Imperial Esports

Brazilian esports organization
 CEOFelippe MartinsMain sponsorSportsbet.ioWebsiteimperialesports.com.br

Imperial Esports, or simply Imperial, is a Brazilian professional esports organization. It is best known for its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, which is made up of veteran players from the Brazilian scene, such as FalleN, fer, fnx, boltz and VINI. While the team has changed over time, the 2022 team, nicknamed "The Last Dance" (in reference to The Last Dance series) gained popularity in the run-up to the Rio 2022 Major.[1] The organization also has a Crossfire team.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

History

On September 5, 2018, Imperial acquired the Counter-Strike team from Santos e-Sports. In early 2022, after the contract of all its players expired, the organization signed "The Last Dance", a team created by Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo that aimed to bring together veterans of the Brazilian competitive scene.[2] Rumors indicated that the initial idea was to bring together the five former members of the team that won two Majors, one for Luminosity Gaming and another for SK Gaming, composed of FalleN, Fernando "fer" Alvarenga, Lincoln "fnx" Lau, Marcelo "coldzera" David and Epitacio "TACO" de Melo, however, the last two players already had other projects and chose not to participate.[3] Brazilians Ricardo "boltz" Prass and Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo were chosen to complete the team, in addition to Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu as coach.[4]

The team managed, through the American RMR, to qualify to compete in the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 at the Challengers Stage and then move on to the Legends Stage, where they were eliminated without reaching the playoffs.[5][6][7]

On August 12, Imperial announced peacemaker's departure from the team due to "some internal issues within the group".[8] On August 21, it was announced that fnx would stop playing for the team and would assume the role of coach;[9] he was replaced by Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes.[10][11][12]

On October 9, Imperial secured the remaining 24-team berth of the IEM Rio Major 2022 in a 2–1 closely fought series against North American Complexity Gaming, with the final map being 22–20.[13][14] The team did not get good results in the tournament and fell in the first phase.[15]

On April 2, 2023, Imperial won the BLAST Premier Spring American Showdown and became the representative from the Americas to play in the BLAST Premier Spring Finals.[16] In the Spring Finals, Imperial debuted by winning a 2–0 series against Team Vitality, who had just won the BLAST Paris Major 2023 without dropping a single map.[17] They reached the semifinals of the tournament, where they fell to Heroic 2–1, earning their first major placement in a top-level championship.[18]

Imperial announced the departures of FalleN and chelo on July 3, 2023.[19][20]

JOTA was benched from the roster on September 25, 2023.[21] He was replaced by Kaiky "noway" Santos on October 8.[22]

Notable achievements

  • 3º–4º — BLAST Premier 2023 Spring Finals[23]

Roster

Imperial CS:GO roster
Players Coaches
Handle Name Nationality
boltz Prass, Ricardo Brazil
VINI Figueiredo, Vinicius Brazil
felps Vasconcellos, João Brazil
HEN1 Teles, Henrique Brazil
noway Santos, Kaiky Brazil
JOTA (I) Wilian, Jhonatan Brazil
Head coach
  • Rafael "zakk" Fernandes
Legend:
  • (I) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Substitute player Substitute
  • Injured Injury / Illness
  

Latest roster transaction: 8 October 2023.

References

  1. ^ Kelemen, Luci (10 October 2022). "CS:GO world reacts to Imperial qualifying for the Major". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  2. ^ "FalleN confirma criação do The Last Dance em 2022; veja detalhes". TechTudo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  3. ^ "The Last Dance do CS:GO: o que se sabe até agora sobre o projeto". TechTudo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  4. ^ "CS:GO | Elenco do 'The Last Dance' é oficializado pela Imperial". ESPN.com (in Portuguese). 2022-02-18. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  5. ^ Robertson, Scott (17 May 2022). "Copenhagen Flames burn the Brazilian dream team Imperial to claim final playoff spot at PGL Antwerp Major". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  6. ^ "PGL Major Antwerp 2022: Imperial vence a forZe e está no Legends Stage". TechTudo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  7. ^ "Imperial luta, mas cai diante da BIG no PGL Major Antwerp 2022 | DRAFT5 - Notícias e Coberturas CS:GO". DRAFT5 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  8. ^ "CS:GO: peacemaker se despede da Imperial". ge (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  9. ^ Thomas, Harrison (22 August 2022). "Fnx steps down from Imperial roster, will pivot into coaching and content creation for org". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  10. ^ Biazzi, Leonardo (22 August 2022). "Imperial rounds out CS:GO roster with chelo". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  11. ^ "Oficial: fnx deixa a escalação titular da Imperial e vira coach | DRAFT5 - Notícias e Coberturas CS:GO". DRAFT5 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  12. ^ "CS:GO: Imperial anuncia a contratação de chelo, ex-MIBR, para vaga de fnx". TechTudo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  13. ^ "RMR Américas 2022: siga os jogos do classificatório para IEM Major Rio". ge (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-10-09.
  14. ^ Thomas, Harrison (9 October 2022). "Imperial edges out Complexity to qualify for the Rio Major". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  15. ^ "sh1ro stars as Cloud9 overcome Imperial in IEM Rio Major elimination series". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  16. ^ "Imperial beat paiN; complete BLAST Spring Final team list". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
  17. ^ "Imperial upset Vitality in BLAST Spring Final opener". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  18. ^ "Heroic survive Imperial to advance to BLAST Spring Final title decider". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  19. ^ "FalleN departs Imperial". HLTV. 3 July 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  20. ^ "Imperial says goodbye to chelo". HLTV. 3 July 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  21. ^ "Imperial bench JOTA; LUCAS1 to stand in at BLAST Showdown". HLTV. 25 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  22. ^ "Official: Imperial sign noway". HLTV. 8 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  23. ^ "BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2023-06-10.


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