skullz: "Playing with FalleN in a big arena means the world to me"

skullz has fulfilled his career dream to get to play in front of a big crowd in Brazil.

With wins over MOUZ and FaZe, FURIA are on course for their best event yet with Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo. A year and a half and two years on from when they made it to the last two iterations' playoffs, FURIA arrived with a different core this time around but once again made it to the stage in Rio.

Read more

FURIA set for third consecutive Rio stage appearance after MOUZ win

One of the players who wasn't a part of the team in the previous two runs to the stage is Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros, who shared in an interview with HLTV that getting to play in front of a big home crowd was a big career goal of his ever since IEM first came to Rio.

"It means the world to me," he said. "It feels amazing, it's a dream come true and I can't wait to play in the arena."

In the interview, the 22-year-old spoke about what led to FURIA's improvement, how they changed the way they think in-game, and his goal to lift the trophy in the Farmasi Arena.

---

Congrats, arena in Rio, just tell me how that feels as the home team being able to make it in and play in front of the fans?

It means the world to me. Since I saw the announcement of IEM Rio, the Major, that was my main goal for my career, to play in front of a crowd here in my country. So it feels amazing, it's a dream come true and I can't wait to play in the arena.

Second Big Event playoffs with FURIA. You made the quarters at Esports World Cup and now at least that here, but it's a bigger stage here. How does that feel, being able to find relatively frequent success after joining this team?

It has been three months now and we have had pretty good results if we don't consider Cologne, where we struggled a little bit. At the same time, Cologne was the first time we were facing tier-one teams consistently.

After Cologne we had BetBoom Dacha and we played good CS there as well, but we changed the way we think a little bit in this last bootcamp. Our coaches and staff did an amazing job creating some new stuff for us to try, and it's been working pretty well so far. We just need to keep working on that and evolving as a team.

Can you tell me about what you changed in the way you think?

We are starting to play a little bit more structured, but inside this structure we have freedom, individual freedom to do the plays that we want. FalleN gives us a lot of space to create our own plays and we adapt to each other pretty well. It's been working really well so far.

When you joined the team that was something you highlighted, we had asked about the difference between cadiaN and FalleN as AWP IGLs. You had said that FalleN gives more freedom then, but you're saying there's a little more structure now (skullz nods). What has the evolution of that been like?

It's more like the team structure, like everyone knows the limits where we can and can't do something. We all understand the needs of supportive plays or aggressive plays, or even saving our weapons is making a lot of difference for us. This is more the kind of things we are working on.

In that same interview you said that we would see more of the old skullz. How are you feeling now, because I wouldn't say we're seeing quite the old skullz, but it's better right?

Yeah for sure it's better. I have different roles, I don't think I can be as impactful as I was before with paiN, but at the same time I am needed in a different kind of role now I just have to accept it and do my best. I will always be there for the team to do whatever they want and be this guy for them.

During your Liquid period there was a lot of criticism on you. Even though you're playing different roles and not back to your old form, do you feel some vindication now, some redemption?

Not really, I don't really think that way. On Liquid it didn't work out, the whole team didn't click. It was unfortunate that this happened, but I have to move on. When I joined FURIA I was only focused on FURIA and becoming a better team, being on top of the world. I think we are on the right path and I'm looking forward to it.

Two pretty good wins here, you beat FaZe in your first game and MOUZ here. Getting to the arena in that fashion, how does it feel with taking those teams down?

At this moment we're looking for the confidence to beat these tier-one teams, and beating those teams that we played today gives us a lot of confidence. Playing with FalleN in a big arena means the world to me, and KSCERATO, yuurih, chelo, they're all players I always wanted to play with. Now it's time to make our own history.

In this series you won Nuke and Dust2 pretty comfortably, but Mirage was obviously not great. With that loss, your record is 3-9 on it, can you tell me what you feel like you might be struggling on?

Mirage is one map that we are struggling with the whole structure thing, like we are not on the same page, and this creates a lot of gaps for them to play. Since they are a pretty good team they know how to abuse those gaps, so I think we just need to talk a little bit and fix it for the next match because we are probably going to play it again. We need to be ready.

There was this talk when you came into the team, but even for a long time beforehand, about KSCERATO's prime being wasted. He had a sick series here, but in general we're seeing him return to that level. What has that been like to witness on the server?

KSCERATO is an amazing player, since I started playing professionally he was always one guy I looked up to. He always talked to me and gave tips to be better and now I'm playing with him, so that means the world to me as well. He's playing at the best level I've seen him play at so far, and I think it's also props to the team because we are all doing our rules correctly and Kaike is shooting heads as always.

Touching on your reunion with sidde, can you tell me about that?

At the time I joined Liberty, I was looking for this team that I could spend some years of my career playing with, and sidde was the guy I needed at the time. I think he's responsible for most of my career, my success, and being here with him means a lot to me because we won a lot of trophies in Brazil at the time and now we are fighting for international trophies and tier-one trophies. We're on the right path.

What is he like now compared to before, considering he came into this role as a replacement for guerri?

sidde was always the kind of guy who studied the game a lot, he understands really quickly what is happening inside the game. He really helps us in practice, and in-game he understands when we need to pause the match and he sees something no one else can. This is one quality of him, and he is also a pretty calm guy so he can chill the mood, the vibe, but also bring fire when we need it as well.

I asked before the interview started about skipping to semis vs. playing in the quarters, having more matches in front of the fans. You'll have another match to decide where you start in the playoffs, can you tell me about your feelings about playing more matches in the arena?

At this point I don't really care. Of course I want the semis, but the main goal for me is the trophy. If we go straight to the semis it's going to be the easier way, but I really don't care because like you said, I'm going to play more in the arena if we go to the quarters. We are just going to give our all and do our best to try to lift this trophy.