Erick “aspas” Santos has pulled back the curtain on the toughest year of his career. During a long, surprisingly personal interview with Bruno Povoleri for THESPIKE Brazil, the MIBR duelist revealed he postponed a second surgery to remove a tumor so he wouldn’t disrupt his team’s season.
“I needed to have a second surgery to remove the tumor in April, but I talked to my doctor and decided to postpone it because I didn’t want to disrupt the team,” aspas said. He admitted the decision likely took a toll on him: “I also can’t say that the surgery I had didn’t affect me.”
The 2022 VALORANT Champions winner is normally one of the quieter voices in the scene, which made the interview hit harder. He spoke about health, pressure, team issues, and his own headspace, all in one sitting.
Aspas said the weight of the year changed who he is on and off the server. “I think I lost a lot of my personality this year and tried to have control over factors that I had no control over,” he said. He even described becoming anxious about small things, saying there came a point when he was “worrying about the way I breathed and how the people around me would react to it.”
He made clear this wasn’t about online criticism. It was about wanting to protect his team and getting lost in the process. “I was very worried about how this could affect my team, and I ended up getting lost on this path.”
His main wish now is simple: “At this moment, I just want to go back to being myself.”
Apologies all around
Aspas apologized to his MIBR teammates, the organization, his fans, and his wife. He said he knows fans have missed seeing him publicly and promised to be more present, hinting at more streaming and content going forward.
He also explained why he often skips post-loss interviews. “I will always prefer to breathe and take a break from things, to be able to understand what is really happening, instead of reacting in a moment of stress and ending up saying something I didn’t even want to say.”
The interview wasn’t only about feelings. Aspas, long associated with Jett and Raze, said MIBR’s map pool and agent setups need work. “I think our compositions need to change if we want to win, and that’s my vision.”
He pushed back on the idea that he refuses to flex, saying he has always been open to playing different agents but has also trusted his coaches and teammates. He also touched on leadership, suggesting MIBR needs a true leader figure beyond just a tactical in-game caller, and admitted he isn’t that type of player by nature.
Aspas closed on a more hopeful note, saying changes are already in motion at MIBR. “This phase will pass, and I will do my best for us to win.”
