FalleN explains regrets over cutting Stewie2K & tarik from MIBR CSGO roster

Brazilian CS:GO veteran Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo has revealed that he was against removing Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip and Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik from MIBR in late 2018.

FalleN was part of SK’s core that opted in early 2018 to go international after a disappointing start to the year that had seen them eliminated from the WESG Finals in the group stage.

After missing out on players like Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač, the team first landed on Stewie2K before bringing in his former Cloud9 teammate of tarik later in 2018 — by which point they had already signed for MIBR.

With the two North Americans in tow, MIBR won a title at the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 Grand Finals and made a handful of deep runs, even giving the all-powerful Astralis a run for their money.

But as the year came to an end, the Brazilian core, filled with nostalgia, opted to reunite with Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo and João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos, leaving Stewie2K and tarik out in the cold.

“I wish we did a little bit better together,” FalleN told Dexerto. “Personally, I wish we gave [the roster] a little bit more time. I actually wanted to give it a bit more time, but sometimes it’s not my wishes that happen.

“But I respect them a lot for doing that move.”

Stewie2K went on to play for Team Liquid, with whom he enjoyed the most successful period of his career. The North American outfit won a series of international tournaments in 2019 and the Intel Grand Slam Season 2 title before hitting a slump in 2020 and 2021 – in the latter year, he competed alongside FalleN again.

Tarik signed for NRG, who sold their CS:GO squad to Evil Geniuses in September 2019. He spent almost 18 months with that team and helped it reach the top of HLTV’s world ranking before being benched in April 2021 and then released at the start of 2022.

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Despite being the initiators of the changes, MIBR ended up worse for wear. They have been unable to reach the same heights that their international team did, and have gone through multiple roster iterations. In 2021, their team, no longer featuring any of the celebrated Major-winning players, couldn’t qualify for PGL Major Stockholm.