FURIA beat FaZe for first time in two years
There has been a lot of talk about FURIA's form in 2023 as the team appeared to stagnate. Fans of the squad were critical of the players for their underperformance, especially after being accustomed to the success the team has had at the top level for the last few years. With Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato playing at a career high, critics suggested that unless FURIA fixes their problems now, radical changes might be needed.
For FURIA, they acknowledged the lack of success as well. In a series of tweets before the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR, Head coach Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira commented on the how the team has not been able to improve and even retain their high level, but indicated that "radical changes" were impossible right before the Major.
Since those tweets, however, FURIA have not lost a single match. Sporting wins over Liquid, paiN, fnatic, and now FaZe as they look to claim some domestic glory after a lackluster finish at the IEM Rio Major where they fell as a semi-finalist to Heroic.
In the matchup today against FaZe, FURIA were facing arguably their toughest opponent in this recent stretch. The Europeans are still considered one of the best teams in the world, despite their worrying qualification path to the BLAST.tv Paris Major that included a last-chance qualifier.
The match started off on FURIA's pick of Mirage, who came out with a dominant first-half T-side that saw them claim 10 rounds. As the commentators Alex "Machine" Richardson and Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill noted during the game, the style of play from FURIA was much more reserved, but still aggressive. It might have been a new approach for the Brazilians as they looked to bounce back. FURIA would also not have a problem closing out their map pick as they would head into FaZe's pick of Nuke after winning Mirage 16-8.
Nuke would go the same way as Mirage, as FURIA would once again show off a dominant first-half, this time on the CT side. The Brazilians took 10 rounds in the first half, which was hectic at the start with both teams battling for an advantage. However, FURIA were able to pull away and then convert their T-side to secure a 16-13, 2-0 victory over FaZe, beating the Europeans for the first time since June 2021, when FURIA took a 2-1 victory at Gamers Beyond Borders 2021.
FaZeFURIA| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
36 - 41 | -5 | 82.3 | 58.5% | 1.00 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
33 - 38 | -5 | 73.7 | 66.0% | 0.93 |
 Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken |
32 - 38 | -6 | 73.0 | 62.3% | 0.88 |
 Helvijs 'broky' Saukants |
32 - 37 | -5 | 61.2 | 64.2% | 0.81 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
28 - 40 | -12 | 53.2 | 52.8% | 0.74 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
44 - 24 | +20 | 92.9 | 77.4% | 1.44 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
40 - 37 | +3 | 84.0 | 73.6% | 1.21 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
38 - 32 | +6 | 74.2 | 79.2% | 1.20 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
38 - 33 | +5 | 69.7 | 62.3% | 1.06 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
34 - 35 | -1 | 72.1 | 67.9% | 1.05 |
