Ones to watch: Why paiN should strive for the Major title

posted by Brasozial,

The Brazilian squad of paiN Gaming* can surprise the best teams in the world. They demonstrated that more than once over the last two years. However, it's time to aim for a bigger goal: to be a Major champion - and they're ready for it at The Kuala Lumpur Major! Back in April 2017 Otávio 'tavo' Gabriel, Danylo 'KINGRD' Nascimento and William 'hFnk3' Medeiros were part of SG e-sports. It was the first ever Brazilian team to qualify for a Valve event, more exactly The Kiev Major.

Everybody expected them to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, but the South Americans surprised the international Dota 2 scene by beating Team Secret, one of the tournament favourites, with a shocking 2-1 in round one. They only advanced to the quarterfinal, but that result was enough to put South America on the Dota 2 map.

This was the first milestone for a Brazilian Dota 2 squad we'll never forget. Afterwards, the SG players switched to paiN Gaming* and signed a world class mid laner in form of Omar 'w33haa' Aliwi in 2018.

He was the first European top player to join the Brazilians and paiN Gaming reached new heights. Their best result so far is a third place at ESL One Birmingham 2018 where they beat teams like Mineski, Team Liquid and Vici Gaming.

After that, The International 2018 was a bit of a disappointment, because paiN was one of the two teams that didn't even reach the playoffs. The organization decided to change one player, one that could make the difference.

Misery is the factor for the title

At TI8, European star captain Rasmus 'rASmus' Fillipsen coached the team. For the new season he took over the captain role and replaced Heitor 'Duster' Pereira to help the team drafting better and bringing the structure they lacked before.

KINGRD is a good offlaner and a good emotional leader, but he can't lead the team game-wise. This is why they brought in Misery - and the early results are more than hopeful for the near future. At the first big international tournament after TI8 paiN demonstrated once again that they can compete with the best in the world.

At ESL One Hamburg 2018 the South American squad eliminated Forward Gaming and Team Aster to reach the top four. In the end, they "just" lost against the eventual tournament champion Team Secret.

It's about time for paiN to win titles

paiN is demonstrating over and over again that they can beat the best teams in the world - these victories are no upsets anymore. They need to strive for the next step: a tournament title. And The Kuala Lumpur Major could be the perfect moment for that.

Pela primeira vez, 2 times brasileiros em um Major 🇧🇷
Estamos juntos por um cenário Sul-Americano cada vez maior!

The Kuala Lumpur Major, de 9 a 18 de Novembro

Vamos pra cima deles 👊#GOpaiN #TheKualaLumpurMajor pic.twitter.com/GOOI56jsp5
— paiN Gaming (@paiNGamingBR) 5. November 2018

With Misery as the leader for the draft and four players who can compete with every player in their lane on a good day, this could be the right time for paiN to finally take this step and show that South America is close to becoming one of the biggest regions in Dota 2.

Lineup paiN Gaming*