How Team Liquid Brazil Came Together And Became A Top Game Changers Team

As we head into the fourth year of VALORANT Game Changers’ lifespan, the current roster of Team Liquid Brazil sits at a crucial point in its development. They began playing together at the start of 2023 and, after experiencing some growing pains, have developed into the best version of themselves so far. But In-Game Leader Daiki, star player bizerra, along with coach Palestra, still believe that they can be even better.

The team’s most remarkable achievement came at Game Changers Championship 2023 when, in front of a home crowd, they mounted what my be the best lower bracket run in Game Changers history. Thanks to strong leadership from Daiki and a star-making performance from bizerra, the team went on a tear through the lower bracket and made it all the way from losing their first match of the tournament to making the grand finals. Their opponents, Shopify Rebellion, had been touted as a North American superteam all year — and Team Liquid Brazil took them to the tiebreaker.

Shopify Rebellion was ultimately triumphant, but for Team Liquid Brazil, it was still an incredibly heartening performance that spoke of potential still yet to be uncovered and a resilience and team bond as strong as any in Valorant. Now, the team’s focus is on patching up their weaknesses and strengthening what’s already there in order to climb to ever greater heights. 

Part of that climb is not just in the Game Changers scene, but the wider mixed-gender tier 2 scene in Brazil. Team Liquid Brazil’s priority has always been not only to win in Valorant’s league for women and marginalized genders, but also to rise through the tier 2 ranks and take on all foes. Just this week, Team Liquid Brazil also made Game Changers history by beating multiple tier 2 teams to make the Closed Qualifiers for the official tier 2 league in Brazil. 

We spoke with Daiki, bizerra, and Palestra to get their thoughts on their 2023, how they climbed to their new peak, and what’s on the horizon for Team Liquid Brazil in 2024.

Daiki, going into 2023, you’d basically only played with the same roster of players for your entire pro career. What was it like to build this new team, with new players?

Daiki: Within the team, I learned a lot about how to correct problems that I felt were normal [with the old team] but actually aren’t. So I learned a lot about how to know people and figure out new solutions for the old problems, in a different way that works better with this team.

Did you have to adapt your leadership style in any particular way?

Daiki: Yes. In 2022, I wasn't so present in the routine of the girls. So in 2023, I tried to talk more and understand their problems. Before, even though we were in the same team for a long time, I wasn’t very close with them. So this year I tried to understand more about the other teammates’ lives, so I could understand how to help them in a better way. 

This year we had better results because we focused on the people, and not just the game. I tried to be close to them and understand their feelings, their backgrounds, even their mom’s name… this stuff is simple, but it has a meaning. It helps a lot with the other teammates trusting me more when I try to do something new or lead them.

Would you say that the bond that you formed with each other became one of your bigger strengths as a team?

Daiki: Yes, it was one of the strengths of this team, and it was easier to deal with situations because [we]liked each other. It was easier to [overcome] difficulties and deal with the problems in a better way.

Bizerra: Our connection and unity is what I find strongest in our team. We are great partners and support each other at any time. Truly a family.

One of the bigger stories surrounding Team Liquid Brazil last year in Game Changers was the fact that your win streak was broken during Series 2, so how did that affect the team's mentality? What adjustments did you make after that?

Palestra: We were a little bit shocked, because the other teams improved a lot and we were still doing things our own way. But in that moment, we figured out that we could do even more than we did before, [...] we could achieve more, as a team and as individuals. I think we never thought about the win streak or the records.  It was something more for the fans and everyone that was watching — but inside here, we were never thinking about that.

Do you feel that the team changed and got stronger after that tournament?

Palestra: When we lost the first time against LOUD, the impression that I had was it was our fault, not that they deserved to win against us, because we did some stuff wrong. So for the next preparation, for the following qualifier, we didn't change many things. But when we lost the second one, we were thinking about what we were doing wrong, or if we were not doing something that we should have been doing. So we started everything over. 

