Image via Ubisoft
FURIA's Diogo "Fntzy" Lima is a stellar young prodigy, but the difference-maker in the TSM FTX-FURIA matchup was the newly minted North American IGL: Bryan "Merc" Wrzek.
Merc dropped 33 kills over three maps, and notched an impressive 7-2 record on entry kills.
At first, it looked like the match was going to be over rather quickly. TSM FTX raced out to a 6-2 lead on Chalet, opening their defensive half with back-to-back multi-kills from Jason "Beaulo" Doty. Later, Marlon "Twister" Mello, FURIA's coach, admitted that losing Chalet was a massive blow for his squad's chances. Specifically, he felt strongly about Chalet because he believes that FURIA's Kafe Dostoyevsky is stronger than TSM FTX's.
TSM FTX is a notoriously strong Kafe team, but FURIA definitely proved themselves better on the map this day. They waxed TSM FTX 7-2 on the second map, with a blistering 4-2 attacking half proving the difference between the two.
However, TSM FTX stood stalwart on Oregon, winning the map 7-3 and the series 2-1. Indeed, over the course of the year, FURIA has banned Oregon 52 times. Fntzy gave a good effort but was held to reasonable stats. "He [Fntzy] is a talented kid, but we've ran into a lot of talented players," Merc said in a post-game press conference. "He's really good but it's not something we worry about when we play him."
Combined, Merc and Beaulo notched a +9 in entry kills. In total, the duo took 21 of TSM FTX's opening fights in the match out of a possible 31. They limited Fntzy to just 10 opening kills to six opening deaths, a solid ratio that mostly contained him, and forced the rest of FURIA to step up.
The match completed a grueling day for TSM FTX, who will complete a grueling gauntlet of LATAM teams on Wednesday. They defeated SI 2021 champions Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-0 earlier in the day, and their 2-1 victory over FURIA slotted them into an upper bracket semi-finals match against Team Liquid.
"In terms of our playstyles, I feel like we match up pretty well against Liquid," said Owen "Pojoman" Mitura, TSM FTX's head coach. "They're a really good team, I think we'd go toe to toe with them, though."
The confidence TSM FTX has in themselves is based on a pretty simple equation: they believe that they haven't hit anywhere close to their ceiling. "We're just figuring out all the small mistakes that we've been making, fixing those ... small talk, cohesion, that really, sort of, propels us to be a really good team," said Brady "Chala" Davenport.