Gustavo “Juve” Alexandre became the youngest person to ever coach at a Major when Into the Breach qualified for the BLAST.tv Paris Major. Now he once again etches his name in the history books as the British side beat Fnatic to secure a spot in the playoffs. The ecstatic Portuguese coach spoke to UKCSGO after the win about the mental fortitude it took to comeback against Fnatic, the run as a whole, and blowing away people’s expectations of them.
After that first map, you’re down, everybody’s heads in the mud, what are you and Thomas saying, what’s going on in that chat?
Not gonna lie the vibe of the team was pretty much dead, we were, like, after yesterday’s game against Liquid we didn’t play our game. We felt like we could have done more, and entering today’s game and still not playing our game, still playing afraid, still not doing what we were supposed to do, the vibe of the team was really bad when we were in the booth. But then we spoke, we fixed things.
What helped us was winning these first 5 rounds on Overpass CT side, because once we got a moment, we forgot the last map. We needed that. If at the beginning of Overpass we start losing, it’s just GG man.
Yeah.
Yeah it will be GG mode, go next. But we got momentum and then we literally forgot Inferno, and we just went to fucking Vertigo.
When you were up huge, on the last map, what was going through your head?
On the 12-3? The second I could talk, I just said “Game’s not won”. We didn’t win the game, focus, we know what can happen boys. Focus up, we need four rounds, chill. Then we said something cause they ran out of pauses, the first thing I said to Thomas was “don’t take pauses”. We start losing, don’t take pauses. Because that’s the only way they will be able to change the game if they want. We just need one round to win, and they won’t be able to do anything else, to adapt or something.
At one point they took a pause and then you took one right after, what was the thought behind that?
Ah, it was because I spoke on the pause, but rallen and Thomas didn’t understand what they were supposed to do. So we just took a pause, I spoke more calmly to the guys, and they understood what I was asking for.
So at the beginning, when you lost to Apeks, did you ever expect to be where you are right now?
Before the event, we were so glad to be in the Legends stage, and our expectations were not the best, because in theory we were the worst team, fact. So our expectation was “let’s enjoy our moment, let’s be here, it’s the fucking Major, let’s fucking go.” But once we got the second game, once we got the wins over FaZe and ENCE, that’s when we felt a little bit of pressure. That’s why what happened against Liquid [happened.]
So what’s going on tonight in the Into the Breach camp?
I don’t know what’s going on tonight, I think we’re just going to party [laughs]. Fucking top eight in the world man, Jesus Christ.
Top eight in the world.
I’m so glad I can put Portugal once again here. Only one man was capable of it – fox [Ricardo “fox” Pacheco] – he played 5 Majors, and I’m the first coach in Portugal to get a team in the Champions stage, so I’m so glad.
Anything you want to say to the Portuguese, to the British?
I just want – thanks a lot to the Portuguese, Brazilians, Spanish, English – everyone, you guys have been amazing to me, sending messages, commenting all my stuff, like, you’ve been amazing, giving me a lot of love.
