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We sat down with Bruno "?BIT?" Fukuda Lima prior to the Americas Minor to discuss N?o Tem Como's preparation for the event and ??? ????? ???????? ?????their prospects going forward.

N?o Tem Como are in London, for the Americas Minor, kicking off on Saturday, as they look to claim one of the two spots in the FACEIT Major's New Challengers Stage that are up for the taking. The Brazilian squad are in Group A, alongside eUnited, NRG and Swole Patrol.

NTC will take on Swole Patrol in their first game

Prior to the event, Dust2.us' Michael "DuckMoriarty" Moriarty sat down with BIT to discuss how N?o Tem Como's bootcamp went, their disappointing result at the ZOTAC Cup EU Finals, and their chances at the Minor.

You're coming to the Minor after a fairly long bootcamp in Europe. Do you think that has helped your team practice better and elevate your gameplay to a level that will help you qualify from the Minor?

Practicing in Europe is always very good. We were in Cologne for around three weeks before the Minor. I don't think the best practice is just bootcamping, I think playing tournaments is the best way to improve your team. The ZOTAC Cup EU Regional Finals was very important for us because, even though we lost, we spotted our mistakes. It opened our minds up to new possibilities in-game. So I think we are better prepared right now than we were for other tournaments.

Speaking of the ZOTAC Cup EU Finals, it wasn't the greatest showing from your team. What were the lessons you learned from that event?

At that event, the way we were playing the game wasn't the way we actually wanted to play. We saw a lot of mistakes that we fixed after the event. That was our main focus after ZOTAC. These are the main reasons why playing tournaments is good preparation. Because when you're just practicing, some teams don't give it all to win. For example, they just practice on the A-site or the B-site for the whole match. They aren't necessarily trying their best. But when you are playing in tournaments, you know exactly what you should do. At ZOTAC we didn't have a deep map pool. We had some good maps but some of our other maps weren't that strong. We could be better now in that regard.

We are better prepared right now than we were for other tournaments. Bruno "?BIT?" Fukuda Lima

So you spent the time between ZOTAC and the Minor working on your map pool?

Yes.

You have said multiple times that the Minor is your main focus. Does that mean that all your preparation has gone into getting ready for the teams that you will face this weekend?

No, we are prepared to play against any team. We will just try to do our best because this is a very important tournament but it's not the last tournament of our lives. Overall, we need to practice and become better every day to be able to play in any tournament in the world.

There has been a lot of speculation over where your team is going to end up in terms of an organization. Your coach has said before the Minor that you will remain under the NTC banner until at least the player break. Can you explain why you're sticking with the name? Has there been a delay on contract negotiations?

Right now we don't have anything to say about it. There are some organisations we are talking to, but, right now, we are going to stay as NTC. After the player break, maybe we can find a home, which would be great for us, but we are happy right now.

We need stability to get invites to more tournaments. If we keep playing, I am pretty sure we'll get some chances to win some tournaments Bruno "?BIT?" Fukuda Lima

If you finish in the top two at the Minor and you qualify for the New Challengers Stage of the Major, what would your main goals there be? Would it be to get a Legends spot or just to impress and not disappoint your fans and yourselves?

With the players we have in our squad, we always go into tournaments looking to win. We have Major finalists. Lincoln "?fnx?" Lau and Jo?o "?felps?" Vasconcellos have won a lot of tournaments. Vito "?kNgV-?" Giuseppe was very good last year. I think we always want to win but becoming Legends is a very good objective for us. We need to play more tournaments so, if we secure the Legends spot, we get to go to the next Major as well. We need stability to get invites to more tournaments. If we keep playing, I am pretty sure we'll get some chances to win some tournaments. A Legend spot would be ideal for us.