saffee: "we are keeping the title as best Brazilian team"

After their second win of the day, FURIA have looked in good form and Dust2.us' Dafydd Gwynn had the opportunity to talk to their newest member, Rafael "saffee" Costa. He discussed what it means for FURIA to have a primary AWPer, their run in EPL, and his time in North America.

You are the newest addition to FURIA and in the past the AWP role has been passed around a bit, especially at the Major we saw are arT and KSCERATO share the responsibility. How does having a dedicated AWPer change the whole playstyle of the team?

Well, I think now arT can do whatever he wants. He doesn't have to worry about playing too aggressive with the AWP but he can still pick up the AWP, be the second AWP, and be really aggressive with it. I think, for the most part, just giving freedom to my teammates is the most important thing right now as an AWPer.

Since the major, with VINI leaving and you joining, how has drop's role changed and how has he developed?

I think he tried to pick up some of VINI's roles and he tried to adapt his game but overall his individual performance has been amazing and he's just picking up things really fast, and it's really good for the team having a guy like that. Somebody that just wants to learn and just works really hard for it.

How are you personally feeling about the amount of South American talent?

Well, as you can see, only one American team, one North American team won in the first round, so yeah, I think Brazil and the other areas like Argentina have come up a lot which is really great. The overall level is getting higher and higher and I think after this event people are going to look at the region with new eyes. You really only have North American events and people kind of forget the South Americans and now the tournament organizers are going to look at South America a little more carefully. Which is really good.

What does it feel like to play for an organization that's been really successful in Brazil?

I mean, it feels great. When I came in they were the best team in Brazil and I had seen that. I think most of the Brazilian players wanted to play for FURIA and we are keeping the title as best Brazilian team. With EPL I think we made a really good run and hopefully in the Major and firstly here at the RMR we can keep it up, and get the legend spot. We just have to focus first on getting our spot in the Major and then we can have a look at the legends stage. Step by step.

It's interesting you mention your EPL run, do you think that experience will affect your play here? Are you feeling tired?

Oh no, not really. We are even more motivated because we know we could have done better, especially in those two maps against FaZe. It hurt it a little bit for us, because we know we could have won but FaZe is a really good team and they've been doing really great lately. karrigan is a legend of the game and I really respect that and the way they won Katowice with a stand-in and they have won EPL. So you can see that the team is doing great things and being able to be that close to beating them is a good sign for us.

Who do you see as your rival team?

I mean there are a lot of good teams here, you have Liquid, Complexity, 00 Nation, so we don't have to focus only on one team only, I think every team here is here for a reason. So you do have to worry about all of them but most of all, we are just going to play our game and focus. To be able to get that legends spot we have to be able to beat any team.

We were just talking about the strength of the South American region but you did go to school in North America, is there a sneaky part of you that is an NA fan?

Well, yeah, for sure I had great times there. I went to school there, played a little bit of soccer there, and my interest in Counter-Strike is from NA. So yeah I have feelings for NA of course. I liked my time there.

So if FURIA wins, North America has won the RMR?

Ah. Brazil has won the RMR.

So far, FURIA are on a solid pace to finish first in the RMR. With main opponent Liquid facing a loss in their opening match, it seems like FURIA will have little opposition heading into their 2-0 match, slated for tomorrow.