Can FURIA Esports’ new CS:GO roster succeed?

FURIA Esports used to be one of the best 10 teams in CS:GO. At IEM Rio Major, which took place in November 2022, they finished 3^rd-4^th and offered Brazillian fans a feeling that hadn’t been felt in the country’s CS:GO community since the days of Luminosity and SK Gaming.

The quarterfinal between FURIA and Natus Vincere had a bigger audience than the Grand Final! That’s how much interest generated this ambitious South American team.

We know that FURIA rarely makes roster changes. The players and management of the organization have had this policy for years. As a result, the three players that have been kept by FURIA have been playing for the org since 2017-2018. That’s an enormous amount of time to spend with a single group of people.

The two players who left at the end of June had been competing for FURIA for 18 and 22 months respectively. That’s still a long time, but it’s nothing compared to the 5+ years that Andrei “arT” Piovezan has.

New players and new hopes

After the IEM Rio Major, FURIA’s results became relatively modest. The team continued to be a force in CS:GO, but there’s a big difference between finishing in the top-four at a Major and finishing 9^th-12^th or even 17^th-20^th at some other S-tier tournament.

The best result obtained by FURIA in 2023 was the 5^th-6^th place obtained at IEM Rio. For some reason, when they’re competing in front of their own fans, the Brazilians play a lot better.

At the last CS:GO Major, which took place in Paris, FURIA finished 15^th-16^th. More recently, they finished 9^th-12^th at IEM Dallas.

Isso https://t.co/w2MiPcnWaX

— Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) July 4, 2023

The two players who joined FURIA a week ago were Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes. For chelo, this transfer makes perfect sense because he’s only 25 years old. His performance for Imperial Esports was excellent, so why not move to a better Brazilian team?

But in FalleN’s case, everyone was surprised. Not because he’s not capable of representing FURIA, but because he was supposed to retire at the end of this season. Joining FURIA at this stage of his career, when he’s 32 years old, feels almost like a sign of subbornness.

To be fair, 32 is still a young age. But many players decide to retire far sooner, so a 32-year-old is regarded as a grandpa in esports.

With this new roster, FURIA could easily become a top-10 team again. Right now, they’re ranked 16^th globally.

Header: FURIA Esports