arT: "To be honest, there is a crowd problem in every esport, in every tournament"

Following their overtime win against OG, Ryan Friend had a chance to catch up with FURIA's IGL, Andrei "art" Piovezan. The two discussed the match against OG, the Brazilian crowd, where FURIA's style has been figured out, and how FURIA are trying to reinvent and refresh their playstyle, among other topics.

Congratulations on the win against OG, a very tough opponent. How were you guys able to come back once you saw the lead slipping away on your CT-side?

I felt that we had a feeling from the team that we had it under control, because we had a large round difference, and we were playing CT-side. We played too much passive, did not take risks, not playing duels, and not playing the best CS we could. After it was 15-13, it was do-or-die. I would say having the crowd, I do really think it helps us get motivation and not fear our mistakes, and we managed to play better CS and finish the game with OG.

A few players I've been talking to have said that they can hear the crowd giving signals when say, a player is behind a smoke. Have you felt that at all? Have you felt the crowd being helpful or giving hints?

To be honest, there is a crowd problem in every esport, in every tournament. By my point of view, I'm really too focused on the game that I cannot even hear because of the in-ears with noise control. I cannot even hear singular people chanting or calling spots, it's impossible to hear. But of course, we can hear situations where people are going "Ohhh", that means something is happening, but that's just part of CS. It's hard to get a knife kill, you can see that in past Majors as well, people trying to knife and people are just screaming. It's just part of CS, and I don't think it hurts the game a lot. Of course, some people try to get information, but to be honest we cannot ever hear that.

Do you feel there is a big emotional difference between PGL Antwerp and here?

Definitely. I have to say that the Brazilian crowd is the best one. It's hard to doubt that. From every Major I've played, even in playoffs, and this isn't even playoffs, this is the Challengers Stage, and it's raining outside and it's Rio de Janeiro, not even Sao Paulo, so it's just amazing at how the Brazilian people are passionate about the game.

I want to talk a bit about Akkari, who you guys have been utilizing as a coach. How have you felt that he's helped so far in this stage?

Akkari, he's not just a random person helping us, he's been with us from the beginning and he has helped us mentally a lot, a lot more than people can imagine. He's also a player, not from CS but from poker, and his mentality is the same as CS. A lot of things cross from poker, the way they think, the way they cannot let down and face the game. His help is of course outside of the game, because he's not a player from CS, but most of the time when you are playing on stage and have young players like saffee and drop, and even us, it's nice to have that motivation and calming words and the hyping; putting the heart in the right place. Akkari does that really well, so we are very comfortable with him.

Do you feel like you're missing anything from not having a conventional coach?

There is always a balance. You can say that because he's not technical in any way, if you have tacitus you'll be way more technical and you could have some inputs from him that could help us, but at the same time the balance with having Akkari can maybe counterbalance that, so it's hard to say. Every tournament is different with each other, so it's hard to say. Both are helpful in their own ways.

How have guerri and tacitus been helpful on the sidelines? Now that your match is over what does the rest of the day look like for you?

We talk about the match that we won, our opponents. They do all the work, see the things they like to do, things that they used to do, maps they like to play, the possible matches we are gonna face. They do all this stuff and we just talk beforehand. Of course it sucks not having guerri with us; he's a part of the team from the beginning, but that's a problem that we are addressing and it's just a Valve problem.

They are just bad with how they deal with that. I cannot really say more than I've already said, it's terrible, the management of this situation, but they do the best they can. The hardest part for me and guerri is that he's too emotional with the game, he's too passionate. For us, this is a life experience, it's more than just playing CS, and he's missing out because of the decisions, so that's the hardest part.

You guys have been around for a while now, and people sort of understand the FURIA playstyle. How have you felt like you needed to change up your tactics heading into this event?

I have to say not being rude or anything, that's a stigma. Of course, we have a tendency to play more aggressive but that doesn't mean we play aggressive all the time. If you really watch out matches and watch round by round, we play a lot of passive angles, allow for rotations, and play passive with gamble stacks. It's just normal CS with some tendencies to play more aggressive when we see fit.

It's not the mentality we have to play aggressive now guys, that's the FURIA style, it's not like that, it's not a switch you trigger. In some situations where we feel we have a disadvantage, we try to counter that with some aggressiveness or taking space fast or doing FURIA shit, you know? It's more like a stigma I would say.

Has that ability to know when to play FURIA style is an advantage?

Definitely, and also the counterpart as well that we struggle a little more on passive rounds. KSCERATO mastered the FURIA style and the CIS style where he can play very aggressive and trade kills and sometimes play very passive because of the way he is. Other guys struggle a little on the passive side so that's something we are trying to work on because it's a part of CS just like being aggressive.

Do you feel that in your upcoming Bo3 the crowd is going to be even louder?

Bo3 is something we are used to playing, that's the part we have played the most. We are very happy to be playing Bo3's from now on. Playing Bo1's is a nightmare for us, it's always unpredictable, so we don't like those. We just played through three Bo1's and it's always down to one round. Nobody likes to play Bo1's expect maybe the underdogs sometimes. Bo3's are better for the fans also because the quality of CS when we pick our best map and the opponent picks their best map goes up.

Is there anything you are looking to change and adapt as you get ready to try and advance?

When we played Vertigo against BIG there were a lot of mistakes that I saw in the game during the first match. Our CT-side on Overpass was very very bad, so there's a lot of things to talk about and go through and try to fix for the next matches. But, it depends on the opponent. We're going to see what we can talk about moving forward.

FURIA's next match will be against Outsiders as they look to claim a spot in the Legends Stage here at IEM Rio.