Everyone has heard about the flashy duelists players who frag hard and rack up big numbers rampaging through Brazil. But it's about time the world became familiar with the region's other highlight talent.

Particularly since that other talent, not the flashy duelists, is who will be representing Brazil in Iceland.

“I think Team Vikings Team Vikings Inactive Veroneze Vinícius Ribeiro Ds Daniel Silva swag João Neto pollo Julio Silva , in a general context, doesn't depend solely on one or two players to perform well,” Leandro "frz" Gomes said. “I think all five have the potential to perform very well, and we have great teamplay, so I think that could be the difference in our team.”

Gustavo "gtn" Moura, Gustavo "Sacy" Rossi, Gabriel "sutecas" Dias, Matias "saadhak" Delipetro, and of course frz himself are the names you should get to know if you haven't already.

Since 2021 began, Team Vikings have lost just two matches in Brazilian competition. They have won all three competitions they've competed in: Ultimaster AOC, Stage 1 Masters Brazil, and Stage 2 Challengers Finals Brazil. Throughout the 26 matches they've played in the VLR database in 2021, they've only lost just eight maps total.

They're the undisputed titans of a region with a lot of hype behind it, a region which was one of just three to be granted two spots in Iceland. Will Brazil live up to the hype? That's up to Vikings and their peers on Sharks Esports Sharks Esports Inactive gaabxx Gabriel Carli prozin Wallacy Sales KILLDREAM João Ferreira Addicted Eduardo Torres to determine.

“I think we've been receiving a lot of pressure because practically the whole community has faith that, if we don't win, we'll reach very far in the tournament,” frz said. “So I think there is some pressure on us, but on one side that's good because we are receiving a lot of support, and that's cool, but on the other side that can be bad because we feel pressured to play.”

But Team Vikings are no strangers to pressure. frz is handling it well.

“One thing I'm doing since we've arrived in Iceland is distancing myself from social media and trying to focus only on the game; whatever happens we'll try our best and that's what matters, and I'm sure we'll go far.”

Team Vikings made some noise around the turn of the new year by being one of the first major Brazilian organizations to sign a player from outside of Brazil when it signed Argentine saadhak.

“In the beginning we had some conflicts calling certain positions, because we'd give different names in Spanish and in Portuguese for the same positions,” frz said. “But that was just in the beginning and we have no problems with communication.”

That's in part because saadhak is no stranger to Brazilian teams. His past experience allowed him to mesh with his new teammates immediately.

“saadhak already knows how to speak Portuguese,” frz said. “He learned with me when we played Paladins together. We lived in a gaming house so he had to learn Portuguese to communicate, so in this team we speak Portuguese.”

But that background goes beyond just the team's language in showcasing the character of the Team Vikings roster. Most of Brazil's flashy Valorant players were flashy CS:GO players once upon a time. Team Vikings have a little more diversity in their prior game history.

frz and saadhak both played for Spacestation Gaming's Paladins roster, qualifying for the Paladins World Championships in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, they beat Malkolm "bonkar" Rench's Ninjas in Pyjamas roster that went on to win Worlds in 2019 and transition into Valorant's beta together.

But if there's a star on this team, it's Sacy, the team's Sova specialist. He keeps pace statistically with all of Brazil's top duelist players, despite sticking exclusively to the Russian information-gathering agent. And he doesn't even come from CS:GO.

Stats among Brazilian players last 60 days, Sacy has third highest ACS Sacy is the only player among those with the nine highest ACS in Brazil over the last 60 days to not play a duelist.

Sacy is most well-known for playing League of Legends for RED Candids, and Valorant is his first FPS he's played competitively. It's perhaps these diverse backgrounds that allows the team to succeed off of teamplay rather than off the openings created by one or two star players.

And those backgrounds likely inform how the team is approaching Masters Reykjavik. Sure, winning is the goal, but the team is determined to take something from it beyond a trophy.

“We're learning a lot just through scrims, so regardless of the result we've already acquired a lot of experience,” frz said.

“I also think that in the tournament we'll go far - if we don't win, we'll go far. Obviously our objective is to win Masters, but in a general sense we want to evolve as a team tactically and gain international experience.”

Perhaps that's the right approach. Particularly for a team that expects to qualify for the year-end Valorant Champions LAN like Team Vikings.

Dimi and Eutalyx contributed to this story with interviews and translations.