Banner Image: João F. / Ubisoft
It is fair to say that FURIA Esports has built one of the most internationally consistent teams in Siege from the ashes of one of the weakest sides in the region. After surviving the relegation race in 2020, the team has lived the life of a Siege rock star and competed in every international event held last year.
The Brazilian project has always been led by the highly-experienced coach Marlon "Twister" Mello, who doesn't need an introduction to veteran fans at this stage of the game. His personality, tactics, and advice arose him as the team's godfather, a needed character in such a young squad.
But, is this squad still that young, inexperienced, and innocent? Following a year full of matches and international appearances the answer is no, but there’s still a big mountain to climb ahead. Twister thinks that experience is invaluable, especially in a region with cores that have stuck together for years. The Brazilian coach talked about FURIA’s season in an interview with SiegeGG.
FURIA Esports at the Six Invitational 2021 (Image: Ubisoft / João F.)
“Yes, we are a very young team, the players weren't used to that pressure. I believe that really gives a higher challenge, but nothing that more practice can’t fix.”
“The difference between FURIA and the other teams is experience, they have very experienced cores, they all have players that went through lots of stuff, lost a lot of matches, championships, and learned a lot from it, that’s why I don’t expect much from my team right now, I can’t ask for much from them, because I believe we have to lose, to get that experience to get better and to improve the same way. For the first year, we had a pretty, pretty good year compared to the rest.”
With this in mind, it is not fair to compare FURIA with the rest of Brazilian top-sides. The talent that these wunderkind have needs some more time and experience to catch up on their opponents. Although the team has improved, the roster has to go through more, but how much more?
FURIA Esports' 2021 campaign is just the opposite of what we had seen in 2020. From playing to keep its spot in the BR6, to competing at some of the biggest venues this esport has ever seen. Suddenly, the team wasn't just playing against the biggest teams in the scene, they were competing. A year has passed and FURIA is on its way to its second Six Invitational.
The team has learned a ton since its international debut. The youngsters' have finally interiorized the tactics and playstyle needed to compete at a top-flight with their mechanical skills.
R4re at the Sweden Major. (Image: Ubisoft / João F.)
In fact, the wunderkinds Rennan "R4re" Vitor and Diogo "Fntzy" Lima, who joined the team just before the Six Invitational 2021, are the best examples. These two are now some of the best players at their roles, with Fntzy having stolen the show in Brazil's Stage 3.
Just like in football, a sport where the goalscorers take all the glory and individual honors, Siege's fraggers eclipse the works behind the front line. Fntzy's excellent momentum covered R4re's progression, and the Brazilian coach wanted to go through it.
Said Twister: “People don’t talk a lot about him [R4re], but he was the most important thing to get better. It was differential. He wants to win and he spreads this vibe to the rest of the team. About Fntzy, you know him, as entry fragger it is easy to show up, he is such a good person and a good player, he tries to learn everything, and by the end of the year you saw how much it helped him to improve, I believe this year he will be even better.”
Fntzy's best version has been seen in Stage 3, breaking records and achieving ratings that few other players had in the past. According to Twister, this is because the players have been slowly progressing and interiorizing the concepts in the game. Siege is more than frags, and it is not the first time a player or a coach talks about how players from Série B struggle in terms of game knowledge and callouts in their top-flight debut season.
FURIA Esports' results against the other four Brazilian teams qualified for the Six Invitational 2022.
Brazil has been on top of Siege this year, with the region taking every international honor this season. One of FURIA's main issues is its consistency against the top-four sides in Brazil. The team is yet to show convincing dominance over its most immediate contesters, having won just six out of 21 matches played against them throughout the season -- which would rise to six out of 25 if we also took into account SI 2021 games.
However, Twister isn't worried about it.
Said Twister: “You can’t win all the games, but we won when we needed it. We won against NiP in the first stage when we needed confidence, we won against Liquid when we needed to get the spot for the Major in the Elite Six, we won against FaZe when we never won against them before and we needed that confidence.”
If that wasn't enough, the team has only won two BO3 series this season, the last one coming against Black Dragons (2-0, July 24). That's a win rate of 25% in games of its kind, following four losses in Brazil and two more at international competitions, all coming from Team BDS.
Said Twister: “In BO3 you have to be more creative, adapt, get better against other playstyles, I believe you have to be ready to improve midgame. We are trying to scrim more and get better on this to be better for the next matches.”
The coach also went through the team’s performance in Sweden, which wasn’t the best. The team had a pre-event bootcamp, and even had the chance to directly talk with the organization’s CS:GO roster. The team felt readier than ever before, but things didn’t go as expected. Following a close loss to SSG, Twister admitted that “the team was in a level of confidence that was not appropriate to the DWG game, we believed the game wouldn’t be so hard as the SSG game, so that was a problem. After losing a game like that you must get a strong match to reset and get back.”
Surely, one of the mistakes that such a young squad must, with time, change. However, how much time does FURIA have? Following a great first international year holding the “talent, young, wunderkind squad” sign, it might be time for the team to finally step ahead.
Now, FURIA Esports heads to a new year. A new year of knowledge, ups and lows, and hopefully more international experiences.
It's all in the players' hands now.