paiN look set to continue their rebuild after an unsuccessful start to the second half of the season. According to Brazilian media, the club plans to move Guilherme “piriajr” Barbosa to the bench and replace him, at least for the upcoming tournaments, with academy player Lucas “Tatu” Santana.
paiN are preparing their second change already
The possible move of piriajr to the bench would become paiN’s second change in just a few weeks. The team recently already benched Vinicius “vsm” Moreira, and his place was taken by another academy representative — Rickson “Rkzinho” Ribeiro Dias.
Thus, paiN may integrate two young players from their own system into the main roster at the same time. For now, it is unknown whether Tatu is being considered as a long-term replacement or whether the team will simply use him at the upcoming tournaments.
An unsuccessful start to the season forced the team to act
The reasons for the rebuild look obvious. paiN finished last at BLAST Open Porto and Stake Ranked Episode 3, and before that also ended their run early at Esports World Cup.
Against this background, the roster changes look not like a cosmetic decision, but like an attempt to restart the team. The results of recent tournaments showed that the current configuration does not provide the necessary stability even at the early stages of big events.
piriajr could not repeat his regional form
piriajr joined paiN in January after a strong period with Bounty Hunters. At the regional level, he showed a 1.32 rating and looked like one of the promising candidates for a move to a higher level.
But after nine months with paiN, his average rating was around 1.03. This is not a catastrophic figure, but the difference from his previous form turned out to be noticeable, especially against the backdrop of the team’s unsuccessful international results.
Tatu gets a chance from the academy
The likely replacement will be 22-year-old Tatu, who has already been playing for paiN Academy for two years and is the longest-standing player on the youth roster. In 2026, he has maintained an average rating of around 1.07.
His promotion together with Rkzinho shows that paiN are now ready to use their own academy more actively instead of looking for immediate external transfers. For the organization, this is also an opportunity to test young players in real matches with the main roster.
Inside paiN, there are problems beyond statistics
After BLAST Open Porto, biguzera described the atmosphere inside the team quite harshly, admitting that the problem had already gone beyond separate unsuccessful matches. According to him, paiN began to lose mutual trust, and this directly affects the quality of team play.
I feel like as a team we no longer trust each other.
Against this background, two quick changes look like a logical consequence of an internal crisis. paiN are trying to change not only individual roles, but also the roster’s dynamic itself, which after a series of failures clearly stopped working the way it needed to.
Potential paiN roster
If the information is confirmed, Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt, João “snow” Vinicius, and Rafael “saffee” Costa will remain in the lineup, while Rkzinho and Tatu will join them. Henrique “rikz” Waku will continue working as the team’s coach.
The main question now is whether this configuration will become permanent. Both new players are coming from the academy, so paiN may effectively use the upcoming stretch of the season as a test of a new core before making final roster decisions.
paiN are trying to stop the decline
After several early exits, the team found itself in a situation where simply waiting for form to improve is no longer enough. The second change in a short period shows that the organization is ready to react fairly quickly to weak results and problems inside the roster.
For piriajr, this could end his nine-month period in the starting lineup, while for Tatu, it could become his first serious chance at a higher level. Now the main intrigue is whether the bet on the academy can return the stability that paiN have clearly lacked in recent months.
