guerri: "I want to have revenge against Spirit"

Coming off of their win against Outsiders in the lower bracket, FURIA stand as the sole Brazilian representatives left standing in IEM Cologne. As they prep for their showdown against Spirit, Dust2.us' Liam "Slevo" Slevin had a chance to sit down with Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira to discuss the win against Outsiders, FURIA's recent dip in form, and Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato's efforts to regain his confidence, among other topics.

Can you tell me about the series against Outsiders and how important it was to continue your run in Cologne?

It was really important for us since we had three or four bo3's without winning so for us it is a big win, having one more step to go here. We played Inferno and we understood that they could pick Overpass or Inferno. Same as the last time we played against them, the start of the game was really difficult for us. We lost the pistol and it was difficult for us to get the economy. When we got the economy we could roll on to really good rounds. As T-side, it was really good for us to have this resilience to come back because it was really close to the finish, and round by round we got back into the game. Inferno was really important for us and to go into Vertigo. Vertigo is our map and we knew that they could have had a game plan against us. The last time we played the same maps and this time we did the same so I am really proud.

FURIA had a pretty strong run from Pro League from Dallas but results have dipped recently. Can you tell me what's been going on in the team and what's been going wrong in your eyes?

I talk a lot about this in Portuguese so I will try in English. The first thing that we had was two weeks of bootcamp and it was not so good and it was really stressful. Then when we played the first game in a tournament we lost to a new team, 9z. We lost two times against them so it was really hard to take this hit. After that, we were the favorites at DreamHack Valencia and after losing two bo3's against 9z, we didn't have time to come back and think that we had the mindset to win the tournament. We are losing duels, we aren't paying attention to what to do, the rotations, so it was really difficult to come back after this.

When we came here to Cologne it is the last tournament of the season for the first part of the year so it put pressure on us because of the Brazilian crowd. In ourselves, we need to show everybody that we are the team that had a good run in Pro League, Dallas, the Americas RMR, and the Major. We need to come back with the same mindset of confidence that we know how to play and put pressure on them.

Despite being a young guy and still relatively new to the team, drop seems like a very vocal part of the team. Can you tell me a bit about what drop brings to the team?

drop has a really good mindset and profile as a player and as a teammate. He is evolving a lot and he is one of those players that can talk and can motivate which is really good. It is important even for the experienced ones.

KSCERATO has gone through a bit of a rough patch in terms of form, what can you tell us about that drop off?

It is difficult because, when the team is losing as we lose like four bo3's one after another, it is difficult to just rely on one player or two players when each player on the team is playing good so I think KSCERATO took the hit harder too. It was really difficult for him to come back and I think that we are in a really difficult situation, yet this victory is really good to understand that we know what we need to do and to go out there to get the confidence back so I think KSCERATO is on this path.

You continue on in the lower bracket and the next matchup will be against FaZe or Spirit. Stylistically, which of these two teams do you think you match up better against?

Both teams are playing really good. FaZe, we had some good fights in Pro League and I think if we play against FaZe it will be really difficult and it will be a good match, but I want to have revenge against Spirit because they won [against us] at the Major so I want to play against Spirit.

There is a lot of very good talent that is now sitting on the bench or around the Brazilian scene, which has been thriving lately. Can you see a shuffle in the Brazilian and South American scene coming up?

I don't know because I am really just focused on my problems and I have a lot of work to do. I think that we have a lot of good players with our team but maybe they can build a new team or maybe they can go separate ways but I think they need to play in Tier 1 or Tier 2 so to try to come back to the big stage.

guerri got his wish, as FURIA will look for revenge against Spirit in the lower bracket tomorrow at 06:30AM.