International lineup secures FURIA their first playoffs in 213 days

Successive wins over South American teams have put YEKINDAR's FURIA into PGL Astana's top-eight.

FURIA have advanced to their first playoffs since IEM Rio in October 2024, a drought of 213 days or 7 months.

Their mettle will now be tested in the Barys Arena as Danil "⁠molodoy⁠" Golubenko prepares for his Big Event playoff debut in front of a home Kazakh crowd.

FURIA got here via beating ODDIK 2-0, their third victory in Kazakhstan in addition to wins over GamerLegion and MIBR.

The match was an entertaining, if sloppy, bout but ODDIK relied on their captain for several highlights to even reach 13 series rounds.

FURIA were never in true danger — especially after Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis found a quad-kill on a full-USP eco late on map two. "There's something about this event, we won two full ecos vs GamerLegion too," joked YEKINDAR on broadcast post-game.

The group stage run was a team effort for FURIA, with molodoy shining against GamerLegion, Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos against MIBR, and YEKINDAR today against ODDIK. Throughout it all, too, Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato has been a pillar of consistency with +1.40% round swing whilst Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo has performed better than expected as a full-time rifler.

Only GamerLegion — who went out 0-3 — out of their opponents were expected to make the playoffs before the event but FURIA have shown a successful blueprint with a more balanced lineup regardless of the level of their opposition.

When asked about the team's 'immaculate vibe,' YEKINDAR credited it to this balance shift: "I know they're fun people. But finally I think they feel like they have the right pieces in the team: An aggressive AWPer, I'm an aggressive rifler, and people can actually focus on their stuff and not think about others."

FalleN the rifler

FalleN has a 1.22 T side rating on Anubis this event, going 11-5 today, in proof of the sentiment YEKINDAR showed in his interview: He's adapting to rifling far quicker than Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller did.

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There are challenges on CT side but a 0.99 defensive rating is more than respectable for a player so used to the AWP.

The big question mark over this new lineup was on its firepower. But with FalleN in such good form, FURIA are able to win games even as molodoy takes time to adapt to the challenges of tier one.

As molodoy gains experience the hope will be that moves like this AWP 3k are not required, and when that happens the early impression is that FalleN's rifling may not be as large a drawback as initially feared.