We tried to make some changes after the second qualifier, and we knew that on the third qualifier, we would not be ready. We were trying to just think about the [Game Changers Brazil] LAN because in the third qualifier, we were in the middle of the process, so our goal should not be to beat them but to make it to the LAN. Then we would finally be ready to show what we were working on those two, three months.

Daiki: For me, that's why we didn’t care about the results in the qualifiers — only the really important LAN.

Speaking of LANs, let’s talk Game Changers Championship 2023. What was it like to play in front of a home crowd at that event?

Daiki: That was insane. Honestly. It was awesome. I felt something I’d never felt before. The only time I felt something similar was when I won a prize at a Brazilian awards show for esports, my first individual prize. When I got to the stage, everyone was shouting my name.

I played the Berlin Championship, which I really liked, so I thought it would be like the same, but the home crowd was very, very insane and different.

Bizerra: It was the feeling of being a child and getting the biggest toy in the amusement park. It was something I couldn't imagine living even in my biggest dreams, and seeing it so close was an inexplicable achievement for me. My biggest challenge when I joined the team was the adaptation process to feel comfortable and show why I was the best choice they could have made. I was with the people I have always admired and who have always been my inspirations, and that gave me an absurd hype.

Playing with fans was a very different feeling. It was the first time we played with the warmth of a crowd on our side. It was a very pleasant feeling and gave us a lot of willpower to fight until the end.

Of course, the main story for Team Liquid at that event started with the early loss against G2. So after that loss, what was the team's mindset, and how did you end up rallying back from it?

Palestra: We practiced against G2 in bootcamps, when we bootcamped in Amsterdam. Back then, the game was easy, it was not that difficult, and when we studied them we knew that we could beat them. We did not expect to fight in the first round, but when we got matched with them it was, “okay, we can beat them, it will not be hard.” But it was the first game, so I think we were a little bit nervous. We didn’t play our game.

After that we did a talk, and we tried to figure out how we felt on the stage. What were the problems, and how was our attitude going to be in the following days? The main thing we talked about was how we felt, and what we were expecting, and we equalized everything and just tried to play a little lighter than we played the first match. We knew we didn’t play our best; we just were not ourselves in that game. So we just needed to find that again, and… the rest is history.

Bizerra: Losing in the debut match against G2 activated many alerts in our team about things that were missing for us to deserve to be champions. I believe that our turning point was knowing that it was not what we wanted to show, and it was not what we were capable of. Our post-game conversation was very important for us to be able to align all these lines and put our best foot forward in the game.

Daiki, do you think that dealing with that situation helped you grow as leader of the team?

Daiki: I learned a lot. There was a time in the game when everyone felt something, but nobody was saying anything, and I reacted in… not the best way. I said something like, “you are not doing what I’m asking you to do,” and I said it in an angry way, which was not the best way to say it. I shouted a little bit. So I learned a lot about how I should talk to people, and how, as a leader, I should try to talk to my teammates.

Unfortunately, the Finals result was probably not the one that you were hoping for, but did that match help you identify something that you need to work on for the future?

Daiki: Yeah. There are two things that I would do differently. There was a lot of fatigue after so much playing, so I’d like to improve my health. I think I should be more fit to be able to endure long matches, like a best of five. 

In a mental way, I thought too much about the draft itself, because we were from the lower bracket, so they had map advantage. They could veto two maps and start picking their best map, for example, and I felt some pressure. I was worrying and thinking too much about that. I had to worry less about the draft, accept it, and try to play our best, even though we knew that we were not playing our best maps.

As players, Daiki and bizerra, what are your goals for 2024?

Daiki: Since 2023, as a person, I’m trying to get better at dealing with stressful situations, or when something I’m expecting to happen doesn’t happen. Everything I’m doing as a person is related to the team. For me, my goal is to react and do better in stressful situations.

Bizerra: My goal for 2024 as a player is to focus more on mentality, my routine, and gaming as I believe they go together and aligning them all is very important for an even better performance.