Counter-Strike 2
biguzera ends six-year hunt for Big Event arena playoffs with paiN at PGL Cluj-Napoca
paiN are through to the playoffs of PGL Cluj-Napoca after beating Virtus.pro 2-0 in the fourth round of the Swiss group stage.
Three crucial clutches, excellent CT AWPing from Lucas "nqz" Soares, and hero A holds from David "dav1deuS" Tapia Maldonado were key in stealing Virtus.pro's Inferno pick from a 3-7 deficit, and the pair continued to perform on Mirage to help prevent a late resurgence from the Russian team from getting out of control.
It is only the second-ever Big Event playoffs for paiN after ESL Pro League Season 17 and the first that will be in front of a crowd, ending a six-year conquest for Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt that has seen him captain several iterations of the lineup to the sub-top only for him to have to rebuild after players departed.
"Right now I'm feeling tired," the Brazilian captain said to the analyst desk at the start of his post-match interview. "I'm wondering when I'll get my first beer, just thinking about it (smiles). Right now we have some days to chill."
dav1deuS move pays off
paiN was on the upswing for much of 2024, falling just one series short of reaching playoffs at PGL Major Copenhagen and IEM Cologne and making the Elimination Stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major.
They made a surprise change coming into the new year as Lucas "lux" Meneghini departed for Legacy and dav1deuS was brought in, and after some initial struggles at BLAST Bounty Finals and an early exit at IEM Katowice Play-in, the move is starting to pay off.
The Chilean rifler's natural aggression and stylistic differences have taken some adjustment for biguzera, who initially gave up several of his own positions but has since taken some back after realizing how best to use his new piece.
"The first time that we played with dav1deuS, I was [learning] how he likes to play and these kind of things, how aggressive he really is," biguzera told the desk. "I know now that he is really aggressive, so I just have to put him in some positions where he just needs to shoot, you know? Not throw grenades because it's not his best thing (laughs).
"Right now I feel that I really know how he can be a good player for us. At the beginning we made a lot of changes, I gave most of my positions to him, but right now we are changing some positions back and I think we have a better paiN than last month."
nqz continues to shine in Romania
After a dismal start to the year, nqz has stepped up in spades for paiN at PGL Cluj-Napoca and has been by far their best player, averaging a 1.19 rating over 11 maps (six above 1.26).
The Brazilian sniper was the star of the show against Falcons and The MongolZ, but his efforts against the latter weren't enough to get the job done after paiN dropped an 8-4 lead on the Mirage decider.
They couldn't crack through an impenetrable defense from The MongolZ, who went on a nine-round spree to steal away victory, but made that result look like an outlier with another 8-4 half against Virtus.pro, this time on the T side.
That was in part thanks to a few mistakes from Virtus.pro, including a glaring one in a 2v2 by Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov. The Kazakh AWPer was also one of the reasons both maps were close, but a few costly misses when the game came down to the wire allowed paiN to convert on their lead.
Three crucial clutches, excellent CT AWPing from Lucas "nqz" Soares, and hero A holds from David "dav1deuS" Tapia Maldonado were key in stealing Virtus.pro's Inferno pick from a 3-7 deficit, and the pair continued to perform on Mirage to help prevent a late resurgence from the Russian team from getting out of control.
It is only the second-ever Big Event playoffs for paiN after ESL Pro League Season 17 and the first that will be in front of a crowd, ending a six-year conquest for Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt that has seen him captain several iterations of the lineup to the sub-top only for him to have to rebuild after players departed.
"Right now I'm feeling tired," the Brazilian captain said to the analyst desk at the start of his post-match interview. "I'm wondering when I'll get my first beer, just thinking about it (smiles). Right now we have some days to chill."
dav1deuS move pays off
paiN was on the upswing for much of 2024, falling just one series short of reaching playoffs at PGL Major Copenhagen and IEM Cologne and making the Elimination Stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major.
They made a surprise change coming into the new year as Lucas "lux" Meneghini departed for Legacy and dav1deuS was brought in, and after some initial struggles at BLAST Bounty Finals and an early exit at IEM Katowice Play-in, the move is starting to pay off.
The Chilean rifler's natural aggression and stylistic differences have taken some adjustment for biguzera, who initially gave up several of his own positions but has since taken some back after realizing how best to use his new piece.
"The first time that we played with dav1deuS, I was [learning] how he likes to play and these kind of things, how aggressive he really is," biguzera told the desk. "I know now that he is really aggressive, so I just have to put him in some positions where he just needs to shoot, you know? Not throw grenades because it's not his best thing (laughs).
"Right now I feel that I really know how he can be a good player for us. At the beginning we made a lot of changes, I gave most of my positions to him, but right now we are changing some positions back and I think we have a better paiN than last month."
nqz continues to shine in Romania
After a dismal start to the year, nqz has stepped up in spades for paiN at PGL Cluj-Napoca and has been by far their best player, averaging a 1.19 rating over 11 maps (six above 1.26).
The Brazilian sniper was the star of the show against Falcons and The MongolZ, but his efforts against the latter weren't enough to get the job done after paiN dropped an 8-4 lead on the Mirage decider.
They couldn't crack through an impenetrable defense from The MongolZ, who went on a nine-round spree to steal away victory, but made that result look like an outlier with another 8-4 half against Virtus.pro, this time on the T side.
That was in part thanks to a few mistakes from Virtus.pro, including a glaring one in a 2v2 by Kaisar "ICY" Faiznurov. The Kazakh AWPer was also one of the reasons both maps were close, but a few costly misses when the game came down to the wire allowed paiN to convert on their lead.
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