yuurih on FaZe: "I believe they have more pressure than us"

With a semi-final against FaZe around the corner, Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos sat down with HLTV to give an in-depth interview.

FURIA came into the year with a brand new member in their ranks, bringing in AWPer Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa. After a shaky start they have grown as a unit, taking ESL Pro League by storm with a strong group stage that they followed up by besting Astralis in the quarter-finals.

Prior to their anticipated semi-final with FaZe, yuurih sat down with HLTV to chat about the game against Astralis, the challenges of incorporating new players, and his goals for the year.

First off, congratulations, how are you feeling about being in the semi-finals?

We are feeling great, we have been practicing a lot these few days. At the beginning of the year we changed some players and we are improving now, so everyone is happy.

Ancient was close, and you actually lead 11-7 on T side going into the first gun round for Astralis – why do you think you weren’t able to close it out?

On Ancient when you don’t get rounds on CT, it is so hard playing as T side, we didn’t make a good job on CT side so it was bad for us. They were playing very good, Astralis, and it’s so hard playing as T side so I can’t say too much, but we had to make a better CT side.

Seemed to really get rolling on that T side on Mirage, Astralis struggled to get a look in – why do you think that was?

It was because of arT (smiles). When is playing very well on the map, he has a lot of impact and he was insane, he was making a lot of good calls and the team were playing very well as well. For me, arT did very well on that map.

Leaving Nuke to the decider seemed risky – Astralis has a great record on that map – why did you decide to take it there, instead of Overpass?

So actually guerri and tacitus do the vetoes, but we don’t care about if they are really good on a map, we think about our maps and how we can play our best. We prefer Nuke than Overpass for sure, Overpass is tough sometimes (smiles).

Do you think Nuke suits your style more?

Yes, for sure.

You had a big T side on Nuke, which is usually considered to be CT-sided – how were you able to get so many rounds?

The beginning of the map was very tough, we lost some rounds there, like 1-5, and then we started to push A. Just pushing A like every round with molotovs, smokes, flashbangs, they were just losing the site and we were playing very well there as well. We just were rushing, rushing and they weren’t dealing with it.

I also won one round like 1v3, which was very important to close the half 8-7.

Did you identify that as the weak bombsite?

Yes, I play there as CT side with KSCERATO so I know it is very hard to play there sometimes, there’s flashbangs and molotovs everywhere. You need to play with your teammate, but it is still tough to play there.

Speaking about the tournament as a whole, the group stage performance was amazing – were you expecting to perform so well?

Actually in the beginning it was very tough for us because we changed players, as I said, and when you change players you need to find positions where everyone plays his best CS. Someone wants to play there, can’t play here, another player needs to play there, you know? You need time to fix that stuff.

This tournament we changed some things, like positions, we talked a lot and practiced a lot, and actually I expected it to take more time to be better, to improve in tournaments. It was very unpredictable for us because I didn’t expect to be in the semi-finals in like three months of the team.

We are doing our best, just playing our game, and there’s no pressure. Like today, there’s no pressure to play, we just need to do our game and let’s see how it will be.

So do you think it helps, the lack of pressure?

Yes for sure, for sure. FaZe, they are a good team, in the semi-finals I believe they have more pressure than us because they will have the feeling they need to win, where we are just playing our game. This is really important for us.

Speaking of the year more generally, you had a bit of a poor start with the loss in Pinnacle to Wisla Krakow, and then maybe you would have been expecting to go further at Katowice – what happened early this year?

As I said it’s just because it’s a new team. We need time, we need to practice and see how we are.

We changed some positions, everyone, and then we came to play Katowice and this tournament, and it is better now, although I think we need more teamplay.

The beginning of the year is hard every time, because you didn’t practice a lot at the end of the last year, so we need time I guess, every team I guess needs two months or so to be prepared to play in tournaments.

Obviously the player you brought in was saffee. How has it been to finally have a dedicated AWPer, after playing without one for so long?

Always when we change a player to put an AWPer in, it’s hard for them to play with us because our style is different, sometimes he needs to play more with the AK than the AWP. They need time to learn with us.

junior, HEN1, we always have AWPs and need to change it. saffee is a very good player, he thinks about the game differently, but he is really good. When a guy plays with the AWP he needs to have impact in the game, it’s very important for us. He is doing well, but I think he needs more time to be more consistent, and we are helping him. Not just him, but drop as well.

Speaking of drop, has it been hard to incorporate someone so young?

Yeah for sure, we have some changes like in the past like honda. With honda I remember he had some troubles, it’s difficult to play with other players who have played for a long time, and he needed to be more focused, to learn fast, so it’s hard for them.

Some youngsters learn fast, like I guess m0NESY, he is learning very fast (smiles).

You have the semi-final coming later today against FaZe, who beat you in the group stages. Have you had a chance to learn from those demos?

Yes for sure. I don’t remember the first map against them in the group, but we lost like 16-9. After we won Inferno, their best map, in the third map the feeling was ‘this map is ours’, you know? We played very well, but in the end of the game at 13-13 we made some mistakes, it was our game you know? That was the feeling after, but we think we can beat them.

We are confident today, we need to be confident and play our own game.

As you mentioned you beat them on their best map of Inferno, do you think that gives you an advantage in the veto?

No, for me personally I don’t care so much about their maps, and the guys as well. We need to just do our game on each map, maybe you can win their map, CS is CS, it’s unpredictable. We don’t care about the vetoes, I don’t have the feeling it’s an advantage.

Maybe the side, CT or T side, on some maps like Nuke, this is something of an advantage, I do believe that.

If you made it to the final you would be facing either NIP or ENCE, do you care who you play?

Bro, I like guys from NIP so much, they are friends (smiles). I hope they can win against ENCE, just to have a final against them. For ENCE, they are playing very well, they are insane, so let’s see.

Any team that we play, it will be a good match.

Do FURIA have any goals for the rest of the year, like HLTV ranking or tournament finishes?

Maybe not for everyone, but for me for example I always think in the beginning of the year what I should do. Personally, making top 20 of HLTV, and for the team I want to be in the top five teams, at least top 10 always, and I want to win a tournament. Also, to learn as fast as we can.

To end on a bit of a fun one, who has been your hardest game this year?

Oh my god… Wisla Krakow (laughs) just kidding. Actually tier-two is very strong, whenever we play against tier-two it is very hard.

I don’t remember a match, maybe against ENCE in the groups, or against FaZe, I don’t know. Every match is so hard, you know? Nothing comes easy.

Do you think ENCE are tough because you have a similar style to them?

Yeah. CS:GO has been around for so long, you need to change things in your game, it’s a mind-game, you know? Always you need to change, every team is studying about your game, so with time the captain needs to think a lot about what they are doing, how they might change during the game. CS:GO is always a mind-game in the highest level.