Two of MIBR’s players may have to go missing before a $150,000 qualifier.
MIBR’s core riflers are both facing difficulties ahead of BLAST Premier: Fall Groups. Entry fragger Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes was involved in a vehicular accident and Ricardo “boltz” Prass’s medical tests have barred him from international travel. boltz is confirmed to be absent for the competition, while chelo’s status is still not determined.
The bad news comes just over a week before the first matches of BLAST Premier Fall. Despite these difficulties, MIBR will continue to compete without boltz. Aspiring MIBR Academy rifler Breno “brnz4n” Poletto will fill in for his first appearance on the global stage. chelo will most likely recover from his incident before BLAST, but an unspecified neck injury could have an impact on his playing comfortability.
MIBR coach Alessandro “Apoka” Marcucci issued a public statement through social media explaining the situation.
“We started training in Brazil in preparation for our trip abroad, but chelo was involved with a car accident. He’s already fine, but he has an injured neck. More recently, boltz has tested positive.. he even required a day in the hospital.” Apoka said, according to translation.
The potential loss of its core rifling duo could harm MIBR’s chances at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups. boltz is arguably the team’s best fragger. He has earned 82.1 damage and .64 death averages over the past three months. chelo is an explosive entry fragger, a necessary quality for MIBR’s up-tempo pace. At least brnz4n can bring some international experience back home to Brazil.
BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2021 is a qualifier for the $425,000 BLAST Premier: Fall Finals schedules for November. Despite its status as a group stage, Fall Groups still brings a $150,000 prize pool of its own to the table for competing teams. The BLAST Fall preliminaries begin on September 16.
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