Known for their previous success in Counter-Strike, MIBR joined the Rainbow Six Siege competitive scene in 2019. Since then, Made in Brazil was able to win the Brasileirão Finals in 2020 but at the beginning of 2021, the roster was transferred to FaZe Clan. Following those moves, MIBR signed with Team oNe’s roster.
Two years since this roster joined MIBR marked by two brilliant journeys at the Six Invitational but not even a single presence at a Six Major out of a possible four.
Tassus ‘Reduct’ Issi joins us to talk about these two years, and the team’s expectations. As well as clarifying some rumors.
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2 years with ups and downs
Looking back, Reduct reflected on the team’s journey so far.
‘We had ups and downs. 2022 started really well with fourth place in the Six Invitational but we thought that it would be peaceful to qualify for the Six Major. Although, in both Stages, we didn’t qualify [by] only two points’¦ so there was that detail. However, we can’t keep saying ‘oh, it was only a detail, we don’t need to change anything, in the next split we get it’.’ He explained.
‘That’s not our mindset, we’re doing drastic changes in our routine what we expect from ourselves because we’ll do the best to not be out of the next Major.’ Reduct said.
‘We changed some of our tactics, our behavior because [of the] potential our team has, and those details that were missing can’t be missing anymore.’
‘That’s not our mindset, we’re doing drastic changes in our routine what we expect from ourselves because we’ll do the best to not be out of the next Major.’ – Tassus ‘Reduct’ Issi
Struggles in Brasileirão
The major league in Brazil, Brasileirão also known as BR6, qualifies four teams for the Copa Elite Six, including Argentinian and Mexican teams. Only the four best teams qualify for the Six Major and MIBR has been struggling to finish the league in the top four.
‘All the scene that watches us playing knows that we can play really well when we are 100% but we oscillate individually here. One of our barriers was always the best of one, we can’t deal that well with that kind of match due to the importance of each round and map veto.’ Reduct said.
‘We’re a team that likes to risk but if [you] risk more than you should in best of ones, in one or two rounds’¦ and the match is over. Sometimes, those two rounds were missing for us to qualify.’
To fill the missing piece, MIBR looked toward a new coaching style, bringing in former FaZe analyst ‘Cesar ‘Dxrk’ Adriano to complete the puzzle.
‘Cesar ‘Dxrk’ Adriano came to help us in that, he came from FaZe that always has been good in the best of ones.’ Said Reduct. ‘Although we were adapting and at the end of the split we understood how to play and in the last five BR6 matches, we won four and lost only one. When we understood the best way to play in the best of ones, it was too late.’
But despite the team’s adaptation of a new playstyle taking perhaps more time than they would have liked, Reduct is emphatic about the benefits working with Dxrk has brought them.
‘Dxrk is very important because in the first split it was overloaded for me and that’s one of the reasons for our performance in the first split.’ Reduct explained. ‘Three new maps were introduced, we just came back from the Invitational, and I didn’t have holidays since I had to create the tactics.’ Adding Dxrk’…helped me a lot and he brought some things from FaZe that we’re trying to mix with our things. ‘
Special magic playing SI?
But when it comes to the Six Invitational, Made In Brazil seem to have a kind of magic. We spoke with Reduct about the team’s perspectives on SI.
‘We face Six Invitational as the most important tournament of the year, and we know the teams really want to win and we play it with extra hype. Usually, we do a bootcamp before, we change the environment and that makes us feel really well.’ He said.
‘The Brazilian teams are too strong. If we had six spots it wouldn’t be too much. The level here is very high.’ – Tassus ‘Reduct’ Issi
‘MIBR is a team that grows during the tournament. In both Invitationals, we started with some losses but then we understood the posture that we should take and then we start winning matches and growing in the tournament. As the Invitational is a longer tournament, we can have those initial losses and then just run over our opponents.’
We asked Reduct if he felt the team could show that level of play in the Six Majors.
‘We didn’t manage to play any Major as MIBR but with our experience playing against the international teams and our facility to play against NA teams, I’m sure we would do good runs in those tournaments. That’s a thing that is in the scene and plays against us knows.’ He said.
‘The Brazilian teams are too strong. If we had six spots it wouldn’t be too much. The level here is very high.’
The disaster called Gamers8
Even though the team didn’t manage to qualify for the Major, MIBR was invited to play Gamers8, a tournament outside the Ubisoft’s circuit, played in Saudi Arabia. The Brazilian team was eliminated without taking a single map in the matches against TSM and Team Falcons. Reduct spoke about the team’s strategy heading into their match against TSM and what went wrong.
‘In the TSM match, we were afraid to choose a map that was good for us because it was also a good map for them. Bank and Chalet are two maps that we like to play and we’ve better win rate than them, so we decided to play a map that didn’t have a good win rate for either of us. I think we respected them too much.’
MIBR in changes? Not at all
Following three years with the same roster and even with some disappointments, MIBR refuses to make changes. Reduct explains his point of view.
‘I think it doesn’t make sense to put the fault in one player to justify the recent results because when you see the whole year, everyone was down in some period. I played really well [at] the Invitational but the first split I wasn’t that good and I’m not talking specifically about fragging but also communication and the role inside the server.’ He said.
‘It was easier for us to put the fault in someone and bring young talent to kill, but that would be a solution for the short term, and I still believe this a project for the long term. We’re still young, we’re still 20 and there are world champions with only 24. Everything in time because the time is this quintet.’ Said Reduct.
‘In 2020 I didn’t think in [about] changes. At the end of 2021, Matheus ‘Budega’ Figueiredo thought about change, and we really thought about that idea but in the end, we decided to stay with the roster. Because we put on the paper all the things, sometimes isn’t worth it to bring a guy that is bad coexistence and much of a ‘star’ and can end up disturbing us internally, we’re like brothers. Everyone here is very good’¦ we didn’t think in [terms of] any change.’
‘It was easier for us to put the fault in someone and bring young talent to kill, but that would be a solution for the short term, and I still believe this a project for the long term. We’re still young, we’re still 20 and there are world champions with only 24. Everything in time because the time is this quintet.’
– Tassus ‘Reduct’ Issi
G2 rumours
At the time that Karl ‘Alem4o’ Zarth left Team oNe to join the European squad of G2, the player himself said he invited Felipe ‘FelipoX’ De Lucia to be part of the project. We asked Reduct about this story and if at any time the roster could change by proposals from other teams.
‘Not only FelipoX but other players received proposals from other teams. Indeed, FelipoX was invited by Alem4o to join the team and I was like in an informal and funny chat with Alem4o with him saying: ‘Imagine if you and FelipoX come’. There was no official proposal. I said to FelipoX to go because when you see the scene, you really don’t know how much time you’ll be in the top level.’ Reduct explained.
‘In our team, we don’t play thinking only about the money and he decided to stay, we didn’t influence anything in his decision.’
Changes in Brazilian teams
We also asked Reduct for his thoughts about the scene in Brazil and the changes happening with team rosters.
‘About w7m, the people judge a lot without knowing what’s happening inside the team because if they made it, there’s any reason.’ Reduct said. ‘I think the worst part was the player knowing that with the transfer window missing two days [will] be closed. I don’t know how they’ll be with Julio, he’s some time without playing professionally but the experience he has.’ He said.
‘About Lagonis, every team he goes [to] he makes miracles. With the team giving him space to make the decisions we’ll go well, and I think Team Liquid will be better because AsK will play with more freedom.’
A message for MIBR fans
And finally, of course, he had a special message for Made In Brazil fans.
‘You can expect us to dedicate the maximum because we can’t wait to play the Major. We should keep united, there are still some tournaments and we’re very excited.’
