M8 bipo “The redraw just affected my happiness… I really wanted to play Paper Rex” – Masters Santiago Interview

After Gentle Mates secured a commanding 2-0 victory over Team Liquid on day three of the Swiss stage at VCT Masters Santiago, Hotspawn spoke with bipo about transitioning from tier two to tier one, the dive duelist life in the current meta, and qualifying for his first international playoffs.

Hotspawn: So bipo, first international tournament, first international qualification, and now playoffs.

How are you feeling today?”

Bipo: “I’m feeling amazing. we won two games, made playoffs. Feels good.”

Hotspawn: How does it feel to win like, a 10-2, 13-3 kind of game against Liquid?

Bipo: “I mean, to be honest, it’s a better feeling when you win closer matchups. I mean, winning so easily, whatever, doesn’t really feel as nice, but it feels nice.”

Hotspawn: Win is a win.

Bipo: “Win is a win.”

Hotspawn: How did the prep look for Bind, especially since it was their map pick?

Was there a lot of anti-stratting?

Bipo: “The prep was all by my coaches. They woke up really early because they didn’t have prep time, so they were prepping since the morning. I didn’t really do anything. I don’t do any of this anti stuff. But we have already played them also in scrims quite a bit since they changed this full playstyle and they’re fully sending it, so we kind of knew exactly what to expect. Plus, starxo had a really good read of the game. He was just making great calls. But it was mostly like, it’s just my coach and my IGL doing all the work.”

Hotspawn: On map one, things were close.

Did it ever feel like the game was slipping?

Bipo: “We started off down 1-6, I think. It was more a feeling of, like, the first round we lost, we were like, ‘Guys, we need to do this.’ So we knew exactly what we had to do, but we weren’t doing it. So we were hesitating. We were making mistakes. It was mostly hesitating. And then we stopped doing that. We just started playing more as a team, trusted each other, insta send it. And then we just came back. I think it was 6-6 the half. And it just felt like our control.”

Hotspawn: This year, you’re seeing a lot of these teams pick up these double duelists comps. Sentinel is retired. You being one of those dive duelists yourself, have you always played duelist? Did you play something else? Because I know you played an array of roles before.

Was it difficult for you to adapt and make a change?”

Bipo: “It wasn’t difficult. I started off as a duelist, then I became a flex for a period of time. Then I came back into duelist in tier two, [it] took me a year to get used to it again fully.

“Last year I played really good as duelist. But I feel like now I’m still duelist, but it’s a bit of a different role because last year I was sole duelist. Now I’m kind of dive duelist. I just need to send it and make space. You just send it all the time. That’s it.”

Hotspawn: Sometimes your stats might not be as good as other players on your team; it’s a problem that all of the dive duelists seem to be facing in this meta.

Does it ever personally affect you or does your team have your back?

Bipo: “I definitely think about it. I thought about it in the past also, but marteen is always there telling me, ‘Bro, don’t worry about it. This is your job. It’s hard to take kills on this role.’ I feel like you need to win as a team. This is my role and this is what I have to do for the win, yeah.

“But I also think I’ve not been playing like I can still do better. I still have to send it, but I still feel like I could get those key kills in early rounds. So I feel like there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but it’s my role. I just have to send it.”

Hotspawn: How do you guys feel about pistols?

Bipo: “I feel like we’re okay. Like 50/50. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It’s more about the ecos and the anti. Pistols is fine. Sometimes you just send it as a team.”

Hotspawn: Just, ‘marteen go kill.’

Bipo: “Yeah.”

Hotspawn: How does it feel to be that duelist duo that everyone’s scared of?

Bipo: “It feels nice. I feel like whenever I will be able to step up a bit more, actually give my 100%, then people should really start worrying, like a lot. They will not only think about marteen, they will think about us as a duo.

“Right now it’s kind of the marteen show, which, to be fair, he’s the best player in the world. I’ve been saying it for so long. Whenever I was in tier two and marteen was in tier one already, I’ve always said this guy’s the best player in the world. How is he not putting up these numbers already? He was putting up numbers, but I had such high expectations of him. That’s the marteen I know. And now he’s been doing it. I’m really happy about it.”

Hotspawn: Yesterday there was a bit of a mix-up with the draws.

Did that really affect you guys?

Bipo: “It just affected my happiness, because I was really excited to play Paper Rex. Since I’ve been watching esports in Valorant, they’ve been my favourite team. And since I came in tier one, I was like, ‘Bro, I really want to play Paper Rex.’ And yesterday I was like, ‘Damn, I get to play Paper Rex.’ And then we got the redraw at midnight. I’ve never played Liquid personally, but it’s just another EMEA team. I come all the way to Santiago to play EMEA. It’s just a bit boring.”

2-0 vs @LiquidValorant

and we qualify for playoffssss, feels very nice 🙂👍
I was very excited to play prx tbh hopefully we meet them in playoffs!

support is really amazing #M8WIN

— M8 bipo (@bipoval) March 2, 2026

Hotspawn: How does it feel to have the support of an org like Gentle Mates?

Bipo: “It feels amazing, to be honest. Gentle Mates is the best org you can be in in Europe, I think.”

Hotspawn: I saw the flight tickets.

Bipo: “Yeah, business class. That’s our CEO. Our CEO is like, ‘I’ll get you business class tickets.’ And he did, so it’s amazing. Plus the fans, the amount of support we get before the game, after the game. Even if you lose, you get so many messages. I can’t even respond to all of them. Instagram, Twitter. I don’t even use Instagram. People are messaging me so much. It’s just amazing support.”

Hotspawn: “Now that you’ve qualified for playoffs, you have a couple of days off.

Any plans?

Bipo: “I think we will have a couple of days off, maybe one. I’m not sure. I have to talk with my managers and coaches. But I personally just want to chill and enjoy Santiago a bit. I don’t want to go far or have any specific thing to do. I just want to enjoy my time here.”

Hotspawn: How was the Latam crowd?

Bipo: “I feel like the Latam crowd is probably the best crowd you can have. Maybe together with the APAC crowd, like Tokyo and Shanghai. These places will also be insane. But Latam is up there with the crowds.”

Hotspawn: Tell us a little about yourself, how you got into esports.

Did you always want to be a pro player?

Bipo: “Yeah, I’ve been playing video games since I was really young. I feel like since I’ve been to school, I had no idea what to do with my life. I was like, ‘I don’t want to work at any job, ever.’ So at a certain point I’m like, ‘Bro, I have to make this work,’ you know? So I made it work and it’s going well.”

Hotspawn: You’ve played a lot of tier two, last year you were playing for the Ascension run. So how has that transition been from playing in tier two to tier one?

What are the biggest differences you’ve seen?

Bipo: “One of the differences is better players mechanically, and understanding of the game. I feel like tier two is also getting really good, so it’s not too big of a difference. Maybe they’re just slower at doing things, but overall just a bit better players.”