Brazilian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team MIBR announced the signing of ESWC 2006 winner and former MIBR player Raphael "cogu" Camargo as the team's new head coach.
The hiring comes only days before MIBR's planned return to Counter-Strike after benching two of Brazil's veteran players in Fernando "fer" Alvarenga and Epitácio "TACO" de Melo, which saw in-game leader Gabriel "FalleN" Toldeo to bench himself in protest. Cogu now joins an MIBR roster with only two active players. While both Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe and Alencar "trk" Rossato are strong, it's unlikely they'll make any progress in the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Series with a patchwork roster. In that respect, cogu's signing points to MIBR plans to have its roster filled by the first day of the tournament on November 2.
MIBR, cogu to start BLAST Premier Fall against Astralis
Unfortunately for MIBR, its first matchup comes against Astralis in Group C. At this point it's unlikely MIBR will pull out of the tournament, especially after Team Liquid did so with a fully capable roster.
The team will most likely field several ringers for the competition, meaning that while MIBR might not have much chance of taking home a top finish, the tournament can serve as a scouting ground as cogu looks to rebuild MIBR after a rough 2020. cogu went on to coach many of Brazil's rising teams after retiring from competitive Counter-Strike: Source, but none ever reached the level MIBR has. While the circumstances aren't great, it looks as though MIBR's management is still willing to invest in the brand despite firing its CSGO coach and going through an ugly divorce from three of the game's biggest stars.
The organization has been in disarray since early in 2020, where several decent performances gave way to a series of controversies.
fer's Twitch ban came after multiple uses of homophobic slurs on the streaming platform, followed shortly after by members of MIBR's roster publically accused a 16-year-old of cheating. The accusations led to death threats against Chaos Esports Club's Nathan "leaf" Orf from Brazil's passionate fanbase that became so bad that the rising CSGO star deleted his Twitter account to escape them. While fans can't expect much from MIBR at BLAST Premier Fall, cogu's addition is a step in the right direction for a team that hasn't had a leader in a long time.
