Brazil’s Biggest Esports CS:GO Teams and Their Players
Esports is big in Brazil, and, unsurprisingly, so are the teams who play in competitive video gaming tournaments. Brazil has produced some of the world’s elite when it comes to esports, the catch-all term for video games playing competitively.
Apart from enjoying a vibrant localized ecosystem, Brazilian esports are making sure they have produced some of the global powerhouses that dominate not just local events in Counter-Strike and Dota 2, but also go well beyond and are stomping international partners and rivals.
MIBR
The first team to speak of bears the proud name of “Made in Brazil.” You could hardly find a more authentic brand and one that has Brazil directly in its name. The organization was founded in 2003, even before esports was popular. They started strong that year, and gradually petered out by 2012, when the team decided that they would take a hiatus from esports.
That was a rather long one, and they only returned in 2018. Overall, the team has been making its presence felt in competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and they have collectively won $2.2 million from playing the game. An estimated 70% of their total earnings come from Counter-Strike, although they have tried their hand at other games, too, such as Rainbow Six: Siege.
Regardless, MIBR remains most successful in Counter-Strike, and they are competing against some of the best esports teams in the segment. They are presently ranked #31 in the global CS:GO community and obviously need to do some work to catch up, but MIBR are definitely a renowned franchise.
FURIA
FURIA is a multi-game esports team from Brazil as one of the most prominent in the country – indeed. The organization has gone on to win more than $1.4 million from various events and tournaments, and according to the Brazilian gambling website Drjuego, FURIA is rapidly picking the pace in the national esports betting space. The team competes across a number of video games, which gives it a very strong presence in a number of disciplines, including Dota 2, Fortnite, League of Legends, PUBG, Rainbow Six, Rocket League and Valorant, among others.
Presently, FURIA’s CS:GO roster is the world’s eighth-best team according to HLTV, a website and community dedicated to CS:GO. The team has been doing very well, going head to head with the likes of Fnatic, Cloud9, FaZe Clan, and other prominent organizations. The year 2023 has been particularly strong for the team which has managed to climb rapidly through the rankings and put Brazil’s name on the competitive calendar in CS:GO and beyond.
paiN Gaming
PaiN Gaming is another prominent institution in the world of competitive esports in Brazil. Founded in 2011, paiN Gaming has been competing every year since, marking it as one of the most active and worthwhile organizations in the competitive ecosystem. paiN Gaming has not been just focused on its main teams but has also branched out in many other initiatives.
For example, paiN is investing heavily in its academy, which is a feeder league that allows the team to oversee talent, train, and nurture the future generations of players who are keen to make their big debut with the CS:GO team’s main roster. Academies are a very clever way to surprise opponents as most of the players in the academy are unknown, and you do not know what to expect from them if you are the one playing against them.
CS:GO is of course a very tactical as well as skill-based game, so some of the surprise element is offset. In any event, paiN Gaming has been actively acquiring talent and even bought players from MIBR, another Brazilian CS:GO team, as it believes it can achieve more.
Brazil Esports and Players: The Outlook
These three teams are hardly the only players and organizations that hail from Brazil and that have helped promote esports in Latin America. Their example is of course extremely important as it inspires the millions of young players in the region to take up a game they love and really make it to the top.
The journey to the top is naturally not very easy, but thanks to the initiatives that paiN Gaming and MIBR have laid out – the academies in particular – promising young players can join and become a part of the ecosystem in a way they could never before, giving them a real shot at realizing their dream to play competitive esports.
Brazil has a long way to go, but the country is already one of the most formidable jurisdictions when it comes to esports talent per capita.