What went right for FURIA versus Imperial
After a hard-fought two maps, FURIA have moved past Imperial in their opening match in Group B of ESL Pro League Season 17, securing 16-13 and 19-16 scorelines on Inferno and Mirage, respectively. Considering FURIA's dismal debut this year, which saw the squad eliminated in the IEM Katowice Play-In after losses to BIG and IHC, this win is certainly a step in the right direction for the Major semifinalists.
FURIAImperial| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
58 - 36 | +22 | 81.0 | 75.0% | 1.34 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
45 - 33 | +12 | 83.5 | 79.7% | 1.29 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
37 - 36 | +1 | 65.3 | 70.3% | 1.01 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
31 - 36 | -5 | 59.5 | 75.0% | 0.96 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
37 - 41 | -4 | 65.0 | 67.2% | 0.96 |
| Imperial |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricardo 'boltz' Prass |
41 - 42 | -1 | 74.2 | 73.4% | 1.06 |
| Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedes |
34 - 39 | -5 | 64.4 | 64.1% | 0.95 |
| Jhonatan 'JOTA' Willian |
37 - 41 | -4 | 65.1 | 70.3% | 0.94 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
36 - 45 | -9 | 69.8 | 70.3% | 0.91 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
33 - 41 | -8 | 57.6 | 59.4% | 0.87 |
Confidence in the veto
The series kicked off on Imperial's pick of Inferno, an interesting selection from Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and his men. Although FURIA had yet to play any matches on Inferno in 2023, the squad were undoubtedly still capable of performing on the map, as showcased by their 16-6 stomp of Heroic in the IEM Rio Major semifinals. While Imperial certainly has more experience in recent times on the map, the squad's only displayed success versus domestic squads like RED Canids and Selecao do bt0, with Imperial struggling versus more competitive squads like 9z and Fluxo on the map.
The second map, Mirage, was FURIA's pick of choice throughout Katowice, with the map being featured in all three of FURIA's matches in Poland. While FURIA did not exactly impress in Katowice, they dropped Mirage only once, versus BIG, and the squad likely put significant effort into working on the map if FURIA are looking to keep Mirage as their home map.
Safe in saffee's hands
Surely the game-changer for FURIA in this match was the performance put out by Rafael "saffee" Costa. The Brazilian AWPer stepped up massively from his 1.07 average rating at Katowice, posting a 1.34 series rating versus Imperial, edging out his star teammate Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato's 1.29 rating. saffee's stellar showing was most apparent on Mirage, where FURIA's sniper had FalleN handily beat in AWP kills, with saffee amassing 19 kills with the Big Green across the 35 rounds played, versus FalleN's measly six kills with the same weapon.
While FURIA will no doubt be proud of their showing today, they will have to hope that the strong performances from saffee and KSCERATO continue as the squad are poised to play MOUZ in their next match, with the young European side looking red-hot after obliterating SAW in a quick two-map affair.
