FX Momochi: "I discovered a lot about myself as a person this year"

ended its run in the second split of CBLOL 2026 after a season of ups and downs, with the team being defeated by . After finishing the first split in fourth place, the team was unable to replicate that performance in the second stage of the championship and was eliminated following a string of losses during the regular season.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports conducted this Saturday, August 29, Gabriel “Momochi” Sousa reflected on his first year competing in Brazil’s Tier 1 and discussed the difference in Fluxo W7M’s performance between the two splits. The player also addressed the issues the team faced during practice, the impact of the losing streak on his mentality, and the main lessons he intends to carry into next season.

Gabriel “Momochi” Sousa: “I wanted it to be something I had always dreamed of. I knew I had the level, but I really wanted it to be different. You only have your first year once, so you only have one chance to have the best year and things like that. I wanted it to be much better, but that’s life. Unfortunately, we lost here. In the first split, we felt that we had reached a certain good level, but we ended up losing to LOUD. In the second split, we went to bootcamp and it was very good. We had the same schedule again, starting against and ending against LOUD. We thought, “Maybe it could be the same script, but the story is different now.” And it wasn’t. I think that, in the second split, we started later than everyone else. The practices were bad. I don’t remember having a good practice like that in the last two weeks. We had some good practices, but the vast majority of the split was very bad. It’s not even about winning or losing the match or the scrim, it’s about developing something that makes sense. Our team didn’t have the resilience to come back in a series or recover from a bad play. We didn’t have patience. It’s just the result of us paying for our mistakes this split. From my side, honestly, in the first split I came in with the mindset of learning and absorbing the experience I had from my teammates, because everyone there was very experienced. Even (Pedro Curty), who had already been in Tier 1 for a year. In the second split, I had kind of understood my role on the team, and then I tried many things in our day-to-day. But there came a point where I didn’t know what else to do. I had already tried practically everything. So, in this second split, I lost myself a little.

Momochi: I think there are teams — I’m sure of it — like , who won, and LOUD, who won, and they have also said in the past that practices were bad, but even so, when they got to the stage, they became demons. Our case didn’t even reach that point. The practices were bad, and the stage matches were bad. I think every team has a group’s will to win. For example, LOUD, who are top 1 now, and , who start badly and then improve. But everyone has to contribute to that, you know? It can’t just be one person. For example, LOUD can’t just be (Enzo Candido), who is arriving now and has that motivation. It has to be (Guilherme Rabelo), who was in Tier 2 and wants to prove himself again, or (Matheus Ferreira), who joined in the middle of the split and now wants to show that he has a good level. (Carlos Ferreira) has to prove himself again so people don’t say that he only won Copa CBLOL, (Lucas Fé) as well. I’m talking about the team. It’s the group’s will to win, and in our group, I don’t think we had that. It reflects on the day-to-day, on the stage, how much you dedicate yourself to doing things, how much you care. I think our group’s will to win wasn’t even enough for our day-to-day scrims. And even with the stage being more important than everything, our will to win still didn’t increase.

Momochi:

Momochi: It definitely affected. You start doubting yourself. I, for example, throughout my career, have always been the person who, when things are going badly, tries to turn it into motivation and play more solo queue, watch more VODs, try to talk more with my teammates and things like that, but I think that wasn’t enough this time. As a group, I think we kind of started giving up. I don’t know if “giving up” is the right word, but I think even Guchi (Andrés Castro) said in the press conference that we kind of wanted to finish quickly and go home, basically. It’s difficult because people who are outside don’t understand exactly what is going on, but even I, who am inside, sometimes don’t understand. It’s really strange. We have our team of psychologists. Whenever we needed something, they were always there for us to talk to. I also have my own individual psychologist. I think I tried to deal with the difficulties of the split in the best way possible, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.

Momochi: I have a lot of things to take into next year, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s about trying to be more myself. I discovered a lot about myself as a person this year. The person I can be on stage, the person I can be in practice, and how competitive I can be in and outside of the game. There are so many things that I can’t even name, because it was a year with so much going through my head, so much experience, so much to learn and rethink, both inside and outside the game. So, I think the Momochi who arrived in the first split is definitely not the same, not even close. Basically, I have to review everything, every day of my year, and try to learn what I could have done better.”