paiN bench vsm; promote Rkzinho from academy

The 16-year-old Prospect will make his debut in the PGL Masters Bucharest closed qualifier.

The 27-year-old has been benched after eight months as a starter for paiN paiN have announced that Vinicius "⁠vsm⁠" Moreira has been moved to the bench, and 16-year-old Rickson "⁠Rkzinho⁠" Ribeiro Dias (#49 Prospects) has been promoted from the academy team to take his place in the starting five.

"I feel as a team we don't trust each other anymore," Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt told after paiN's last-place exit at BLAST Open Porto, the last in a string of poor results including another last-place finish at Stake Ranked Episode 3, a first-round exit at the BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Finals, and 17-24th at EWC.

vsm joined paiN at the beginning of the year after an excellent 2025 campaign in Brazil with Flamengo and Keyd Stars , averaging a 1.29 rating regionally, a far cry from the 1.01 rating he posted during his time in paiN.

rkzinho at BetBoom Circuit X Redemption Curitiba 2026 Rkzinho got the call from paiN Academy just a day after making the Prospects ranking for the first time, in 49th place. The 16-year-old has a 1.10 rating with the youth squad in 2026.

The 16-year-old will make his first team debut in the PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 South America Closed Qualifier, which will kick off on September 6.

paiN also announced the addition of Pedro "⁠beto⁠" Umberto , formerly a coach at Case , RED Canids , and KRÜ , to the coaching staff.

paiN 's active roster is now:

Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt Guilherme "⁠piriajr⁠" Barbosa Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa João "⁠snow⁠" Vinicius Rickson "⁠Rkzinho⁠" Ribeiro Dias

Henrique "⁠rikz⁠" Waku (coach)