“We’ll always lose if we continue like this” - fRoD after MIBR’s elimination from Masters Toronto
Without winning a single map, MIBR said goodbye to VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025, after being eliminated by Team Liquid. In an interview with THESPIKE Brazil, Danny "fRoD" Montaner stated that this is MIBR's worst moment this season and that the team's mood cannot be affected by defeats, something that, according to him, has been happening.
For the original interview conducted in Portuguese, click here.
“This year this is definitely [MIBR's worst moment], but we also need to stay positive because I know we played very badly in this championship [Masters Toronto 2025]. But we are the third team in the VCT Americas and we have reached this point [of competing in Masters Toronto 2025]. We are happy that we are trying to gain experience, playing in an international championship, but we are really far from where we want to go to win trophies. But we are positive that our year isn’t over yet. For us, it is time to get back to training, focus on ourselves and finding a way to overcome all these things. But I agree that it is a bit of a bad phase, bad results lately, but we are here in Toronto and not many teams have made it this far... We need to stay positive a little about this aspect. Everyone needs to reset and come back stronger in the next split to try to bring a vision, a slightly different positivity. Our vibes need to improve for sure. We have split 2 to focus on and Champions too”, explained fRoD.
“When you lose, everyone gets a little down mentally. We just have to not let these things affect our positive atmosphere. I think everyone is sad, for sure. But also, our atmosphere, our culture, which is very good, helps to reset that. We will try to do our best to bring that part of happiness back a little bit because I think that is something that helps our team a lot”, concluded the coach.
➡️ Finding silver linings amidst feelings of sadness
When asked about his feelings after being eliminated from Masters, fRoD was direct, and in addition to sadness, also revealed that MIBR is not at the level it would like to be as a team. “Definitely very sad. I think our team really didn't show our potential. We wanted to represent Brazil much better, but we are far from the team we want [to be]”, he said.
fRoD also explained the reasons for the contrast between MIBR's performances at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 1 and MIBR's recent performances at EWC VALORANT - Esports World Cup 2025: Americas Qualifier and this edition of Masters. For him, the team is still trying to find its "identity" after changes in the VALORANT meta.
“I think we lost a bit of our identity when the meta changed, and we’re trying to find different ways to play. And, really, we aren’t playing well individually, but I think there’s a lot we can improve on. The compositions are good in that sense, but I think we can try different things. We didn’t have much time, we’re trying to practice a lot of different metas. That got in the way a bit, but that isn’t why we lost today. I think that no matter what, any championship, any meta, we’ll always lose if we continue like this. It's much more due to a lack of discipline and willingness to close the rounds, play more correctly and things like that”, stated fRoD firmly.
➡️ Exploring aspas’ strikingly poor performance
Interestingly, Erick "aspas" Santos had one of the worst performances of his career at Masters Toronto 2025. He left the tournament as one of the players with the worst statistics, as did other MIBR players. However, regarding aspas, fRoD claimed that MIBR's Duelist was impacted by the team's poor performance and that it isn’t fair to put all the pressure of MIBR's poor results on him.
“It's much easier to talk to him [aspas] about this thing, but really, it's hard for him or anyone to get into the game when our team isn't playing very well as a collective. There are a lot of little things that end up overwhelming everyone. Not just him. I know that aspas is the GOAT and you're all used to seeing him destroying [everyone], but also [VALORANT] is a team game, an FPS game. And if our team is playing badly, it will be almost impossible for a guy as good as aspas to carry our team. That's not how we should put all this pressure on him. I think our team really needs to make his game a little easier. Everyone shares a bit of the blame for the result and the performance”, closed out fRoD.
This was MIBR's first participation in an international VALORANT tournament. Without MIBR, Brazil no longer has any representatives at Masters Toronto. Now, MIBR's next commitment will be VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 2, scheduled to take place in over a month, on July 18.
Stay tuned to THESPIKE.GG for full coverage as the action at Masters Toronto continues to heat up.
Banner image credits: Stefan Wisnoski/Riot Games
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