Renato “nak” Nakano and Rodrigo “RCF” Figueiredo will no longer play for Sharks, the organization’s manager and coach Hélder “coachi” Sancho told HLTV today.
These roster changes come after Sharks failed to qualify for the StarLadder Berlin Major in August when they fell short at the Americas Minor. The Brazilian team opted to bench two of their players and make a change for the first time since March 2018.
Following the roster changes, coachi told HLTV that Sharks will be moving to the United States in September for the second part of the CS:GO season.
“We decided it was better for us to move our team to the United States so we can play with lower ping and fight to attend all the big tournaments in the world,” Coachi said. “We are still evaluating our options regarding the new players.”
This has been a common path for Brazilian teams since Keyd Stars, the former team of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and Fernando “fer” Alvarenga that moved to compete in the U.S. in 2015. Sharks will be the sixth Brazilian team in the U.S. alongside FURIA, MIBR, INTZ, Luminosity Gaming, and Team oNe.
This move could start a Brazilian shuffle since the player’s break is about to begin. Nak is a legend in the scene, having played for MIBR in Counter-Strike 1.6 and winning ESWC 2006, Brazil’s first international title in Counter-Strike. And RCF still has the potential to become a top player since he’s only 19 years old.
We’ll see if this move pays off for Sharks. A few Brazilian rosters, such as paiN Gaming and one iteration of Tempo Storm, moved to the U.S. but couldn’t properly succeed in the North American scene.
