he had a good teacher, because he came with, in my understanding, the basics of a good player, which is an understanding of the game. If you have strong basics, you're half way to a professional.
He came with that in a strong way, he's a very good kid, very humble, he listens a lot and works hard. It's been great to have him here.
What do you mean by the different schools of Brazilian CS? Is that like people who came through FalleN's teams and everyone else?
zakk: I would say that, right now, I can see clearly that there is the FalleN crew, people who play with anyone who played with FalleN in the past like fer, TACO, coldzera, all those guys, you have a certain perspective on how to approach the game.
On the other hand, if you were with the guys from FURIA, even VINI that played there back in the day, they have a different vision than the other school. These are the Gryffindoor and the Slytherin from Brazil.
The old school guys can teach the new generation can teach a lot to the new generation, so chay joined us from TACO and got that from him and a little bit from arT, too, because he played with arT also.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenOut of interest, out of the schools of FURIA and the former SK roster, which one is Gryffindoor and which is Slytherin?
zakk:[laughs] I'll leave this one for you to have an interpretation, VINI.
VINI: I don't even know the difference, I've never seen Harry Potter.
zakk: Bro...
Well, let's say that Gryffindoor are the good guys and Slytherin are the bad guys, does that give you any thoughts?
VINI: Oh, yeah, yeah [laughs]. I mean, I was in both sides, so I don't know.
zakk: VINI is from Hufflepuff.
So as someone who has been through both of these schools, VINI, is that something that has added to your game to get that variety of playstyles?
VINI: I think so. It was hard to adapt at the beginning because I remember joining FalleN and it didn't make sense how he was talking about CS, I was like: "Why are you doing it this way? Why aren't you pushing?" All the timings were super slow, everything was different.
I would say that the game has developed in a way where both schools are outdated, you know? You can't play only those styles, arT was making really fast plays and taking space, trading players, but you would win or lose in 30 seconds. FalleN was super structured, taking space through defaults and nowadays, the situation is pushed the other way and you're struggling.
I think that the game is more in a French era, I would say. It's a different style to play, the CTs are really aggressive, the peeker's advantage helps the Ts a lot, so everyone is abusing their aim and it's a weird game right now.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenSpeaking of weird, you guys played in FiRE eLeague Buenos Aires recently, a tournament that took place in a subway station, what was that experience like? Everyone was thinking it would be hard to play in that setting.
VINI: No, that was awesome!
I mean, I don't know if it was awesome for the people watching because the trains would pass in front of the TVs, but playing we were just making little strats because we knew we could rush when trains went past because no one would hear anything [laughs].
It was an amazing experience, the tournament went smooth, there was no delays, the PCs were good, we had a great time there.
So did the trains effect how a round would play out?
VINI: Sometimes, because of the sound. The trains weren't that loud, but when they passed, you could hear them in-game and on Nuke, for example, you could abuse that.
You mentioned VRS earlier, VINI, and not being able to get enough points to play internationally, so what has your experience been like this year?
VINI: Very bad. Very, very bad.
I don't know, we watched some NA tournaments happening, they win the event, get 50k, and almost 100 points, but you go to an event in South America and you get good HLTV points but only 40 VRS points.
So, I don't know how the system works right now, I know that I just play tournaments and hope that it goes up.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenDo you have thoughts on how it could be improved to benefit South American teams, zakk?
zakk: Well, I don't know if it can be done right now, but I see that in Asia they had three or four 100-150k events in a short span of time, and in South America, we've only had the FiRE eLEAGUE tournament in the past five months.
In North America, they also had Fragadelphia that brought some European teams and gave a good amount of points, Europe I'm not even going to mention, it's the capital of Counter-Strike, so the thing is that we need to have a minimum of events per region, so that everyone has the chance to compete against each other region without having to fly to play tournaments in another region.
I think that would be cool, it would help everyone in South America, but I don't know, I think it's very tricky.
Looking at the South American teams, you guys have try on your team and have done for a while, but we've also recently seen FURIA and paiN make moves away from being entirely Brazilian teams, how do you feel about that and why is it happening?
zakk: In my opinion, I like it very much. It's like how we were joking about the schools of Counter-Strike, if you bring in someone from Latvia like YEKINDAR, who has a lot of experience with a lot of people, he's going to have a different view of the game and the rounds.
I think that can help everyone around him, an those guys will then show other guys and it's going to create a network of information on how to approach the game in a different way.
I think that the Brazilian scene needs that in this moment, I feel like we're not lost, but some years ago our level was to win tournaments or at least compete for playoffs, and now I don't see any of the Brazilian teams having the same level as the tier one teams.
So, I think if we have more information and experience and share those things, maybe we can improve the entire scene.
Do you think it's a good thing for South American CS overall to have players like try on your team and then paiN doing what they're doing, VINI?
VINI: I think it's a good approach, and a new way to create teams, too. I think that's how FaZe started seven or eight years ago and then everyone went international.
The main problem for Brazil, though, is that not a lot of players speak English, so putting Europeans or guys from Asia might not make any sense because you really ought to be able to communicate with them, and we're a step behind in that sense.
Overall, I think that the main issues are also that there are big buyouts. You can't have the other best players because they're chained to their organisations, so that's probably why FURIA and paiN are looking to get players from other countries, it's impossible to get them from within Brazil right now. I think that's also one of the reasons why Brazil hasn't developed that much.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenLooking ahead to the Major, how are you feeling about facing B8 in your opening game?
VINI: They're a really strong online team, they play in all the tier two events and I don't know if they win, but they have a lot of matches. They're going to have a lot of experience to bring into the Major.
I feel good playing any type of opponent, so, our preparation will be really strong and we'll have a lot of material against them. It just depends on their individuals, they're a young team and they'll have the pressure from it being there first Major, so we have to abuse that.
What are the hopes for the Major?
zakk: Anything less than getting to Stage 2 is going to feel like a failure for me. Getting there is the goal.
We're going to be preparing for two weeks, I think we have enough time to beat any team that we face.
