KSCERATO on Liquid: "They invited me, but for now the best was to stay with FURIA"

Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato spoke to HLTV ahead of FURIA's campaign at the PARI Please tournament taking place in Belgrade.

Ever since FURIA brought Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo into the team, the Brazilians have been hard at work trying to merge the veteran's vision with their own.

That work has yet to come to fruition, however, as FURIA have been hovering around 15th-20th place in the rankings for some time, struggling to find success beyond a top-four finish at the recently concluded Roobet Cup.

In an interview conducted on the media day ahead of their next campaign at PARI Please, an eight-team $100,000 tournament taking place in Belgrade, Serbia, KSCERATO spoke to HLTV about the ongoing work with FalleN.

The FURIA star also addressed reports that said he turned down Liquid amidst the North American team's plans of an overhaul of the lineup, and he discussed his views on Counter-Strike 2.

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This event, PARI Please 2023, came a little bit out of nowhere but has $100,000 prize pool and a competitive set of teams. How do you approach a tournament like this?

Actually, it's nice to play tournament here because I like Serbia. I watched the tournament before by PARI. They did the last one a few months ago and I like to like how they do it, it's nice. I’m preparing to win this tournament. It will be hard, but not impossible.

You have been living and playing mostly from Europe for some time now. How has it been going for you so far?

It’s tiring. I’m tired, man. A lot of planes. I have a dirty passport because it has no pages anymore. A lot of visas and stuff like that. But it's nice. It's what I choose for my life. I'm glad because that I chose a thing I love, so I do it for love and passion (laughs).

In the last interview with HLTV, FalleN has been talking about merging his and FURIA’s playstyle. Have you been able to mold it together yet?

Yeah, we are practicing really well, FalleN is doing FalleN stuff. That's nice because I think his one of the best IGLs of all time. guerri and FalleN are talking a lot with arT to have both aggressive style and FalleN’s style. I'm happy with the team. FalleN is good and arT is a good co-caller, and everyone is playing really well. In CS2 we have played two tournaments online already, but this one will be offline. It will be good.

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FalleN on adjusting to FURIA: "There is a cultural difference in how to approach Counter-Strike"

Playing under the FalleN’s leadership, how does it compare to your expectations?

I have played CS for 15 years already, and I have always been watching him and seeing his vlogs. I always imagined that he was a good guy. But he's more than respected. He is a good leader, has a good mindset, he knows what to talk about and how to talk about it. He is a different person and he's very special in what he does.

FURIA, though, is currently at a level that is clearly below the team’s ambition. Some might find the reason in the lower performance of chelo whose rating dropped to 0.96 with FURIA compared to 1.11 with Imperial. Would you attribute it to the role setup, or is chelo indeed yet to find his game?

I think chelo had a lot of impact in Imperial because he played a lot of positions that [allow more impact]. In FURIA, he plays solo sometimes in some sites and I think this is a new thing for him. It's hard to play solo. But we are managing that, he's getting better and better, and I think the end of this year is going to be nice for him.

How do you feel about CS2? What do you find the most challenging about the new game?

Oh, man, a lot of things, to be honest! I don't play with the cl_bob, cl_drawtracer, and the blood... I mean, I’m color-blind. So sometimes blood confuses me. But it's nice. It's a good game. I played 1.6, CS:GO, CrossFire, and a lot of games, and CS2 is nice. It’s good to have a reset in the mind and how you think about the game. I think it's nice and it will be the best CS.

Recently, there were reports that you were considering a move to Liquid but ultimately turned down this option. Can you tell us more about what happened?

Yeah, they invited me to play for them. But for now, I have a lot of things in mind, I had a lot of tough times this year. So I think for now I want to stay in FURIA because I love my team, I love the organization, and I love the people behind the organization. And I think for now, for me, the best was to stay with FURIA.

Read more

Media: KSCERATO turned down Liquid

How important for you to play in a Brazilian team?

It’s good, but I don’t know what to say because it is way better to play in a Brazilian team because Portuguese is my native language. But I don’t think it’s a problem in CS to play in English. For me, there is no problem with playing in Brazil or somewhere else. The Brazilians will always cheer for me and support me no matter where I am.

Could you someday imagine yourself in an international team, especially after these talks with Liquid?

I don't know, man. I don't know about tomorrow. I’m just thinking that for now, I'm happy here. Maybe someday, but I'm not sure about that. I'm still young, I’m 24, so I have a long career ahead. So it seems a bit early to think about that because if you think about that, you’re not focusing on the present. So for now... I think maybe (laughs).

After this event, you will play two LANs in a row: Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 and BetBoom Dacha 2023. Do you have some particular goals set for these events?

Always winning the tournament. It’s always good. We won the last Elisa so it'll be nice to... The weather there is bad, right? Oh, I remember! The expectation is to win the tournament and then bring some stuff to the RMR in January.

Date	Matches
PARI Please 2023
16/11/2023	FURIA 20:10 Aurora	Match