snow and AZUWU spoke ahead of their teams’ match to advance to the third stage of the IEM Cologne Major 2026
Esports players Oscar “AZUWU” Bell of Monte and João “snow” Vinícius of paiN Gaming shared their expectations for their teams’ upcoming match at the championship in an interview at the IEM Cologne Major 2026.
snow: I think Monte is a very good team that has already managed to surprise many opponents at this stage of the tournament. They play a fairly aggressive style, but we’ll be able to shut them down and come out on top. Our first day turned out to be very difficult: we lost to two teams we were supposed to beat, but our opponents played their best, and we weren’t ready for that kind of resistance. Now the team has changed its approach and started to look at the upcoming matches differently. So today everything will work out: we’ll be able to win confidently and advance to the next stage.
AZUWU: First of all, I’ll say that playing in the first Major of your career is everyone’s dream. The fact that a win today will let us advance to the next stage excites me, because everything is on the line. If we manage to advance, a result like this will be the literal fulfillment of a cherished dream.
Monte is currently battling paiN Gaming in a match to advance to the third stage of the IEM Cologne Major 2026. At the time of publication, João “snow” Vinícius’s team is trailing 0-1 in the best-of-3 series.
