PaiN Gaming have replaced piriajr with academy player Tatu as they continue to rebuild their Counter-Strike 2 roster.
PaiN Gaming announced a Counter-Strike 2 roster change on Monday, September 14, bringing in Lucas “Tatu” Santana to replace Guilherme “piriajr” Barbosa.
This is not the first lineup change paiN Gaming have made in recent weeks, as the Brazilian squad already benched Vinicius “vsm” Moreira and brought in academy player Rickson “Rkzinho” Ribeiro Dias at the start of the month.
The roster changes follow a rough patch for paiN Gaming, who have found little success in their recent competitive endeavours.
Since the 17th-19th place finish at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major in June, paiN have attended seven events and have only once reached a podium finish, at RES Showdown South America Fall, where the Brazilians placed second.
Since then, paiN exited Stake Ranked Episode 3 in seventh-eighth place, BLAST Bounty Summer in fifth-eighth, Esports World Cup in 17th-24th, and BLAST Open Fall in 13th-16th.
Moreover, paiN’s more recent attendances in the qualifying events for IEM Beijing and PGL Masters Bucharest ended in 13th-16th and fifth-sixth-place finishes.
In a bid to find more success, paiN decided to part ways with piriajr, who ends his stint with the team with an average 1.03 performance rating over 132 maps played.
This was a steep drop-off from his performances at Bounty Hunters, where the 23-year-old averaged an impressive 1.32 rating.
His replacement, Tatu, is the longest-serving member on paiN Academy, which he joined in June 2024 as his first professional team.
During his two-year-long stay with paiN’s academy division, Tatu has averaged a 1.06 performance rating and 1.24 over the last month, notably helping the team secure a bronze medal at CCT South America Challengers #2.
Tatu is now the second academy player to be given an opportunity in the main team, after Rkzinho.
The new-look lineup is set to debut this week at Circuit X Curitiba #3, set to kick off on Wednesday, September 16.
PaiN also have another tournament lined up later this month, as they will attend FERJEE In House #2, which will run from September 23 to 27.
Mark Prezelj
Esports Betting Analyst
Mark Prezelj is a Slovenian esports betting analyst with over 3,500 articles at EsportBet and the founder of Lines64.com — someone who has been reading odds longer than most readers have been watching esports.
