It’s time for veterans to pass the torch.
MIBR's CS2 pro Felipe "insani" Yuji is one, if not the best, Brazilian youngster. The 19-year-old player earned a promotion from the academy team in January 2023 and already proved himself in several tournaments overseas, most notably helping MIBR to win ESL Challenger Melbourne at the end of April.
Insani is one of the players of the new generation who is trying to turn the Brazilian scene around. The country lived its peak in 2016 and 2017, when Luminosity Gaming and later SK Gaming went on to win multiple tier-one trophies including back-to-back Major victories in 2016. Since the SK days, however, Brazilian fans have been eagerly waiting for one of their teams to rule the world once more.
While Brazilian teams have tried to mix veteran players with youngsters over the years, we're seeing new players get more opportunities as of recently. Top Brazilian squads such as Fluxo, paiN Gaming, and FURIA have given opportunities to up-and-coming players Nicollas "nicks" Polonio, João "snow" Vinicius , and Kayke "kye" Bertolucci respectively in the past weeks. This indicates, perhaps, that new players will finally start dictating the moves in Brazilian Counter-Strike — and insani agrees.
Insani thinks the time for new CS2 players in Brazil has come
"I feel that this baton exchange will happen one time or another," insani said in an interview with esports.gg on May 12. "The question is when the new players will be ready or not. But with all these academy players making their way up and start playing well, it will give even more confidence to up-and-coming players to focus on becoming pros. I believe this could be the start of the new generation in Brazilian CS."
Not only are the veteran players who were the best in Brazil in 2016 and 2017 getting older, but the lack of great results in tier-one tournaments over the past years incentivized organizations to sign fresh blood instead of recycling veterans.
As of the moment, Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo (FURIA), and João "felps" Vasconcellos, and Henrique "HEN1" Telles (Imperial) are the only players from the winning days in 2016 and 2017 still competing in top international tournaments regularly.
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Insani's thoughts on joining a Brazilian superteam
With the lack of great results in Brazil, many fans and analysts wonder why the country doesn't build a superteam to try taking over the world once again. This sort of project, albeit exciting, is nearly impossible because of all the high buyout clauses players have nowadays.
But, this doesn't stop fans and analysts from building their own superteam, which regularly features paiN's in-game leader Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt, HEN1, FURIA's superstar Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato, Team Liquid's rifler Felipe "skullz" Medeiros, and insani. Even if this is a real possibility, however, insani doesn't want to leave MIBR's CS2 project.
"To be honest, I don't think about leaving MIBR anytime soon," insani said. "I trust the project we have here, my teammates, and I know we can go far. I never thought about leaving MIBR."
We'll see if MIBR and insani will keep climbing the ranks after winning ESL Challenger Melbourne. They'll have the opportunity to do so this week at the $500,000 BetBoom Dacha Belgrade event, which will also feature top teams such as MOUZ, Team Spirit, and Virtus.pro. MIBR will debut against Heroic on Wednesday, May 15 at 7 a.m PT.
