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2025-04-20 10:52:23admin

MIBR's new in-game leader, Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda, spoke to HLTV.org after falling short against Ninjas in Pyjamas in the opening round of the IEM Katowice Play-in.

The IEM Katowice Play-In was always going to be a challenge for exit and his MIBR squad considering they only replaced Jhonatan "⁠JOTA⁠" Willian with academy player Felipe "⁠insani⁠" Yuji 15 days ago, yet they still managed to run Ninjas in Pyjamas close in their opening game, eventually falling 13-16 on Nuke. insani showed promise in this match, producing some high-impact rounds both on offense and defense.

exit's MIBR nearly took down NIP in their opening game

With an elimination match on the horizon in-game leader exit took some time out for an interview with HLTV, addressing MIBR's most recent change and how they chose insani, what caused them to lose a tight map with Ninjas in Pyjamas, and his thoughts on taking on Grayhound for survival in Katowice.

You've had to deal with Imperial stealing your player for the second time now in just a few months now, first chelo and now JOTA. Does it feel bad when it happens the second time this quickly?

I can't say that it's bad because we have now a really good player to play in JOTA's positions, so I'm not sad about it. But of course JOTA was an awesome player, he was very important to us, but he chose his path, he wanted to play with them. I think that FalleN has a lot of impact on that, because he's the biggest guy in Brazil and, of course, JOTA can learn a lot of things from him, and I wish him good luck. But our team is now working very well with insani, he's doing a great job filling JOTA's positions. JOTA was a guy who liked to talk the whole game and insani is a guy like that, he likes to push some calls, to do some things as CTs especially, and he's very good.

we thought about insani after we couldn't get lucaozy from Fluxo Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda

How did you approach replacing JOTA? Was it simply going into the academy team and finding whoever fits best in his positions?

Yeah, we thought about him after we couldn't get lucaozy from Fluxo. I told BIT like three or two months ago that I played with insani and I saw him play, and I knew that he was a good player already. I was already telling BIT that we got an awesome player in the academy team and that we should look into him. After we didn't get lucaozy, we talked about insani again, the roles, the way he plays. We talked with some people that played with him, brn played with him, and we asked what kind of playstyle he has, and it fit, so that was our choice.

It was a close match against NIP, at some point it looked like you guys could have had it. Does it feel like a missed opportunity to take down a big team?

I think losing games as close as that is very tough. It's worse than losing like 16-4, those games where you have no chance. This kind of matches hurts a lot because we know that we could have won the match. We were up in score, like we were 10-8, we won the CT pistol and we won the antieco, and we were very good, but the way they played against us, during the game we didn't know how to fight against it, so it was very hard. They were winning some rounds and broke our economy, and that's it, it was very, very hard to lose a match like this. But the important thing is that we're gonna rewatch it and learn a lot of things about it, because when you lose like that, you know that you had to have done a lot of good things. BIT was already talking that we lost this game with minor errors that we can fix by talking for 10 minutes, so I think that's good.

Did it feel like a big opportunity considering they just came into the event fresh off of a change, or did that just make it harder for you guys to know what to expect?

I think nowadays stand-ins are playing very well, some teams won some tournaments with stand-ins, so we knew that it was gonna be hard with k0nfig or hampus. They're both great players, so we knew it was gonna be hard.

insani played an impressive Big Event debut

Moving on, Grayhound is a matchup you don't really get to play a lot. Is there any expectation at this point fresh off the first game?

I don't know much, we're gonna talk about it now because we were so focused on playing against NIP, we didn't think about anything else. We were just talking about NIP. Of course, BIT and tacitus, they probably talked about Spirit and Grayhound, the vetos etc., but we're gonna talk about it now. We know that they're good because everyone here is good. I played against them I think two years ago or one year ago, I don't remember, and I know they're a very good team, they are aggressive, they have a different style of play, and it's gonna be hard as well.

I think the biggest challenge [is now] playing big events, I have to do some callouts out of nowhere sometimes in the middle of the game Raphael "⁠exit⁠" Lacerda on becoming the IGL

tacitus came into team at the beginning of the year as a new strategic coach. What changes for you with that addition? Do you work with him closely, or how does that work?

tacitus is working closely more with BIT, but he likes to talk to me a lot and he's a very good guy. He brings a lot of stuff for our team that is good. Him and BIT are working very well together and they are talking to me as well because I'm an IGL now for the team, but I'm playing with his role for two months, this is my first big tournament, and they are approaching me to say some stuff that I need to improve. Of course, I need to improve a lot of stuff. I like him, he impressed me, I can say that he impressed me, he knows about the game a lot and he's doing a very good job.

How has it been adjusting to the IGL role? As you say, a very new experience, what have been the biggest challenges?

I think the biggest challenges are the challenge that I'm getting now, playing big events, I have to do some callouts out of nowhere sometimes in the middle of the game, like I did against NIP. And when it doesn't go well, you have to focus and think about the next rounds. I have a lot to improve, but I think I can keep being an awesome IGL soon. I'm working hard to get to this position. I've changed a lot of my in-game stuff because I was a guy that didn't talk a lot in-game when I played other roles, but now I have to talk the whole game. I'm getting used to it, but I think I'm doing well and I think people are liking me as an IGL. I like to play with these four guys because, when I say something, they just do it. They trust me, they're confident in my call, so that's very good.