guerri: "We were not playing like a team, we needed to do something to change that"

The FURIA coach spoke at length about some of the issues teams are experiencing at the Americas RMR.

FURIA have a 2-0 record at the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR after beating Evil Geniuses in their second game, a win which wasn't entirely clean-cut as the North American side managed to keep the scoreline close before FURIA prevailed.

HLTV spoke to FURIA's coach Nicholas "⁠guerri⁠" Nogueira after the game for some insight into the team's opening matches, as well as regarding some of the struggles he experienced coming into the match regarding ongoing issues at the RMR.

guerri, congrats on the win. Yesterday it was 16-6 over TeamOne, today a little bit closer versus EG. Just walk me through the result, how are you feeling after the match?

Always when we play against EG it's a close match. It was in the last RMR, we lost Nuke 16-14 I think, and today it was a hard time, 16-13. They played really well in the beginning of the half, on the T side they caught us a little bit off guard, playing really fast, trying to split really fast, but we could adjust. It was really important to get some points as CT to have this opportunity to come back as T.

T side it was a little bit more shaky because of the anti-forcebuy that we lost. If not for that, it could've been easier.

Before you came into this tournament you had the Showdown that you lost to EG Black as well — did that shake your confidence at all coming into this event?

We lost to ourselves, that's it. It's not like just underestimating the other opponent, because they play CS, they know how to play CS. It was our fault because we are not on the same page, we were not playing like a team, you know? We needed to do something to change that. This period for us was really tough, but we come back in my opinion, trying to get back in form.

I saw a tweet from you just before I came to this event that said the team had stagnated and that you were making profound changes internally, both technically and tactically. Can you expand on what you meant by that a little bit as to what you're doing or what the team is doing to work on that?

First of all, we need to understand where we are. We are not the same team that went to the semi-final in the Rio Major, so when we understand that and everybody is on the same page, that's the starting point for us you know. Because we need to come back, work on different strategies, work on different mindsets, and go back to the basics to come back stronger. Some changes are profound, but it's internal you know, we need to do something that is not for the public, it's for ourselves to come back stronger.

What do you mean by you're the the same team you were at the Rio Major?

In the Rio Major we were on the same page, everybody was in the right mindset, everybody was playing insane. We were in the level that we are not in this year, so we didn't reach this level this year yet, we need to try to reach there.

In this same tweet chain, you mentioned that you can't make drastic changes like changing a player right now because of the roster lock with the Major. Is that something the team is considering going forward from here if results don't go your way?

Yeah.

Okay. I also wanted to touch on the number of technical issues at the event so far, you were talking about it with me before. From your end, what has that felt like with some of the coach issues, but also some of the logistical issues that have happened?

[sighs] This is really difficult because for me, it's the first time that I play a tournament at this level and with this importance, like that. You saw me before, I was really angry because... I think we are used to playing tournaments where everything is smooth, and when we came here it's far from smooth. For example today, EG went to setup 20 minutes before us. We stayed, the admin told us to come here in time, we are here, and we needed to wait here 20 minutes. When we went there, they told me that my chair couldn't be in the middle of the guys, it needs to be in the corner.

So every day, something changes, I don't know why. They tell me that it's BLAST's new rules, but you can't every time change something with new rules, you can't make something different for the other team and between us. I cannot use my flag but other team can use flag, you know? I cannot sit in the middle but other team could sit in the middle. It's not like that, this is a Major, this is a tournament that's really important, so I'm tired of excuses right now.

Yesterday I understand the problem, but today... we cannot have the same problems bro. I was pissed off because I just want it to be fair for everybody, I don't want to be in the setup before EG, it's not right, and when it's the time to start they don't want to delay, you understand that? So I need to hurt because of their delay? It's not right.

Did you also experience any of the microphone issues yesterday? I heard some coaches had some problems with that.

Bro [laughs in disbelief], yesterday I didn't use my headphone. It was muted, like it was cutting their voice, so one time I just muted and I take off my headphone, tell the admin that I couldn't hear anything, so it doesn't make sense that I'm wearing the headphone.

When I use a tactical I just get the headphone from somebody and just talk, or somebody just takes off the headphone and I talk, and this guy spreads the tactical that I was talking. So this is... I don't know, I've never experienced something like that, just early when I play 1.5, 1.6. This is not the level we are supposed to play.