FalleN: "We started losing a lot of Anubis, so we're quite happy that it went out"

The Brazilian captain believes the map pool shake-up will benefit FURIA.

FURIA came into IEM Cologne after a disappointing result at FISSURE Playground 1, where two losses to SAW meant they went out in the group stage, but Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo says the team isn't worried about the bad start to the season.

"The storyline for me doesn't really paint the full picture when we were very close to 2-0ing someone and then we lost," he told HLTV after he and his team made Stage 2 over Astralis.

In Germany, their performances have been much better, and FalleN is excited about the future of the team after the reintroduction of Overpass into the map pool.

"YEKINDAR has a good understanding of the map, I had some good days as well on SK and other teams, so we think we know how the map should be played," he said.

"Maybe in the second stage we're gonna be able to show Overpass, let's see."

If you can't see the embed above, you can listen to the audio recording on HLTV's interview channel on Spotify.

First of all, I wanted to go back to your result at FISSURE, where sidde said that to go out as early as that was unacceptable, even though the team was facing travel and practice issues heading into the tournament. What did you talk about between the tournament and Cologne?

The two losses that we had were both to the same team, we lost in the Major to paiN and we lost FISSURE to SAW, against the same team we lost twice. I would say that we were very, very close to winning both matchups. The third map against paiN we could have won, Anubis we could have won, and it would have been a completely different storyline.

And going to FISSURE we should have won the second series too, we had Ancient in the bag, it was 12-8, 5v3 I think. So I don't know, the storyline for me doesn't really paint the full picture when we were very close to 2-0ing someone and then we lost. Of course it sucks and then we have the storyline that's happening now, but then we were so close to having another storyline, which would be going forward without too many problems.

The talks after having those two defeats was basically to make sure we are involving ourselves individually, mainly on the CT side because we don't wanna be a team that only relies on pushing, pushing, making sure we're getting info and the right timings to win matches. We wanna be consistent and improving. Of course we wanna have those types of moves in our playbook, but we don't wanna be a team that can only win by that. We think that's a path necessary for the team's greatness.

We are in this transition where we want to get more individual consistency in some stuff, even though some team movements can happen, we still wanna practice those movements and this stillness and believing we can handle the pressure and getting the kills we need to get on the defending side.

How much has the change of map pool alter the way you approached practice in this period? You used to pick it a lot until you started shifting over more to Train, but now that it has gone out of the pool, how much did it affect things having to put some time into Overpass?

Anubis was interesting because, the moment we started practicing it, we felt it would be so hard to get good on the map. But at the same time we know YEKINDAR was playing it well with Liquid for some time. It was funny because we said, 'let's hope it's a one-day job.' We literally had a one-day practice on Anubis and it felt very good.

The first five or six matchups on Anubis, we won all of them, and then at the late stages we started losing a lot of Anubises, so we're quite happy that it went out, to be honest. I don't think we were developing so well on that map.

Overpass coming in, we have a good opportunity to play well on this map, YEKINDAR has a good understanding of the map, he played it a lot on VP, I had some good days as well on SK and other teams, so we think we know how the map should be played. Some things might have changed, of course, and teams are gonna bring a lot of new stuff, so all we need to do is to practice and learn and develop our own stuff, as well. And maybe in the second stage we're gonna be able to show Overpass, let's see.

You guys have shifted bans around in this period as well, away from the Ancient ban - what was the thinking behind that?

We wanted to have Ancient prepared for playing mainly against teams that don't play Ancient as well, we feel like when it comes to those matchups we lose the veto for no reason. We wanted to slowly to introduce Ancient. When you have a new team, you mainly focus on six maps because you never wanna focus on seven right away, and we felt like we could go for a different map coming back from vacation because we had the structure we wanted on all six maps already.

And then when the opportunity came against SAW, we felt that there was no more reason to play Anubis at that event because there's no progress to be made and we felt like we could surprise them with the Ancient pick. We lost it, but I think we could have done it.

To touch on this Astralis series, convincing first halves both times but then it took you quite a long time to close it. You were talking about the SAW series as well where you had an opportunity to close it and didn't - do you feel there are some issues with that?

I think if we had lost today that would be the storyline, but you cannot ignore the fact that they are a very good team. When you pick Nuke, I hate picking Nuke a little bit because you have to do good T sides, and sometimes the defence is just outstanding and you have to find ways, gaps, and they're just not there.

They suffered from that as well, they couldn't get T rounds, and honestly we couldn't either. YEKINDAR had some good plays that brought us some rounds, and team-wise I think we only did one or two good rounds on T side. There is an issue with closing games, but they did good comebacks.

Heading into Stage 2, you spoke a bit about not feeling like FISSURE was such a bad a result - how are you feeling going into the better competition? The Major obviously set higher expectations for this roster, enough so that you have doubled down on YEKINDAR and made him a permanent signing, so what are your expectations and goals in Stage 2?

The expectations are to play the best CS we can, to keep evolving. There is a lot of pressure on all the teams that have been playing because of the past success, because of the team structure that we have. But at the same time this team's quite new, there are a lot of transitions happening. molodoy was playing at tier two not too long ago, there are a lot of new things to catch up on. He's an outstanding player, but there's a lot to develop, still.

As a team we feel like we are in a good position where we can be very difficult to be beaten by many teams, and going to Stage 2 here is gonna be an opportunity to prove that. The same way it went for those matches against SAW, against many teams, and I don't think it's a secure win, I don't think people from tier one can't guarantee it's a secure win. Right now the gap between teams is just so tight that every match can be as difficult as playing SAW or as playing another top five team. This game is just so hard now.