Statistically, Diogo "Fntzy" Lima is not only FURIA’s best player but also one of the best in the world. Currently, he is fifth-best by SiegeGG Rating at the Berlin Major and was crowned ‘SiegeGG Rookie of the Year’ in 2021.
Nevertheless, FURIA’s loss against Elevate in Group D earlier today illustrated exactly the issue with how FURIA plays Fntzy and the issues this creates in the team.
Fntzy has the best entry record in the tournament, with 11 kills to two deaths. Out of these, six of these kills and one death came against Elevate. Even when he didn’t get the game’s opening kill, he got his team’s opening on multiple occasions.
This is exactly the strength of Fntzy -- he is the front of the spear to make that initial incision and soften up his opponents. He does this well, but this may not be enough against certain teams.
As well as an amazingly high entry record, he also had a zero percent survival rate -- even when he got the opening kill, he was quickly killed off. This totalled a 14-12 kill spread and an event survival rate of just 10%. For comparison, Pablo "Gryxr" Rebeil, who has the second best entry rating, has a 48% survival rate during this tournament despite losing both his games played so far.
Out of the six rounds against Elevate in which Fntzy got the entry kill, FURIA only won three, which is well below the ~80% win rate you’d expect after an untraded opening. Furthermore, one of these was due to Miracle's incredibly tight 1v2 clutch.
While FURIA were able to convert opening kills against teams such as Astralis, this was not the case against Elevate.
Looking back at FURIA’s best-ever finish at the Mexico Major, they lost in the quarter-final against BDS after Fntzy once again had the most entry kills and the lowest survival rating. Here, six of the 13 rounds FURIA won started with a Fntzy opening kill, but his team lost in nearly every round he suffered an opening death.
FURIA are fairly reliant on Fntzy’s fragging power. He gets in, gets the kill, and the rest of the team clears up. When he falls early, that’s when FURIA’s usually in trouble. Elevate have managed a new path past them by also being able to cut down the rest of FURIA even when Fntzy does his job.
Having your best shooter never make it to the end of the round has started to bite FURIA, as their game against Elevate showed. Whether many other teams can challenge them to this degree is something we should find out if FURIA makes it to the playoffs.