arT: "It's just a matter of time to get back to tier one level"

The Brazilian player shared his thoughts on FURIA's impressive victory against Complexity in Finland.

FURIA got their Elisa Masters Espoo campaign off to a great start as they beat world No. 5 Complexity in convincing fashion thanks to a flawless T side on Ancient.

It was a much-needed victory for the Brazilian team, which has been outside the top 10 since May, and a huge confidence boost ahead of its last Big Event of 2023, BetBoom Dacha.

In a post-match interview with HLTV, Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan, who posted a team-high 1.64 rating against Complexity, discussed the opening game, his expectations for the tournament, and the team's IGL situation. He also commented on Liquid's interest in Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato, revealing that it gave everyone a boost. "It’s great for us, team-wise," he said.

If the embed above does not show for you, listen to the audio version here.

---

How does it feel after that win?

It feels great. I felt that we needed this win, mostly to get out the bad vibes after losing too much, so winning against a good team like Complexity is a good feeling.

After that first half, when you went down 4-8, did you have confidence that you could come back in the second half?

Yeah, we feel like CS2 is always so tight, the halves, so we know that if we make four rounds we can come back. If we win the pistol round, it’s a fair game, so as soon as we made four rounds, we knew that we could have a very good comeback. Before that, it was hard to get one round to make it more even.

Looking at the rest of the tournament, what were your feelings coming in? There are a few good teams here but it’s not the strongest field. Did you feel like you could come here and get a good result?

Yeah, I think so. It doesn’t matter the competition, it’s mostly down to us, we need to play better CS. I think we have been struggling individually and team-wise, so we are trying to fix all that stuff and we have done great work throughout the year to improve. I think it’s just a matter of time to get to the tier one level.

As you said, you’ve had a little bit of time now with this lineup. How do you feel it is progressing?

I really feel that all the guys have a very good mindset, so even though we have had some rough losses and not the results that we wanted to have with this lineup, everybody has their mind on turning it around. So everybody is working really hard, everybody is improving their game, we’re changing a lot of stuff all the time, and everybody is keeping up with it and doing their max, which is the most important thing for us.

Read more

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

There was some talk about KSCERATO possibly going to Liquid, but obviously he turned them down. Is that a distraction for the team, or does it almost give you guys a boost that he said no because he wants to stay with FURIA?

We have been through worse things in the past (smiles). This is not new for us, I don’t really care about that news. I think KCSERATO is such a beast, so of course he is going to have offers. There will be more in the future, for sure, so we don’t really mind. I always want the best for KSCERATO so if he feels like he wants to try something new, I will be on his side about that.

It’s his decision, but he’s happy here. We’re trying to improve to show we are a good team, and he trusts us, which is a very good thing to see. He’s my teammate and he wants to stick with us. Even with a good offer, he’s still with the team, so that’s a great feeling. It’s not a bad thing, you know, him getting invites and refusing them. It’s great for us, team-wise.

What is the calling situation like? I was standing there when you were playing the game and it seemed like you were still talking a lot, even at the start of rounds. How is it working between you and FalleN, now you’ve had a few more months to settle?

It’s still early to talk about that, but we are changing some things to try to improve our game, so we are still on the alpha or beta version of FURIA (laughs). We are trying to get our grasp on the game, we are still struggling in some situations.

In my opinion, CS is so much about mindset. If you are not confident enough and your mind is not really on point, something will go really wrong with everything else. It’s just a matter of getting the mindset right and feeling confident.