BIG relief for FURIA
After their three-map affair against Movistar Riders, FURIA came into their match against BIG with little to suggest that they would be in for a comfortable win. The German team would be a step up from their previous Spanish opponents and the Brazilian squad would have to show a new level of form in order to progress to playoffs.
The first map would be Nuke and FURIA started on the favored CT side, however, things got off to a terrible start for the team as they seven of the first eight rounds to find themselves 1-7 down. FURIA managed to pull themselves together and put up a run of six in a row to give themselves a chance in the second half, but still losing eight rounds on your CT side can be devastating on the traditionally defense-favored map.
The second half would be a different story, with Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato and Rafael "saffee" Costa leading the way for the Brazilian squad as they put up an impressive T-half of their own. FURIA took control of the game with the first five rounds of the half, and despite hitting a stumbling block found themselves with five map points eventually closing it out 16-13.
Key to their victory on Nuke was the 18 first kills FURIA found, with six of these coming from the AWP of saffee it showed that when the 28-year-old shows up he can take control of matches something FURIA has been missing dearly.
Moving into Vertigo, the Brazilian's map pick, FURIA once again demonstrated some menace on their attacking side. They might have lost the pistol round but FURIA managed to upset the German's defense with a force-buy win in the second round and built off this with five more as they took a 6-2 lead. Including an impressive clutch from the FURIA IGL arT, who closed out a ace clutch to give them the sixth.
However, the Brazilians hit a wall and won only one more round leaving them at a 7-8 deficit moving onto the CT side. A pistol-round win and the following conversion gave FURIA a buffer but BIG spearheaded by young AWPer Marcel 'hyped' Köhn came back into the game tying the score 11-11. The Germans then took control closing out the match 16-11.
The deciding map would be Inferno and the German team took the early lead going 5-0 up, however, FURIA wrestled back control to even up the scores, and from there the half was neck and neck. Finishing 8-7 to BIG, giving them the slimmest of leads heading into their T side. FURIA's defense stood tall though, and with saffee once again dominating the server (21 kills after nineteen rounds) they raced away to a 13-8 lead.
The German side was able to reach double digits but that was as far as they got as a flawless round from FURIA closed out the map, 16-10, and the match for the Brazilian side.
FURIABIG| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
66 - 46 | +20 | 79.0 | 72.0% | 1.30 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
66 - 48 | +18 | 85.1 | 72.0% | 1.24 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
54 - 50 | +4 | 76.0 | 69.5% | 1.07 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
38 - 56 | -18 | 58.3 | 67.1% | 0.87 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
43 - 58 | -15 | 58.1 | 67.1% | 0.87 |
| BIG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nils 'k1to' Gruhne |
58 - 58 | +0 | 81.2 | 72.0% | 1.09 |
| Marcel 'hyped' Köhn |
57 - 50 | +7 | 66.1 | 68.3% | 1.03 |
| Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa |
47 - 45 | +2 | 66.7 | 70.7% | 1.01 |
| Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz |
50 - 57 | -7 | 70.6 | 67.1% | 0.96 |
| Josef 'faveN' Baumann |
45 - 57 | -12 | 62.3 | 63.4% | 0.82 |
