KSCERATO: "FalleN made an impressive performance in-game leading on CT Mirage"

The Brazilian rifler pointed toward a mindset shift after FURIA's Espoo win as another contributor in their comeback vs. Astralis.

FURIA arrived in Dubai hot off a win at Elisa Masters Espoo, a trophy lift that finally ended a four-year LAN title duck and injected some much-needed confidence into the Brazilian roster.

The team had been struggling for results in 2023, and the addition of Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo mid-way through the year didn't seem to be paying off as early tournament exits continued. A shift of captaincy back to Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan paid dividends in turning that trajectory around in Finland, and the title victory has helped shift the mindset for the team as a whole, according to Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato.

The Brazilian rifler looked back to his best as FURIA beat Astralis in the Group B elimination match, and he spoke about that return to form in an interview with HLTV after the game. He also touched on how leadership duties are shared in the team now, explaining how FalleN still contributes often with his reads in-game when required.

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How has it been after getting that first LAN win at Espoo? Are you feeling more positive in the team?

I'm feeling really positive. I think our mindset is different now, because we went to Espoo with that mindset and now we are keeping it. That's why we want to win this tournament, and that's why we came back against Astralis on Mirage. It was a tough game, but FalleN made an impressive performance in-game leading on CT. He had us in setups, he organized everything in the mid-round, et cetera. It was good, we needed it. We lost a few won rounds, and you cannot lose these rounds.

With FalleN calling on CT side, is that on all the maps, or just Mirage? How is it working with FalleN's role now that arT is primary IGL again?

It's more about his reading, I guess. He was reading what they were doing, and so he told us. It's not about maps, it's more about reading, and calls. arT did it as well, but FalleN was too much, talking a lot (laughs) motherfucker.

On Nuke as well, had a bit of a tough T side yesterday, what was the difference today?

We watched our game yesterday, we saw two mistakes we did. The others was nothing to do, because they played well. We just had our good mindset, and had a good CT half on Nuke, so T side was just to close the game.

On your form more generally. Very good last year, very good start of this year, then a little bit lower and you're back to that level now. Some of those 3Ks you're hitting on Mirage and Nuke, this is prime KSCERATO back. What do you make of that? Has the leadership switch helped at all?

I don't think so. I think it's more about comfort. Having a long time with these guys is better than playing two tournaments with them. I had a lot of time before Espoo to practice, and we prepared for Espoo. I don't think it's about playstyle, I think it's about mindset and place I guess.

What is the overarching style now? In-game, at least from outside, it seems like you've gone back to that old FURIA style of a little bit more aggression after you kind of went away from that earlier in the year. Has it been a conscious decision to get the old DNA back?

Back then, it was kind of funny to play against us, and to watch our games ourselves. Right now I've been playing with arT for a long time. I know what to do when he wants to do. It's nice to play this aggressive because they never expect it. If they expect us, they don't know how to counter it.

On that style part, someone from Spirit said yesterday-

zont1x.

Yeah, zont1x. He said it's really hard to play against you on T side but a bit easier on CT. Do you agree with a bit of that?

I don't agree with that. The game is played, every decision counts, every second counts, every millisecond decision counts, and if they did a good decision [...]. Let's see next game.

You are playing them again tomorrow, what do you think of that matchup?

It should be a good game, a fun game (smiles).

Date	Matches
BetBoom Dacha 2023
08/12/2023	Spirit 14:10 FURIA	Match