nqz temporarily goes inactive

paiN's player Lucas "nqz" Soares has announced he is taking a break from pro CS2 due to personal reasons. The 21-year-old Brazilian esports athlet explained his decision as follows.

First of all, I’m doing well and I’m very excited for the rest of the year, but I felt like I needed some time to cool my head and take care of myself. This wasn’t a sudden decision — it’s something I had been considering for a while.

To give some context, over the past year I’ve been dealing with an accumulation of stress and frustration for many reasons, both in-game and outside the game, which led me into a cycle of discouragement and lack of confidence. Because of that, I asked paiN for some time off so I can come back in my best form.

paiN has not yet announced the player who will fill the vacant AWPer role on the team.

paiN is currently 14th among the world's top Counter-Strike 2 teams according to Valve. The team will compete in the second stage of IEM Cologne Major 2026.

 paiN are now:

 Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt
 João "⁠snow⁠" Vinicius
 Guilherme "piriajr" Barbosa
 Vinicius "vsm" Moreira

 Henrique "rikz" Wakku (coach)

Origin: x.com