17-year-old player “snow” will participate in his first Major after team paiN overwhelmed 9z on the Dust2 map to end the match.

paiN became the third team from the Americas region to win tickets to the Perfect World Shanghai Major

paiN secured a spot at the Perfect World Shanghai Major with a spectacular 13-0 run on Dust2, completing a 2-map win over 9z. 

This Brazilian team is the third team from the Americas region to qualify, joining Wildcard and MIBR, who both entered the tournament with a 3-0 record after two days of competition.

paiN finished RMR's ​​first day of competition with a 1-1 record after a win over Nouns and a loss to Wildcard, but easily edged Imperial 13-5 to reach the 2-1 qualifiers, where they handled the 9z with relative ease.

This is Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt's 4th Major and the 3rd consecutive tournament for paiN, the team that just missed entering the playoff round at PGL Major Copenhagen after being eliminated by Natus Vincere in round 2-2.

Just a few weeks after that tournament, paiN was forced to make player changes when Vinicius “n1ssim” Pereira's loan contract expired and the organization was unable to reach a buyout agreement with the Sharks.

17-year-old player João “snow” Vinicius was signed a month later and has now qualified for the first Major of his career, achieving early success under biguzera.

Snow shed tears after winning

Brazil's captain led the team excellently from the beginning of the match, only allowing 9z to win a few scattered defensive rounds on Mirage and closed the half with a score of 8-4. 

The pistol and conversion put paiN up 10-4, but their weak defense and 9z's slow play brought the game back to 12-11 before Kaue "kauez" Kaschuk had a four-man kill and a shot. Shooting full of techniques helped paiN win.

What happened defensively on Mirage was quickly forgotten as paiN destroyed 9z in every round on the Dust2 map, completely overwhelming the opponent in the first round without losing a single round.

"Right now, we're very prepared for their Dust2," Lucas “nqz” Soares shared after the match. "Everything they did on the map we knew and predicted. The preparation was very good."

“Besides that, we handled every situation very well, communicated extremely well, and in terms of aiming skills, we were extremely sharp.”

9z was able to rack up just over 2 kills per round in the first round on the offensive side, taking the first three-kill round at 8-0, giving snow its first death (9-0 K-D) two rounds after that, but then lost to a clutch phase by kauez. By the end of the match, kauez scored another quad kill and won the final phase, sending paiN to the Major in overwhelming fashion.

“We are very confident,” nqz said of qualifying. “We expected to qualify and the Wildcard defeat showed that it is not easy and we have to work hard and avoid mistakes.”