“I want to feel ‘lightness’ on the server again” - aspas discusses his future in VALORANT

Victory over LOUD in the final round of the VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 2 group stage could have been Erick "aspas" Santos’ last match with MIBR if the organization fails to qualify for VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions. In an exclusive interview with THESPIKE Brazil, aspas didn’t confirm whether he would stay or leave MIBR, but he made it clear that he wants to be on a team capable of winning everything and with a more relaxed atmosphere — the feeling he calls “lightness”. He also said that achieving this feeling isn’t something he can control alone as it takes the whole team to create it.

The following has been translated from an original interview conducted by THESPIKE Brasil in Portuguese. Click here for the original version.

“What I want, in short, is to win. I really want to win. I'm a very competitive person, I don't like losing. I've never liked losing. And I've always liked winning, and what I really want is to win. Basically, I have to see what's coming next and see how things play out. First, we have to wait and see if we'll qualify for Champions [Paris], and how we'll do at Champions if we qualify. If we don't qualify for Champions, we also have to wait. But what I truly want is to win”, stated aspas.

“I want to feel “light” again when playing on the server. This sensation isn't something that depends exclusively on me. It isn’t something that involves playing freely as I'm already doing that. I keep playing with confidence, I still play my game, I keep adapting, changing things, changing things outside of the game so I can bring all of this into my matches,” he explained.

MIBR's decline this season

Regarding MIBR, aspas commented on a decline in performance since participating in VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025 and how this impacted the organization's elimination from the second split of VCT Americas 2025. According to him, the team disconnected and stopped playing as a unit — something that took time, but was corrected in the final matches of the group stage of this edition of the tournament.

“I think we weren't on the same page. We felt disconnected [from one another]. We weren't playing as a team. We weren't thinking as a team. We weren't acting as a team. We were five individuals playing the game, playing ranked as friends. So, I think that was the main problem, and it was something that ended up taking us two games to basically fix. Against NRG, even though we lost, we managed to show a slightly better game. But it ended up taking us a long time to do that”, stated aspas firmly.

In addition, the player explained that he already imagined it would be a difficult season due to the little experience of his teammates and justified that the drop in his and the other players' performance was linked to the "disconnect" between them.

“I knew it was going to be tough since I joined a team with three rookies, while artzin was already part of the franchise. We also had a change, with Verno joining and being a great addition. But I think that, as the year progressed and time went by, we ended up becoming disconnected, it got quite complicated. Personally, I changed a lot to try to make it work. I was always trying to change something to see if it would work. But in the end, it wasn’t something I could fix on my own, because it’s a team game. Luckily, in the last games of VCT Americas 2025 Stage 2, we managed to reconnect, at least a little”, explained aspas.

Different viewpoints

When asked about the positives he takes from this season, aspas summed it up in one word: learning. But what if MIBR doesn’t make Champions 2025? Should the season be seen as a disappointment, especially given the team’s early results? From aspas’ point of view, the season wouldn’t be a positive one. But from the organization’s perspective, he said it would still count as positive, considering how poorly MIBR had done in previous seasons.

“From my perspective, I don't think I can consider this a good season if we don’t qualify for Champions [Paris]. This is because we ended up finishing top 3 at Kickoff, top 3 in Stage 1, and missed the playoffs in Stage 2. We also didn't win a single map at Masters [Toronto]. From my perspective, I don't think it was a good year [in the case we don’t qualify for Champs]. I think it was an OK year at best. But from MIBR's perspective, compared to their previous years, it was a good year. It was much better than the others. Even if we don’t qualify for Champions”, he concluded.

MIBR’s 2025 season might not be over yet. The team can still qualify for Champions 2025 through season points, but to do that, they’ll need a deep run in the VCT Americas 2025 Stage 2 playoffs.

As for aspas, he could become a free agent in the next transfer window. His contract with MIBR only runs until the end of this season, so there’s no guarantee he’ll stay with the organization next year.