arT: "At this moment, strangely enough, I find myself happy"

"It has been a while since I felt free," FURIA's now-benched former captain added.

Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's over six-year-long tenure on FURIA's active roster came to an end on Tuesday when the organization announced his move to the bench, washing ashore tides of change that had steadily risen since the start of the year.

"At this moment, strangely enough, I find myself happy," arT reflected in a post on X. "It has been a while since I felt free, since I have been this excited thinking about my future. It hasn't even been two days since I've been out of the team and I already feel reinvigorated, energized and determined.

"I thought I would go through a period of reflection or something like that, but my feelings only show me that I love to play, I love what I do, my path is already clear."

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Official: FURIA bench arT, guerri to move away from coaching role

The 28-year-old was the captain behind FURIA's breakout and rise to international notoriety from 2018-2020, his unorthodox and incredibly aggressive style of play paired with the excellence of Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato and Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos as a rifling duo helping the team establish their place as a consistently top-10 ranked squad.

However, international Big Event trophies remained out of reach despite a handful of deep runs over the years, and arT's aggressive style of play and calling was soon countered, particularly after the return to LAN in 2021.

FURIA brought in Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo and Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes in July 2023 in hopes of finally breaking through the barrier, and leadership was handed to the veteran Brazilian sniper.

But still, the team continued to struggle, and in-game captaincy repeatedly changed hands between arT and FalleN as FURIA floundered to find an identity and style that worked.

"[The] last year was extremely exhausting for me, I did and gave everything I could for the team," arT continued in his statement. "I constantly sacrificed myself, technically and psychologically, in pursuit of the team's success. I did, undid and redid everything at least ten times."

These efforts all came to a head after IEM Chengdu, a group stage elimination for FURIA that followed after early exits from IEM Katowice Play-in, the Elimination Stage of PGL Major Copenhagen, and failed efforts in online qualifiers in the first months of 2024.

arT was removed from the active roster and Nicholas "⁠guerri⁠" Nogueira announced to be transitioning away from the head coach role, but FURIA's former captain says he still walks away with his head held high due to his efforts.

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arT: "We know the pressure we're under"

"I feel that we were close, and although I'm left with the feeling that the job wasn't done, I leave with my head held high. Because I didn't give up for a single second," he stated.

"For the rest of this month, I will decide on my new family [team], spend time with friends and family, and connect more with the community.

"My family and friends already know how much I love them, but I would like to apologize for being disconnected with my fans. I promise that, during this period, I'll stream more and be more present and transparent. Despite all this, I've received a lot of affection, sometimes even unconditional, from you, even though I didn't deserve it."