FURIA bizinha on new goals in VALORANT: "We always have to dream big"

Bruna “bizinha” Marvila and FURIA’s Game Changers VALORANT roster are embarking on a new chapter after the organization transitioned its historic women’s CS2 lineup into an inclusive VALORANT project. The Brazilian veteran, who spent years representing FURIA and became one of the most successful players in the women’s Counter-Strike scene, is now facing the challenge of starting over in a new game while keeping the same core that helped make history for Brazil.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, bizinha discussed the decision to transition to VALORANT, the uncertainty surrounding the women’s CS2 scene following the end of ESL Impact, and the differences between her first move to VALORANT and the current transition. The veteran also explained how FURIA’s support made the move possible, how the team is dividing roles in the new game, and why the experience they built together could become an advantage once they face more established VALORANT teams.

Bruna “bizinha” Marvila: “Before talking about the transition from CS2 to VALORANT, it’s very important to understand the moment the women’s CS2 scene was in, and still is. I can’t really answer without also talking about what was happening at the time. Last year our team became world champions, an unprecedented title for Brazil, and one year later we had ESL’s decision to end the competition. The tournaments became very regional; there was a lot of uncertainty, so we had to reinvent ourselves and find ourselves again as athletes in another way. It’s not something that happens very often.

You won’t see, for example, Liquid’s VALORANT team suddenly moving to CS2 without considering the environment we were in. We were in a very uncertain environment, and we saw this opportunity within FURIA as a chance to renew ourselves as athletes. It’s a challenge because you have to start from zero. Imagine that you’re there; if we rank it from zero to 10, you’re at nine or 10 in one game, and suddenly you go back to zero in a game that most of us haven’t played. It’s a challenge, and we found this more open path at FURIA where we could start with an organization that I know the importance of.

bizinha: Absolutely. You see renowned athletes from all over the world having to reinvent themselves. A lot of people I knew had to stop playing and pursue their lives outside of games. They were competent people, very good players, and they had to do that. It’s a crisis situation. In a crisis, you reinvent yourself. There are also positive things in a crisis because you reinvent yourself, but it’s not easy. You really start from zero, and it’s a challenge.

bizinha: The first time I chose to leave CS2 for VALORANT, we were in a moment of uncertainty as well. But coincidentally, one month after I made the decision to move to VALORANT, CS2 launched several women’s world championships. So I went to VALORANT, and things started happening in CS. I got incredibly unlucky. The first time I went to VALORANT, I really wanted to prove myself. it was a new game, but at the same time, people still treated me as more inexperienced, more of a newcomer, even though the game had already been around since 2020 and I was there in 2022. People would say, “You weren’t here since the beta, right?”. That’s something that happens in a scene that has just been born. People try to differentiate themselves and establish some sort of position of prominence through that.

But if you look at scenes that have been around for several years, take CS2, for example, which has been around for 20 years, what’s the difference between someone who has played CS2 for 15 years and someone who has played for 20? None, because you’re already in an extensive period. So, in my second time in VALORANT, I see that mentality falling away a little, and that’s good because it shows that we’re evolving, and people’s minds are evolving as well and keeping up with the pace. Basically, comparing the two very briefly, the first time I felt like I had to prove myself a lot. I was actually very inexperienced; I listened a lot to what people said. This second time, I already know I’m capable. I know I can do it. I know it’s not easy, but I know I’m capable and I know I can do it. I’m more confident in myself this time because I already know the game. It’s not the same thing, but I’ve done it once before.

bizinha: I believe that the first time I played VALORANT, I was on MIBR, and I was the IGL there, but I was very eager for things to work out. I didn’t have much patience because I really wanted to achieve my dreams as quickly as possible. I had this feeling of, “Come on, it has to work as quickly as possible”. When I returned to CS2, I took this idea with me. I also had the opportunity to return to FURIA, which was something that I was like, “How is this happening?”.

You enter something really good and then you win a world championship. I understood the process of things happening. Of course, you have to have that desire to be a good player, but when you’re collectively there as a group, you have to understand that there’s a process and you need to have more patience during that. what changed the most in me is this relationship with the process and the environment as well, understanding the different phases and having more patience. Age also plays a role. I was 23 at the time, there was the pandemic, and now I’m 27, that’s also a result of getting older.

bizinha: First of all, I really believe there’s no way you can play CS2 in VALORANT. They’re two different games. It’s another game. They’re both FPS games, but they’re different. There are some situations at the end of a round where you have crosshair placement, for example, and that reminds you of CS2. But overall, it’s another game. I have this phrase for myself: There’s no way you can play CS2 in VALORANT. We notice the differences a lot. For the girls, this experience is even more recent, so there’s a change between the two games that we’ve been training a lot to break down and remove CS2 habits and tendencies, especially because of the speed at which things happen.

