Backed by an unreal number of fans, FURIA gave Gambit a fight to remember but just fell short of the perfect Cinderella story. Given the fact that FURIA has a new player in André ‘drop’ Abreu, they made a hell of a run to make it to the Legends Stage. Earning a whole new level of respect, both the Brazilian players and fans showed up in Stockholm. I had the opportunity to speak with Andrei ‘arT’ Piovezan about their recent roster move, the new coaching rules, and his uncanny aggression.
Obviously, with junior no longer being part of the team, you don’t really have a primary AWPer per se. We saw KSCERATO and yourself have been AWPing in different situations. If the roster carries on as it is, who’s going to be the primary AWPer.
Yeah, it depends on the map. We’re trying new stuff so, Overpass we are trying KSCERATO main awping on A, so I can have more freedom to go around the map. Generally, it depends on the map, like Nuke, I am the primary awper, but I don’t really play it that often. If somebody’s awping on Nuke, that’s only me. If you go for Mirage, we kind of switch roles often, but it depends on the map and we are still trying to find the best way to do it. So it an open thing right now.
Do you feel like being the primary AWPer hurts your aggressive playstyle?
Yeah, definitely because, if I am the primary AWPer and I die first, even if it’s a one for one trade, it hurts the team. So sometimes, I need to play safer so you can get more clutch situations, mostly on T side. If I’m AWPing Inferno, I was AWPing some rounds and Inferno you don’t have many openings for AWPing. So generally I just kind of a support role. It’s kind of messy. So you’re trying to find the best pace, you know, and the best moments to AWP.
You’ve had a coaching change just for the Major. Did that change your overall game plan, having a different coach? Were you playing different roles that maybe you didn’t feel comfortable with?
I don’t think so. I think in the game, technically speaking, we kind of were the same, he has more of an impact on the outside of the game, on the emotional side. So he has more impact on that side and the vibe and cheering. So he’s very good for this and he helps us with confidence.
How did it feel to have such a massive Brazilian presence being so loud and cheering you on in the arena?
It’s funny because we are in Sweden, and Brazilians cannot really enter Sweden because of government stuff, but there are a lot of Brazilian fans. The community was great and they’re cheering for us on stage. We can hear them roar and it’s amazing. It’s our third Major, but the first one that we managed to go through Legends Stage and even playoffs, which is great for us. That was the biggest stage with the biggest crowd we ever played. So that was an amazing feeling. Hopefully, we are going to play the next one as well because it’s such an amazing experience to have in life.
What is the feeling of being the only team in the Legends Stage representing South America and North America?
Of course, it’s nice to have such a huge region cheering for us. But at the same time, it’s not as good because it’s good for the region to have as many teams as they can in the Legends Stage or even playoffs. That means the scene growing and there is more representation and it also means that if future events they can get more spots, you know? So if Brazilian teams managed to go to all from South America qualifiers to Legend status, that means a lot for them because for the scene as a whole. For the next Major, they’re gonna have to put more spots for Brazil, which is deserved right now, but that’s under conversation and not gonna get into it. But yeah, it’s a huge responsibility, but also, nice but sad at the same time.
Do you like being the underdog?
Yeah, deep down, because you play without that much pressure. To be honest, recently, I think we quite enjoyed being the favorite. We kind of embrace the pressure. I think that’s been good for us. We have been playing under pressure a lot better than in the past and I think that’s a great, great way to improve as a player.
Has this Major highlighted anything on your team negative or positive?
Definitely, we are, of course not even the favorites to go through the Legends Stage to playoffs, but we just change the roster. We have drop who is such a young player that never played a LAN stage, never play even like a big event. So, of course, we’re not favorites and we just changed the lineup and we had less than a month to prepare for the Major with this lineup and we changed the AWPer so, many things going on. Of course we felt underprepared, but we showed that we wanted so much that we gave ourselves the most we can to get the means we needed. The resilience we showed, my teammates showed, was something that made me really proud.
What was the team’s attitude like after the loss?
I think everyone felt different. I myself, for the first time in my career, felt a loss like it was nothing. Usually, I am very upset about losses. I am someone who hates to lose, I am very competitive, but this game I felt that I was happy with where we reached and, with such a small time we had to prepare, we knew were going to be tough to beat, one of the best teams in the world right now. So I kind of felt we needed to play very well to win and we almost did. That’s good enough for me. We showed resilience. We were like down 15-11 in the Inferno map and we managed to go back and it was just like little mistakes. I myself did a mistake that was very important for the game.
I felt had we a chance and played very well. So I was happy with the game, even though we lost. Overall, everybody was in the same vibe, but at different levels. I think drop was the one who felt the loss at most because of so much pressure on him, he really wanted to win, but yeah, it was gonna be hard. But we managed to get out of the loss with kind of a smile afterward you know?
What’s the next goal?
For this year there are no events planned, so we don’t really know our next event. I think we have a very good time to prepare. So for now I think it’s just, we are back to normal life, you know. You’re gonna practice as much as we can and try to fix the mistakes we did on this run. Even from the RMR stages, we didn’t have enough time to analyze all games. So now we have a lot of matches and maps to watch and a lot of things to talk about. So definitely it’s gonna be like a practice season. We’re gonna find our pace again, and as we talk about the AWPing role and which map we are going to do, how it’s going to be done, that’s something we’re going to catch up on right now.
The last question is for all the Brazilian fans out there at the stadium and at home, who should they cheer now?
Oh, man. It’s really sad. I really wanted NIP to go to the Finals and win this. They’re great guys, they’re amazing such humble people. So I really wanted them to be in their home and go to the Finals. But that’s very unfortunate right now. Uh, I don’t really have a personal favorite, I like the Gambit guys. They’re very nice. We knew them from way back then, from practicing in Europe like two years ago and we knew they’re good. We have been watching them and we are very close. I have played some pugs with sh1ro, so they’re nice guys. Even though I don’t really want CIS teams to win a Major, because they’re very competitive, but I will be cheering for Gambit.
