FURIA’s great achievement at IEM Rio Major

FURIA Esports did not manage to win the title at IEM Rio Major, even though they looked unbeatable until the semifinals and the tournament took place on their home soil. But their achievement is still remarkable and will go down in esports history as one of the greatest results obtained by Brazil in CS:GO.

IEM Rio Major was ultimately won by Outsiders, whose roster nearly achieved this result several years ago, at StarLadder Berlin Major 2019. Back then, the players were competing for AVANGAR and lost against Astralis in the Grand Final. This time, things went completely differently. The opponent was Heroic and the match was a stomp.

FURIA’s run at IEM Rio Major

FURIA started the tournament with a defeat against BIG. But then they went on to win seven consecutive matches. Along the way, they defeated strong opponents like OG, ENCE, Team Spirit, and Natus Vincere. By far, their most impressive result was against Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s team.

One of the reasons why FURIA had such a great run at this event has to do with the crowd’s support. We’ve rarely seen such an atmosphere at a CS:GO tournament. The Brazilian fans were on fire from start to finish.

It was absolutely heartbreaking to see their team lose in the semifinal against Heroic after they won the first map and nearly made an unbelievable comeback on the second map.

Still, Heroic won that match and became the villain in the Grand Final because of it. No doubt, this was one of the causes of their defeat. The crowd simply wanted them to lose.

FURIA’s roster had many great moments and each member of the team strived to contribute to the team’s success. In the match against Natus Vincere, Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato was the one to shine. His final K-D score was 70-52.

In the match against Heroic, FURIA won the first map thanks to Andrei “arT” Piovezan, whose rating 2.0 was 1.64.

The Last Brazilian Golden Age

The first and last Brazilian golden age so far has been 2016-2017. In those two seasons, Luminosity and SK Gaming won numerous trophies, giving the Brazilian players the belief that it can be done. European clubs were not unbeatable after all. But the magic only lasted a few seasons and then nothing else happened for a long time.

However, FURIA have been on the rise for quite a while and have maintained their top 20 spot over the course of several seasons. With a bit more training, they might just find a way to rise to the top of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Header: @luanportofoto