Gaming
Gaming
FURIA Esports have something to prove at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021
A narrow victory has put FURIA Esports at the top of the North American Regional Major Rankings ahead of the PGL Major Stockholm. Now they have to prove that they deserve their spot.
FURIA Esports have had a year of ups and downs. On the one hand, the team has ranked highly in various tournaments and invitationals across 2021, and recently finished the Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI - Fall: North America tournament in the top spot. But the year has also seen the team falter, with a Group Stage knockout in the ESL Pro League Season 14 and plenty of early finishes in tournaments.
But the team is currently riding high. The crucial IEM XVI win nudged them into the top of the North American Regional Major Rankings, narrowly edging out Team Liquid and granting them Legend Status for the PGL Major Stockholm 2021. There's still a long way to go for the team, but with a lot to prove at this tournament, we should see FURIA step up to the plate in a big way.
A Major head start
There are plenty of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments across the season, but when it comes to the Majors, only two mattered for FURIA – cs_summit 8 and IEM Season XVI - Fall: North America. The team kicked off the year with a serious advantage – 600 points for achieving Legend Status at ESL One: Rio 2020, which was sadly cancelled. FURIA suffered a 120 point deduction for replacing Henrique 'HEN1' Teles with Paytyn 'junior' Johnson in January 2021, but even with this reduced points pool, the team found themselves in joint first before they'd played a single RMR game this year.
The team were up and down in the first half of 2021 – they took fifth at the IEM Season XV – World Championship following a defeat in the Group Stage from eventual runner-up team Virtus.pro, but bounced back in the ESL Pro League Season 13 to take third place. A language barrier may have been the problem – while the rest of the team were used to communicating quickly in Portuguese, junior's arrival forced the players to switch to English, which slowed communication during the game.
But it didn't seem to be too much of a barrier when the team showed up for cs_summit 8, the first RMR tournament of the year. FURIA battled valiantly through Groups, entering the Playoffs in the Upper Bracket and beating Extra Salt to make it to the Upper Bracket Final. The team lost their match against Team Liquid, but dominated EXTREMUM in the Lower Bracket Final to bounce back into the Grand Final for a second chance at taking down Team Liquid. Sadly, victory was not on the cards for FURIA, who took second place after a 3-1 defeat. But thanks to the 1,500 RMR points gained from this finish, FURIA stayed on top of the RMR rankings.
André "drop" Abreu practices with the rest of FURIA Esports
© Richard Ström/Red Bull Content Pool
A narrow finish
But FURIA wouldn't hold that spot for long. Following the second-place finish at cs_summit 8, the team decided to bench junior and promote Lucas 'honda' Honda from their academy team. The move cost them 396 RMR points, a huge hit that dropped them into fourth place in the rankings. It also didn't lead to overall better results, with the team finding themselves in 11th place at IEM Season XVI – Cologne despite winning the Elisa Invitational Summer 2021 only a week before with the same team.
Things didn't improve for the ESL Pro League Season 14 either. FURIA had promoted André 'drop' Abreu from their academy team to replace honda, but due to a team lock, drop was unable to join for the tournament. Then disaster struck again as honda was unable to attend the tournament, forcing coach Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira to step in and take a seat with the team. These problems eventually led to FURIA departing the tournament in the Group Stage, the team's worst result of 2021.
But this one result wasn't enough to knock FURIA off their game. Once again stepping up when it mattered, the team entered Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI – Fall: North America with a renewed vigour and utterly dismantled the competition, winning their Group Stage with an unbeaten 5-0 record. Their winning streak didn't end there, with the team taking down paiN Gaming 2-0 in the semi-finals, before defeating GODSENT in the Grand Final. In the end, FURIA managed to take the top spot without dropping a single game, a truly astounding achievement for the players.
The win scored FURIA a vital 2,500 points, narrowly returning them to the top of the RMR table, beating out Team Liquid by just 56 points. And it's a sign that the team can deliver incredible results when they really need to. Despite some disappointing results this year, FURIA are now entering the most important tournament of 2021 as the top North American seed, which can only be a boost to their confidence.
Victory isn't guaranteed, of course. Team Liquid also secured Legend Status and have been a consistent thorn in FURIA's side this year. Virtus.pro snuck into the competition as a Contender, but have held their own and made it to the Legends Stage. There are plenty of great teams waiting in the wings for their shot at the top spot, but FURIA have found their groove with their current roster and are looking stronger than they have all year. Whatever happens next, it's guaranteed to be an exciting competition.
