MiBR part ways with their CS:GO coach zews
MiBR announced the departure of their CS:GO coach Wilton "zews" Prado, who will be leaving the Brazilian esports organisation after spending last 15 months trying to help MiBR claim a tournament trophy.
The 32-year-old CS:GO coach has announced the departure from MiBR on his official Twitter page, where he talked about the struggles MiBr went though and their inability to reach the heights they were hoping for, while also claiming he is aware MiBR's lack of success also falls on him.
Zews joined MiBR in December 2018, when the Brazilian CS:GO team and Team Liquid made a deal, which saw Jacky "Stewie2k" Yip move to North America in exchange for Epitácio "TACO" de Melo and zews. While the transfer started an era of Team Liquid's dominance in the CS:GO scene, it brought anything but the good fortune to MiBR, who found themselves in freefall.
With Stewie2k, Team Liquid went on to win five consecutive titles and Intel Grand Slam Season 2 title in record time, while MiBR struggled with their underwhelming results. Since they acquired zews and TACO, MIBR failed to reach the final stage of a CS:GO tournament over the course of 22 events played, while their best placement came at IEM Katowice and CS:GO Asia Championships where MiBR finished third-fourth.
The struggles MiBR were going through were quite obvious, as it was their drop on the global CS:GO rankings. In December 2018, when MiBR made the deal with Team Liquid, the Brazilian CS:GO squad occupied No.4 spot in the global rankings, but have since dropped off significantly. Although MiBR came close to reclaiming their No.4 spot in May 2019, when they climbed to the sixth spot, MiBR have found themselves sitting at 14th spot in August 2019, 16th spot in September and just recently reached a new low, when they dropped down to 26th spot at the start of March 2020.
Some of MiBR's poor performances can be connected to their roster struggles, namely the departure of Marcelo "coldzera" David and João "felps" Vasconcellos, who left the team in September and June respectively. Since their departure, MiBR were struggling to find a replacement and in the end, opted to sign Ignacio "meyern" Meyer and Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe. Still, their results did not improve.
At the end of 2019, MiBR placed last at cs_summit 5, to which they added two disappointing performances in early 2020 at DreamHack Open Anaheim and BLAST Premier Spring Series, where they failed to even make it out of the groups.
Shortly after the announcement of zews' departure surfaced, the Brazilian CS:GO coach took on Twitter to explain the situation, claiming MiBR is in shambles, as all of the team members know they are not performing nearly as well as they should, while also stating that some of MiBR's poor performances are due to his inability to help the team the way he should.
"I'd like to say that I believe MIBR's problems are closer to getting solved, but unfortunately I don't know if I believe that to be the case," said zews.
"The problems I found here are heavier, more complex and more deeply embedded than they seem to be, and in my opinion the solutions tend to be more complex as well – requiring a bigger change to the roster and/or to its culture. I do not wish to give excuses or to create problems, I take my blame, but at the same time, I have to analyse the situation to be able to learn from it and to continue to evolve as a professional.
"As for my future, nothing is settled. My wish is to continue competing and dedicating myself to this esport that I love. Due to the global crisis and COVID-19 I will stay in the US analysing my options.
With that, zews has closed yet another chapter in his illustrious Counter-Strike career, which started back in 2005, when he was a professional CS player. As a player, zews competed for Army5Gaming, Exotic.br, .bot, YeaH! Gaming and semXorah, before transitioning to CS:GO in 2012, when he played for Insight eSports, ProGaming.TD and Yakuz4 e-SPORTS.
In August 2015, zews hung up his mouse and keyboard and transitioned to coaching, when he joined Games Academy. Later the same year, zews took over as head coach of Luminosity, which was later in July 2016 signed by SK Gaming. Shortly after joining SK Gaming, zews left to team up with Immortals where he enjoyed one last stint as a CS:GO player, before he got signed a contract as ahead coach of Team Liquid in November 2016.
Zews remained as a head coach of Team Liquid for over two years, during which he helped the North American CS:GO squad reach immense success in the competitive scene, which included silver medals at ESL One: New York 2017, ESL Pro League Season 7 – Finals, Esports Championship Series Season 5 – Finals and ESL Pro League Season 8 – Finals, as well as gold at cs_summit 2 and SuperNova Malta 2018.
Since moving to MiBR, however, zews failed to reach any notable success, besides top-four finish at Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019 and Intel Extreme Masters XIV – Sydney and a bronze medal from BLAST Pro Series: Miami 2019.
Where will zews continue his career remains to be seen, however, it is fair to assume he will not have a hard time finding a new home, given his impressive success as a CS:GO coach. Meanwhile, Gabriel "FalleeN" Toledo spoke about zews' replacement in one of his streams, claiming MiBR's manager Ricardo "dead" Sinigaglia will take over as the team's new head coach and added that the team is currently not searching for a new coach.
MiBR CS:GO team is now:
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga
Epitacio "TACO" de Melo
Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe
Ignacio "meyern" Meyer
Ricardo "dead" Sinigaglia – manager/coach
