PNG Von on taking over as head coach: "The responsibility is definitely different"

underwent a major change to its coaching staff during the CBLOL 2026 Split 2, with Gabriel "Von" Barbosa taking over as Head Coach following Sin "Xero" Hyeok’s departure. The coach, who had previously held the position and already knew the roster, assumed responsibilities including reviews, drafts, and the organization of the coaching staff.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports conducted this Saturday, August 22nd, following paiN’s loss to , Von explained how the change has affected his routine and discussed the differences between his approach and Xero’s. He also assessed paiN’s drafting process and individually discussed Marcos "" Santos and Felipe "" Boal, highlighting the qualities he considers important for the team’s development.

Gabriel "Von" Barbosa: “This change happened after the Super Week. We had a day off, which was the day I received the news and had to prepare. The change came as a surprise to me, but I had already worked as a Head Coach at other points in my career, so it does change a lot.

Today, reviews are my responsibility, the draft is my responsibility, and how the post-scrim work will be done is something I discuss with Sarkis (Matheus Guimarães), in terms of how we need to align, how I will use my staff, how I will use the physiotherapist, how I will use the psychologist.

Before, my role was more about helping the players and, of course, helping the coaching staff with drafts, but mostly by giving my opinion. From the outside, I ultimately didn't have a voice on stage. So, during scrims, I also tried to avoid talking.

Whenever I wanted to say something, I would direct it only to Xero and Sarkis, so that it wouldn't affect the way they worked on a game day. The responsibility is definitely different because I have to look at the Academy, the CBLOL, the staff as a whole, as well as the health department. So, it changes a lot.

Von: Xero is a very intelligent person, and nobody can disagree with that. Within our group, when Xero left, we were also sad for him. It's not like we hated him. He was very important to everyone who worked with him. We always heard good feedback about him as well. CarioK really valued the way he worked, Ceos liked him, Boal liked him. (Park Jeung-hwan) and (Kim Joon-cheol) did as well.

He was a very important person to everyone, including me. I don't know exactly why he left, but I believe it was more related to some kind of burnout, perhaps with a specific way of communicating, working, or with the organization. But within the team, he is a very beloved person. He was important to us. I think the main difference is that Xero doesn't open up as much space for conversation and is very detail-oriented.

I'm someone who, even though I have my own opinion just like Xero, prefers to open things up more, listen to other people's opinions, give my own opinion, but also hear them out and have people think about what I'm saying so we can reach a consensus together. That's the main difference.

But Xero was always very helpful as well. He would always ask me about drafts, ask what I thought about a play during a review. He was someone who always trusted his staff a lot. I believe it was more a matter of burnout. And now that I've been Head Coach for two weeks, I have my own idea about the main points we should work on. It's more about what I want to align with the players at this moment and what I think is most important.

Von: I think that drafts in the past, when we talk about before Fearless Draft, were much more rigid. You had the strongest champions on the patch, and the game's balance always revolved around that, about what would rise or fall in priority.

Nowadays, there are basically strong champions, and what I feel is that Riot says, "I'm going to accept this and leave a lot of things strong," and keeps buffing a lot of things. So, when we talk about preparation, I believe it's more about how you understand how your team should play the game. For example, does my team play better when we control through mid, bot, or top? How do I want to teamfight? Do I want to have a front-to-front fight or a flanking fight?

I like listening to the players' opinions, and when I hear them, I value whether that champion fits the function I want. That's more about how I think. I don't know exactly what Xero's thought process was, but I know how he thought, and it wasn't a bad approach either.

We had drafts that didn't really have a way to be played out, and we didn't realize that at the time. That was the main difference. Even when I wasn't on stage, my main points with Xero were always about how we needed to have a win condition, or things like that. We may have had bad drafts or good drafts, but it's more about me liking to hear opinions and, if something fits the way I feel our team needs to play, I accept the opinion.

Otherwise, I say, "Look, no, this pick is better, let's go with this one." But it's discussed. In practice, it's more a question of how I think or how Xero thinks. I don't think there's a right or wrong. It's more about how we put together the final result, with picks four and five making sense with one, two and three, and you orchestrate that throughout the draft.

Von: CarioK is a very experienced player and, to me, he's also very intelligent. Just like with every player, there will be moments when you get things right and moments when you get things wrong. But he's been a pleasant surprise for me in terms of his communication and how he controls the game.

Of course, he and (Denilson Oliveira) still have things to improve. Ceos, even though I've worked with him before, is also an experienced player, and he has also made some theoretical mistakes, so to speak. That's going to be a matter of consistency.

It's not about doing something once or twice. It's about repeating the process and understanding what led you to make a good decision when you had to make it, so you can understand your decision-making process and the line of reasoning you had.

There may be some inconsistency, but to me, CarioK is a very experienced player. He thinks well about the game, thinks about the macro, the micro, positioning, and many other things. Of course, there will be moments when we play poorly as a team, and we strive for perfection.

Every esports team always strives for perfection, just like or the top teams in the world, but we know their games aren't perfect either. It's more about how you maintain consistency, I believe. It's about how you make your decisions, what information you give, and what information you want to receive. To me, CarioK has all of those qualities, and I hope he can become more consistent.

Von: Boal is a versatile player. It's more about how I see the draft priority. I ask the players for their opinions and want to know whether they're comfortable with the matchups that could come up and the champions they're going to play. So, I want to understand what possibilities the players can give me, and then I'll try to understand what that pick can contribute to the team and how it will allow the game to function.

Boal is a player who can play tanks and carries. So, this idea that he needs to take on more of a leading role isn't necessarily true. It's more a matter of the drafts happening to be like that last week. So, Aatrox has to play a certain way, Jayce has to play a certain way...

Today, it wasn't necessarily that we wanted a counter for Boal so he could win lane against (Guilherme Araújo). That's not it. We're going to look at things objectively and rationally: what does Renekton have to do against Camille? What does Jayce have to do against Cassiopeia? And if, for example, we already have a draft where I don't need top pressure, a strong top-side skirmish, side-lane pressure, or something along those lines, then I'll have to evaluate which game metric is more important for the draft based on the options he gives me.

If there is a game where playing a tank top will be better, he will definitely play it. But he's a very vocal player, and he was also a very big surprise for me, to be honest. He's an experienced player, and I like the way he thinks. I think he and I think very similarly in some situations.

Of course, there are moments when we'll disagree, and I think that's natural in any human relationship, especially when your job is to give and receive feedback. He's a player who has been working hard. Today, he was well below his level. His performance was really poor. That's something we'll have to work on and discuss to understand, but overall, he's a player who has surprised me and is flexible.”