So, even though a viewer watching VALORANT sees a lot of information on the screen and thinks, “Wow, this game is so fast,” and it really is in some moments, there’s also this very timed, step-by-step process that CS2 doesn’t have. There are so many differences. If I stop to think about every little thing, some things are similar. The role of an anchor, valuing your life, and those things are familiar. But it’s another game. It’s a completely different game. We have to learn these things that are specific to VALORANT.

bizinha: Definitely, FURIA has really differentiated itself from what we see in the market by doing this. Basically, they took a team that has a positive history in one game, transitioned it, and accepted the move to another game, starting from a point that could be zero. We don’t know our level yet. That’s an opportunity you don’t see everywhere. If you look at the market at different moments, you’ll have people saying, “No, it’s another game, let’s pick whoever is playing better right now,” and so on. You don’t even have the process of saying, “Let’s believe in this group, let’s believe in this team.”

For me, FURIA is an incredible differentiator. I can’t emphasize enough what they’re providing for us to believe in the group while giving us the chance to be VALORANT athletes, learn a new game, and still be together with the same lineup. It’s unprecedented, it’s incredible, and you don’t see this anywhere else. I’m going to be very emphatic because it’s the absolute truth. We want to make the most of this opportunity, this chance, and do our part. We want to have a good level in VALORANT so we can represent FURIA in the best way possible.

bizinha: This second time is exactly the difference between me now and the first time I came to the game. The first time, I felt like I was really eager to prove my worth. In CS2, I was good. Here, I didn’t even know who I was. But this is my second time in the game, and there are things that don’t depend on the FPS or the game you’re playing. They’re things related to mentality that you build, that you develop as an athlete. They’re things that you realize, you know? You know your value. Even though if you look statistically at the last six months or the last three years, there’s nothing from me in VALORANT, I have many qualities that I see as different from the market. That’s why I believe in myself much more than I did the first time, when I was constantly worried about proving myself, even though there are qualities that come from the person themselves.

You don’t just move to another game and suddenly become that person. If I play another game, I’ll start from zero again, but I’ll bring the same characteristics. Those characteristics are determination, the desire to improve, the desire to win, having patience with the process, and looking for solutions. These are all characteristics that, if I take them into any area of my life, in the long run I’ll get results. I’m much more confident this second time going to VALORANT, and also in any activity in life. If I take the characteristics I have as a person, I’ll be able to become good. Maybe not in the short term, but in the long term, I’ll get there. There’s no way around it.

bizinha: It’s mainly about the person’s development within the game. Even if someone doesn’t have the mechanics of VALORANT completely mastered, if they follow this path of working as a group and looking for a solution to the problem they’re facing, with that mentality on a daily basis, they can do it. We’re going to use a lot of what we had in the past, but we have to relearn how to apply those things we had in the past in a new game. How do we apply them? First, mechanically, yes, we have to learn everything related to VALORANT and how we’re going to do the things we want to do in the VALORANT way. So we have to go through that process, and after we go through it, the other things become much more instinctive and start to fit together, precisely because of the experience. Once we get through this phase of mastering things in VALORANT, things tend to develop much faster. If I manage to find my way around VALORANT and then, as a team, you’re already very experienced; when you play on LAN, you’re not going to feel as much pressure because you’ve already been through that situation several times in your life. It’s just a new game, a new way of going through the situation.

bizinha: We have an outline. We’re already practicing, so we need to have the first step there to start moving forward. We can’t exactly replicate things from CS2 into VALORANT, as you said. But we can basically understand each person’s personality. Based on their personality, you can more or less fit each person into a role. But of course, it’s still step one, so a lot can change. We’re also very open-minded about transitioning between roles within the team. So, the team’s roles today are lulitenz (Lucia Dubra) as the Duelist, izaa (Izabella Galle) as the Flex, I am the Initiator, gabs (Gabriela Freindorfer) is the Controller, and kaahSENSEI (Karina Takahashi) is the Sentinel. For now, that’s step one. We based it a lot on each person’s characteristics and what each of us is like to assign the roles. Very simple characteristics: Who communicates more? Who talks a lot? Who talks a little less. Basically, that’s the outline we have, but we’re also very open-minded about mapping out several agents and sometimes being able to transition between roles. We don’t want to be too rigid about it if we can develop individually as well and help the team.

bizinha: I basically can’t think too much about who I’m playing against but rather what I’m presenting. I believe that by the time we reach that moment, we’ll be much more developed and more polished in the things we’re doing, and we’ll be able to show a good level. To be completely honest, I don’t put too much of my expectations on the other team, but rather on what I can do best for my team and what my team can be playing as well. That’s basically my view. It’s much more focused internally, on the team.”

bizinha: That’s a question. But if it’s the same kind of goal as in CS2, yes. Whether you dream small or dream big, the price is the same, right? We always have to dream big. But I also really believe in the process. There’s no point dreaming about the World Championship, already being at Championship and everything, if you’re not focused on the step-by-step process. My mind is very focused on what I can do every day to improve. If I get there, that’s the consequence. Of course, I’m going to work hard to get there. I have those goals. And those goals, for me, aren’t something I think about all the time.

It’s something I understand as a consequence of what I’m doing. Yes, we dream big, but we always have to keep our feet on the ground and improve every day because you don’t reach a position like that overnight. I’m very focused on wanting to be the best I possibly can. I even thought, “What is my goal in VALORANT?” I think so much about being a good player and that’s something that motivates me so much. What does that actually mean? There isn’t much more to it. If you’re good, things naturally move in that direction.”