How MIBR artzin overcame confidence issues right in time for Paris

The setting is VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 1, where a match takes place between KRÜ Esports and MIBR. For weeks, MIBR has established themselves as a top team throughout the regular season. In this moment, MIBR are in full control.

The score is 12-5 in MIBR’s favor as the Brazilian squad stands one round away from securing a spot at VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Masters Toronto 2025. Round 18 begins as MIBR waits for KRÜ to try to get past their strong defenses. As KRÜ finally storms the site, MIBR mows down each member one by one. With only Fabian "Shyy" Usnayo left, he attempts to peek into the site, only to be met by MIBR's Arthur "artzin" Araujo, greeting him with the finishing shot.

“We’re going to Canada, baby,” MIBR’s artzin screams out loud. “We’re going to Toronto!!!!!”

He then rises from his chair as he joyfully greets the rest of his MIBR teammates; a sea of viewers congratulate the Brazilian team for their qualification.

In this moment, artzin felt on top of the world. In 2024, qualifying for an international event would have felt like a fever dream. Then, artzin was a part of an MIBR team that went 1-9 in VCT 2024 - Americas Stage 2. Now, he was qualifying for an international VALORANT event as the leader of MIBR and a top fragger on the server.

This was the “confidence” and swagger that he desperately wanted back.

The art of being a leader

For MIBR’s artzin, 2025 has been an ongoing cycle of extreme highs and troubling lows. At the start of the 2025 VCT season, MIBR was seen as a team with potential, but was unable to capitalize on it. Their first match of 2025 saw the team get swept by 100 Thieves, pushing them into the lower bracket. It wasn’t until MIBR made the decision to swap artzin to the IGL role that things started to come together.

“I think back in Kickoff, I was feeling good about myself,” artzin said. “I was feeling good about the game and my confidence.”

Throughout VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Kickoff, artzin was a rare breed for IGL. While his primary duties were now centered around his hand in pre-round preparations and tactics, he was standing strong as a top performer on the server.

His leadership helped the team climb all the way to third place in Kickoff. His role within the team only got stronger in Stage 1, where he was the backbone behind this team qualifying for VALORANT Masters Toronto.

Dealing with confidence issues and mental health

Unfortunately, a strong showing never came from MIBR and artzin. Instead, VCT Masters Toronto kick-started a flurry of new issues within the team, including artzin’s confidence in his own abilities as a leader and a player.

“I was going through some personal problems and personal stuff,” artzin shared. “That actually got me to a point where I didn’t have confidence in myself in-game. I had to take it back and reset my mental health to gain my confidence back.”

Regaining his confidence became the epicenter of rebuilding into an even stronger version of himself. So, midway through VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Americas Stage 2, artzin and MIBR made the mutual decision to have him step down from the IGL role. From there, artzin took that opportunity to work on himself.

“I was going to my psychologist, talking out my personal stuff, which actually helped me in-game,” artzin shared. “Both my personal and competitive stuff got better.”

Going into VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions, artzin took a different approach towards preparation. Throughout most of his career, a lot of the work was centered on gameplay improvement and making sure his aim was on point. This time around, his "work" was focused on his mental health. Each morning begins with prayers to recenter himself before embarking on each practice day with the mission to “prove to himself” that he deserves to be here.

That is exactly what MIBR and artzin did in their 2-0 victory over Bilibili Gaming to start their journey at VALORANT Champions Paris on a strong note.

Shortly after the series, artzin was asked where he felt his confidence was on a scale of 1 to 10, where he said the following:

“I think I’m getting closer and closer to that 10, but if I were to say right now, I would say I am at an 8 ½,” artzin shared. “We just need more victories with the team, and I think we can do that.”

From the highs of qualifying to VALORANT Masters Toronto to the lows of nearly missing out on VALORANT Champions Paris, 2025 has been hectic for artzin. Yet despite everything that has happened, the 2025 season is one that artzin continues to be incredibly grateful for.

“Despite the results we had, I’m really grateful for this year because I just keep reaching my dreams again and again,” artzin shared. “My first dream I achieved was when I qualified for Toronto. My second was when we qualified for Champions. Despite everything, it’s been really good.”

The art of Brazilian VALORANT

MIBR is no longer a team that many teams have their eye on. In many VALORANT Champions Paris power rankings, MIBR is seeded as number 16 (last place).

However, it’s these moments when all the expectations are gone that help artzin recenter himself and simplify things to one standard goal in competition: winning.

“We are playing with the mentality of being an underdog, and we are actually taking this mentality throughout the whole, which is helping us a lot,” artzin said. “We’re taking a lot of pressure off of our shoulders so we can show the games on stage like we do in practice and throughout this bootcamp.”

MIBR will fight for their spot in the VALORANT Champions Paris playoffs against Fnatic on September 18, 2025. Similar to their series against Bilibili Gaming, MIBR are once again underdogs going against Fnatic. Regardless, the mission remains the same for artzin and MIBR.

“We know that we are going to have a tough opponent next match in Fnatic, so our preparation is going to be towards that,” artzin said. “We’re going to keep focusing on ourselves and come in with the same mentality we came in today with. Have fun.”

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Featured image credit: Riot Games