Rainbow 6
Nowadays, there’s more Portuguese than ever spoken among G2's Rainbow Six Siege team ever since Matheus "Ramalho" Gonçalves arrived with the task of succeeding Fabian "Fabian" Hällsten as coach of the current champions of the Six Invitational. BLIX spoke with Ramalho about this new phase for the Brazilian former FaZe coach.
The 27-year-old coach leaft FaZe Clan after three years of working with the organization. During this period, the team won the Six Major in Sweden in 2021 and made several strong appearances at international tournaments.
Ramalho left with a feeling of a mission accomplished, "I did my best at FaZe and we achieved a lot together," the coach says of his time with the organization.
First International Steps
G2's invitation seems to have been the only temptation capable of removing Ramalho from FaZe, "I don’t think I would consider proposals of other teams, at least after SI," he confessed.
Reuniting with Karl "Alem4o" Zarth on a team seemed unlikely, until the opportunity arrived for both of them to work together. A desire that was mutual, says Ramalho, "we always said that we would be in a team together [again]."
As mentioned previously, succeeding Fabian is a huge responsibility not only because of what he achieved as a player, but also as a coach at G2. Naturally, Ramalho recognizes the pressure, stating, "I think not just replacing Fabian but also coach G2, the biggest R6 organization, puts pressure on me, but I’m ready for whatever comes next, it will not be easy but for me the best never is."
However, the work will be done remotely, reveals Ramalho: "I will not be leaving Brazil, just for bootcamps and majors. That’s also one of the reasons I joined G2, to stay close to my family."
Changes
Ramalho's entry is not the only new addition to the team for the second stage of the European League. The team traded Byron "Blurr" Murray for the Italian Luigi "Gemini" Ferrigno who only had the opportunity to play for Gamers8, being immediately relegated to the bench afterwards.
For the restart of the European League, Aleksi "UUNO" Työppönen returns after leaving Heroic, but UUNO spent two years at G2 from 2019 to 2021. A change that was already decided before Ramalho's entry.
"When I joined the team, UUNO already was part of the team. They had problems in Gamers8, and they are looking for someone who can help on late rounds and now we are working on it," Reveals the Brazilian coach.
Goals
Between G2 and Ramalho, goals were defined in the negotiations, "the goals between me and G2 were mutual, we want to make the team consistent, and for that we have a lot of work to do."
Personally, Ramalho sets his goals to a very high standard, "my biggest goal at the moment is G2 to make SI and about myself, I want to [make it so that] when someone thinks of a R6 coach, the first name is going to be mine."
