[EMEA] Interview with KUMA Mine | July 2026 EMEA Press

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot_lJo8ZdYg&t=1s

Interviewer: Darth

So. Hi, Mine. I'm here, I'm Darth and I'm representing BSEN. And welcome to your interview. Hello.

Hello. Nice to see you.

Yeah. Okay. So our very first question to you would be how did you prepare with The Lethal Force for the recent Challengers event in Spain, especially knowing you're helping them qualify rather than staying with them long term?

I mean, to be honest, we didn't really have much preparation. Like as I said on Twitter, we really underestimated our opponents in the Challengers final. Like we didn't do any map prep for our first enemies or for the final match against unlucky. And so because of that, we were really struggling those two matches. But I mean, we still managed to win pretty much two reverse sweeps. So it came good at the end. And so yeah.

Yeah okay. Right. So going forward since you helped them, but you won't be playing with them anymore in Turkey. How do you look back on the run now after it's already over? And does it feel strange to you helped a team reach a major LAN and then go to your own path and do your own thing on the side, right?

Yeah. I mean, I think Rup and Amos are really good players and also really nice people. I enjoyed these two days with them a lot. Like I can tell, they are like one of the nicest Brawl Stars people I have met in real life. And and yeah, I'm really happy I could help them because as you can see, it's not really looking the best for them in BSC, so I'm really happy to help them qualify for the Turkey final and I hope they can make it to LCQ

Yeah that's great. That's great. So in Spain, would you say you were dealing with a lot of pressure with the grand final? I mean, you already mentioned it that there was a lot of you didn't prep enough and or there is people saying that you were just simply letting the enemy and think they had a chance. Is that true? How is your ego going into that game? Similar to what MeOw tweeted a couple of *years ago, you know?

Yeah. I mean, it's like we it wasn't like we did “let them win,” it was like for in the grand final, for example, we just we just didn't really know what we wanted to do for the, for the first five sets. Then after we lost the Kaboom Canyon set, I decided, like we need to focus. We need to came up with a strategy. We need to like before every set to do some map prep, like for two minutes, check the data. And because of that, like so maybe in the like the first two sets we won, we just played around Damian and in the fitfh set we were expecting them to go Damian first pick, but they went for a different path with Shade first pick, but I mean, in general, you could say that we egoed to them by not preparing enough. And because of that, we almost lost.

Yeah, yeah I see okay. So, going forward, your focus is now on playing with KUMA, right? And trying to qualify for worlds through BSC. How different does that feel compared to the challengers run? Do you prepare more? Do you prepare less? And are you having a different approach with the rest of the season?

Yeah, I mean, of course for the Monthly Qualifiers and Monthly Finals, we need to prepare way more than for the Challengers because of course the Monthly Qualifiers are for sure more difficult than the Spain Challengers final was and I mean, as you saw, we didn't unfortunately qualify for this month. I think there were some factors that like just came in this result that we didn't qualify. But we are going to now full focus on BSC and try to qualify and get a good result in the August monthly finals.

Do you think your run with The Lethal Force was an obstacle for you to not qualify, or was it two separate things?

I mean, maybe it like made my performance in the monthly qualifiers worse because I was pretty tired. Tired from the trip to Spain. Like when I came to when I had my flight to Spain. It was on Friday 5 a.m. so I didn't get any sleep that day. Then from Friday to Saturday I got some good sleep. Then from like I came back home at like 11 p.m. on Saturday. So just like 12 hours before, 13 hours before Monthly Qualifiers started. So I got like I came back home, I got some sleep, but it wasn't like a lot of sleep, maybe like seven hours, which it could have been more. And as I said, I was pretty. I was pretty tired when I woke up, which maybe made my performance on the mostly qualifiers worse.

So EMEA is widely considered the toughest region in Brawl Stars. Which teams or players do you think will be the biggest obstacles for you guys going forward, and who do you have your eyes on in the EMEA only or in general?

Other. I mean, for now, for EMEA, but also in worlds for you looking out for, I mean, of course, HMBLE and FUT are probably the best teams in the world right now, so they're the biggest obstacles. And also right now I'd say Totem is looking very strong, NOVO is looking very strong. Team Heretics is also looking better with the addition of Subeme back, I don't know if they will be as good as when before when Subeme left, but I think they still will definitely be a really strong team. NAVI I don't think are like as good right now at least draft wise. I mean we got reverse swept by them this monthly qualifier. So maybe I shouldn't be saying that, but I feel like it was mainly our mistake, not them being good. It was like us being bot. I see I see okay. So now. Yeah. Oh I forgot to mention BIG, BIG is looking also insanely strong. Two months in a row they qualify from upper bracket this month. They beat FUT 3-2, like inside insane performance by them. So like the addition of Melih in the roster I guess was really good.

Yeah. All right. So you personally, after proving yourself in such a high pressure event as the challengers, your first LAN event. Do you feel like people will look at you differently now as a player, and what do you think you need to achieve in order for the public's view to shift about you and see you as an international level contender?

So I think the Spanish challenger final itself doesn't didn't really change my opinion about like what other people think about me. I think people maybe will start thinking about me as like a top player when I or if I perform good in like LCQ or World Finals, of course, if I manage to qualify to that, even so, I’ll be honest. I don't think like the Challengers itself really like helped the public change the change their ways. Like, I don't know how, how the public looks at me right now. So I guess I'll just have to wait and see for the future.

Yeah. And hopefully we'll see you at worlds, right?

I hope so too. Or at least LCQ, I'm already happy for LCQ. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Well thank you. And if you have anything to say to your fans, feel free to reach out and say something nice.

Yeah. I mean, for every, like, KUMA or BGT fan, I mean, we're gonna get a new org, a new org. I'm still not gonna spoil it yet, but it's gonna be for sure announced probably next week, but maybe two weeks, but 100% before the next monthly qualifier. And like just know for the August month we're going to come back way stronger. Okay. Okay. So we're expecting monthly qualifiers next month. And hopefully see you at least LCQ and even better at worlds. Thank you very much for the interview and I wish you the best of luck with the rest of the season. And thank you for having me. And thanks for the good luck. Yeah, thanks.