How to fix the failing panther

The all Brazilian team FURIA have been having a hard time lately, with disappointing finishes at IEM Cologne and DreamHack Masters Spring along with failing to qualify for IEM Summer. While it’s hard to see them failing to make the PGL Major in Stockholm, if they can’t recover their form come November it’s easy to see them having another disappointing showing. This is all rather startling, given their dominance in North America in 2020 after winning the North American divisions of ESL Pro League 12, DreamHack Masters Spring 2020, and IEM New York 2020. Since then they have fallen from the top, with only a spoiler performance at ESL Pro League 13 and less prestigious wins at Spring Sweet Spring and Gamers Without Borders. Given all this, what can be done to resharpen the panthers claws and bring Brazilian CSGO back to the top?

It’s all about the big green The core to many great CSGO teams is a solid player to carry the AWP, someone who can be dedicated to utilizing the weapon to it’s fullest potential. A great AWPer can revolutionize a team, securing crucial picks and putting a wrench in the opposing team’s plans. Without one, your team is at a severe disadvantage for the opposite reasons with the added disadvantage of having to sacrifice one of your riflers to do the job. In short, the role is incredibly important to a team.

Since HEN1, their AWPer during their height in 2020, departed from FURIA the team has struggled to find a player to can fill the void. For a while the team tried out young rookie junior and saw some success in the start of 2021, but he too would eventually be benched due to mental health reasons and poor performances in June. Since then arT has been handling the AWPing duties, with honda playing as the 5th man on the roster. arT is a very capable AWPer, however his incredibly aggressive play style means he dies often, leaving the AWP irretrievable to his teammates. Given how fragile the economy can be in the current meta, losing an AWP is an expense few teams can take, especially aggressive teams like FURIA. Recently the team promoted academy player drop to the main roster, but he’s not an AWPer and hardly the academy team’s best rifler. With his debut performance being at IEM Fall in October it’s still up in the air as to how the team will solve this problem. Maybe a smart pick up would be Maluk3, who has showed be a great AWPer on Team oNe, especially on their map picks. FURIA will still be plagued with the problems of having no dedicated AWPer and if a buyout of another player isn’t on the books, FURIA will be back at the drawing board and looking to find someone who can save their ailing team. In other issues, reviving the talents. Second to FURIA’s AWPing issues is current players performances. Despite KSCERATO playing at his peak, the teams second star rifler yuurih has been plagued with inconsistency. Despite being placed as one of the best players of 2020 he’s clearly struggled to keep up that good form, which has been dragging the rest of the team down.

While certainly less important then the rosters AWPing problem, getting yuurih back into top 20 form must be a priority for the team heading into the PGL Major if they wish to stand any chance against the current top teams. The current format of having KSCERATO carrying the team through most matches with only sporadic help from his teammates is only going to get them so far before he gets tired out and stops playing as good as he does now. In short, the team is missing several of the pieces it had when it was at the top, namely a dedicated AWPer and a consistent yuurih. Until the team can work out these issues they will be stuck constantly disappointing their fans with a mediocre finish at the upcoming PGL Major in November.