Years in the making, Brazilian esports organization FURIA has finally won an S-tier event in Counter-Strike, as they lifted the FISSURE Playground 2 trophy.
FURIA proved unstoppable at FISSURE Playground 2. Image Credit: Riot Games
First created on August 10, 2017, FURIA has been a staple of the Counter-Strike scene for over eight years. The closest the team ever came to winning an S-tier championship was the Esports Championship Series Season 7 Finals back in 2019, losing 2-0 to Team Vitality in the grand final. Let’s take a look at how FURIA barreled through the FISSURE Playground 2 event.
FURIA speeds through the FISSURE Playground 2 playoffs
At the Belgrade Arena in Serbia, The MongolZ eliminated G2 Esports with a 2-1 win and then pushed through Team Liquid with another 2-1 victory in the semifinals, making their way to the grand final, and ending Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken’s last dance.
On the other side of the bracket was FURIA, who took care of business against Danish squad Astralis with a 2-0 (13-9 on Train and 19-15 on Nuke) with a nailbiter of a second map to avoid a third. In the semifinal match against Team Falcons, FURIA won the first map, Train, in overtime with a 16-12 score, and won 13-11 on Nuke to send one of the favorites packing.
In the best-of-five grand final, The MongolZ got off to a fantastic start on Mirage, with an 8-3 lead, before FURIA woke up with Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis and Danil “molodoy” Golubenko spearheading the comeback to push the map into overtime, and win 16-13.
On Inferno, it was time for The MongolZ to pull off a comeback after a hot start from FURIA, with the map ending 13-11 in favor of the Mongolian side. Overtime was required to separate the sides on Nuke, where FURIA came out on top with a 16-12 win. The MongolZ retaliated with a decisive 13-9 win on Overpass to force the fifth and deciding map.
The MongolZ won the Pistol round and conversion on the CT side to open Dust2, but FURIA responded with vigor, gaining a slight lead (7-5) at the end of the first half. On the CT side, FURIA refused to give up a single round, winning six in a row to close out Dust2 13-5, and thereby, the grand final with a 3-2 score.
FalleN led FURIA to victory. Image Credit: FISSURE
With the win, the FURIA team earns $200,000, and another $160,000 from the “Club Share” portion of the combined $1,250,000 prize pool.
This has been a long time coming for FURIA, especially for Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato and Yuri “yuurih” Boian, who’ve been on the team since the start, fighting tooth and nail to finally add a coveted piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet.
FISSURE Playground 2 also marks the first MVP award for FURIA’s 20-year-old Kazakhstani player, Danil “molodoy” Golubenko, who topped the leaderboard with a 1.26 rating and a K-D of 99-71 in the grand final.