FURIA.arT: “Valve needs to change the mappool or the map system”

During ESL One Cologne we caught up with FURIA’s Andrei “arT” Piovezan after their rough loss to Chaos E.C. in the first match. Here is what he had to say about the tough start, FURIA’s trademark aggression, the Brazilian scene and what he wants from Valve.

FURIA began their ESL One Cologne 2020 run with a 0-2 loss to Chaos. A day later we sat down with FURIA’s in-game leader arT for a couple of questions:

esports.com: Thank you arT for taking the time to talk to us. Let’s begin with a question that is on the mind of many fans. What were the main problems that led to the surprising loss against Chaos?

arT: I would say, that Chaos played really well, but we also suffered from too many problems on our side. We made too many mistakes and afterwards I found a lot of things to talk to my teammates to because they cannot happen anymore. Our CT sides on Inferno and Nuke were pretty bad and we made too many wrong decisions.

Against Chaos it was not that we did not know what we had to do, it was just that what we did was not enough to beat them, so we lost. Overall I think the team was just off on everything that day.

Your next opponent will be Gen.G. Have you started any special preparation already?

Actually the game against Gen.G is on Saturday, so we have not thought about it yet. Because as I already said, there were too many problems on our side that we need to fix before we start talking about our opponents.

FURIA’s trademark aggression

FURIA is quite well known for having a uniquely aggressive playstyle. As in-game leader you obviously influence that a lot. is there a special reason for your playstyle?

I dont think there was a day where this kind of philosophy started. It’s just how I used to play, when starting years ago. When I kept improving and improving, suddenly people started to ask me: “How do you play?”. That was when I thought: “Alright, I think I play aggressive cause there are just too many possibilities to play aggressive.” and that is how that became a thing. But overall it is just the way I see and play the game and how I act in the game.

Is it difficult to play aggressive and call as in-game leader at the same time?

I think it is natural at this point for me. It actually helps me to play aggressive and be the IGL. Because when I do something aggressive my teammates already know what I am doing and I already told them, what they have to do when I push. So I am actually just setting up for my teammates by playing forward.

The Depth of Brazil in CS:GO

FURIA and mibr have been on top of Brazil’s scene for quite a while now. A look at the world rankings shows your team comfortably ahead of your rivals right now. Do you also consider yourself the best Brazilian team?

I would say at the moment we are. We have evolved so much in the last couple of months and the last year. We have a consistent roster, we are improving everyday We are playing more matches than them, so i think we have proven ourselves.

But things can change fast. Cause it feels like if we do bad two tournaments in a row and they do well, everything is changing and they become the better team again. So it is a struggle for both teams. Currently we are ahead but as Counter-Strike is always changing so can the current status.

Does it feel special to surpass legends like FalleN? 

I dont feel like that. Counter strike is a cycle. Every team that was legendary is struggling now and there are a lot of new teams coming by and passing them, like BIG or G2. These guys are not yet legendary, well some of the players are but most of them not. So Counter-Strike is just everchanging.

It’s nice and proves we are on the right path but its not the end of the road. For us it is just important to play better and beat teams,  so we are just happy that we are evolving.

Over the recent years the Brazilian scene has progressed quite a lot. But compared to countries like Denmark it is still lacking behind. If you had ideal conditions how much potential do you see in the Brazilian scene?

It’s very hard to make a direct comparison between EU, NA and Brazil, because there is not much infrastructure in Brazil to help the players. But I am pretty sure, that there is an abundance of talent in Brazil that is simply not seen.

They cannot afford to play Counter-Strike professionally because it is not really something you can rely on careerwise for the rest of your life. So most of these guys will just go unnoticed because they won’t be seen by bigger teams. I think Brazil has too much talent and just not enough space for everybody to get showcased.

Speaking of the Brazilian scene, we obviously also have to talk about the upcoming ESL One Rio. How important is the major for Brazil?

It is pretty important not only because Brazilian fans are the most passionate and it would be awesome for them to see Brazilian teams playing there, but also because it is showing that Brazil has a space for esports and they can host an event like this. It will certainly make a lot more companies look at our scene and be more interested in investment and sponsorships. It is a Win-Win really.

The future of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Recently Valve has done a lot more patching and updated the game on a more regular pace. But what changes do you want to see in CS:GO?

I think Valve needs to change the mappool or the map system. I think the maps we are currently playing are just oversaturated. We are playing those maps too much and there is not enough things to do on the maps anymore. No new tactics, no new ways of thinking. Some maps need to change as fast as possible. Just put in new maps or make the mappool bigger or introduce a mappool cycle.

We need a change in the scenery of maps. I am not just saying that for myself or my team I think every player in CS wants that. Every professional player wants to play new maps, beacuse CS is just more fun to play like that.

So do you want to have a completely new map or the return of Cobble?

I would say both. You can remove train, I don’t care about it. Making Cobblestone great again would be awesome too.

Before we wrap up the interview. Have you played VALORANT?

Yes, a little bit.

Did you see anything in VALORANT you would like to see brought over to CS:GO?

New maps, hahahaha. But joking aside I like the simplicity of CS. I think that it is the soul of CS. There are so many games that have too much stuff like Rainbow Six: Siege, Overwatch,  VALORANT and other FPS-games. They all try to put in so much other stuff like spells, powers, things you should do, objectives. Just too many things that make the game more complex. It just feels different.

So I think CS should believe in its own strength as “just a shooter”. I think CS is just fine the way it is. VALORANT is just a different game. it’s just not like cs. I just dont feel the same as I do in CS:GO when playing VALORANT.

Thank you very much for the interview. Any last shoutouts?

Thanks to everyone for the support. I know how stressful it is for our fans to see us lose. I will try to make sure that for the next time we are not going to lose. I promise to do my best and hope you can always try to be as confident as I am in our team. Make sure you are cheering for us and thank you all for the support. I will play harder because it means everything to me.

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