FX Palla: "This year only proves to me that the future will be incredible"

Fluxo W7M’s VCT Americas Play-In run came to an end on Thursday, August 20th, after the Brazilian side suffered its second defeat in the competition, this time against KRÜ (0-2). Before this elimination, the roster managed to reach Tier 1 with a project built in the domestic’s Tier 2 scene without an organization, eventually securing its place in the Play-in stage after a successful VCL Brazil campaign.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports conducted a few minutes after the match, Davi "Palla" Alcides reflected on the team’s performance against Cloud9 and KRÜ, explaining what he believes Fluxo lacked to close out the series. The player also discussed his return to the VCT Americas stage and the lessons he takes from a 2026 season marked by major changes in his career.

Davi "Palla" Alcides: “I believe it was experience. Our team is very young. We had about four months of preparation, counting the VCL Brazil. Here, since we arrived in the United States, we've been practicing every day. We had days off, but we gave it our all. What we're missing is experience and adaptability against teams that play here in the Americas. That's what was missing for us to close out good games against Cloud9 and now KRÜ.

Palla: Individually, I feel very comfortable in-game. I can't say I'm satisfied, though, because the victory matters more to me than my individual performance. I don't know what to say about that.

Palla: Mentally, we're very resilient and very strong. Especially because of the split we had in Brazil, where we became champions without an organization. Everything was funded by our dream. Because of that, we played our matches with a light mentality. We always saw ourselves as champions and believed that we could show a more solid game here. Even though we had two losses, both defeats showed that we could have done much more. Mentally, we leave the way we came in: with our heads held high and with a lot of motivation to work, for sure.

Palla: When I talk about experience, it's not only about individual experience. For example, this is my third time here in the Americas. Mazin (Matheus Araújo) has been here with FURIA and MIBR, if I'm not mistaken. Jzz (João Pedro) has also been here with MIBR. It's more a matter of collective experience. The team is well put together and well adapted to the way things work here. That's what we were missing. As for Palla now compared to Palla in the past, I'm only 20 years old. I had just turned 18 when I had my first experience here. I was very young, immature, and a very anxious player. Nowadays, I'm completely different. I'm doing well. I'm always improving myself. Today, for example, this defeat is eating me up inside. I'm very frustrated individually because I feel like I could have done more. There were some key, important moments where I could have done more.

Palla: I believe it revolves a lot around the players' individual skill. In Brazil, some map movements and some incorrect micro-decisions were covered up by aim. For example, someone could make a wrong rotation and end up facing someone they shouldn't have faced here. In Brazil, we would have punished that player, killed him a thousand times, and we wouldn't have lost the round. Or, for example, we're doing an exec onto a bomb site. We're in the middle of the site's exec. In Brazil, I could clear the site very easily by myself, kill three people on a site, and we'd have the round in our hands. Here, if you go in and don't play together, don't play close to each other, with people taking their aim dueling, there's more of that "ratting", as we say, that cleverness. For example, I'll mention a player like Less (Felipe de Loyola Basso). He could get a multikill very easily, and he does.

Individually, in Brazil, we were the best team by far. There wasn't much the other teams could do against our individual skill, unless they were extremely good as a unit. In Brazil, the teams were somewhat divided. It was very competitive, but combining the experience our team had with our aim, we kind of saw ourselves as unbeatable, honestly. When we lost, we would say, "We lost because of ourselves. We made mistakes”. But here in the United States, here in the Americas, it's completely different. The players are generally top-level. All of them. You always have to make the game difficult for your opponent, always play in a difficult way, reduce their chances of making miracle rounds or getting multikills. That's what didn't work very well for us here. We'll analyze our game, understand how we could have been better and bring this model back to Brazil so that when we make it to another international tournament, we don't run into this kind of frustration again. I also think it's partly about the meta. Teams here adapt to the meta much faster than in Brazil.

Palla: I'd say this year was probably the most special for me, together with the end of last year, because of all the ups and downs. I left a FURIA team in 2025 that had completely failed in terms of performance and tried to find myself again as a player. And I managed to do that. I left an organization like INTZ, where I had a salary, to bet on a team where I saw a lot of potential in all the players. I thought our team would be very strong. Mazin is an excellent IGL, stk (Jordan Nunes) is an incredible coach, and I had experience with tuyz (Arthur Andrade) at FURIA. I used to tell him, "Man, this guy is really good. He's just not in the right environment, an environment where he can shine”. I bet everything on it. And it worked. This year of 2026 only proves to me that the future tends to be incredible, both for me and for my team, collectively speaking. It was a year of a lot of learning and resilience. Today, I find myself as a completely different player from who I was last year, much more hardened. And I'm convinced that I'm very good, not only individually, but I'm also a person of good character. That's very important in a job.

Palla: It has to do with giving yourself fully to the other side, you know? As I said, it's about work ethic and character. Some teams, some people, some professionals are very individualistic. They only think about themselves, and our team wasn't like that and isn't like that. Everyone is together for the dream. Everyone is together for the victory. That's always going to be our focus: to be better than yesterday, worse than tomorrow, and focus on winning. It's about that competitive fire that our team has. If we need to stay up all night to practice, we'll stay up all night. Nothing stops us. That's what it's about. This team showed that if five or six people work together toward one goal, it will work. It really will work. That's what it taught me about life.”