FURIA Relocating to North America - Exclusive with MateusSTL
After one of the most successful seasons ever by a minor region team, and certainly the best ever by a South American team, FURIA has made the decision to relocate their superstar trio of Yan “yanxnz” Xisto Nolasco, Gabriel “caard” Vieira Cardoso, and Caio “CaioTG1” Vinicius to North America. Shift sat down with FURIA manager Mateus “STL” Santos to discuss the move.
STL said that the organization’s motive for the move was fueled by “more viewership, a promising land for sponsors, and expanding your brand,” which are key considerations for any organization when making such a move. The players were motivated by “the ability to play in a more populated server, with more queues, more professionalism, and more skill. It increases your desire to play the game and keep improving on the road to being a champion.” FURIA proved they had what it takes to be champions last season, and are hungry to prove it again in a tougher region.
FURIA is following in the footsteps of True Neutral (now Complexity Gaming), who made a similar move last offseason. Complexity Gaming’s trio of Facundo “Shad” Vallerino, Victor “Reysbull” Duran Parra, and Lautaro “ajg” Gusinsky went on to qualify for the Fall Major, shocking the world and proving that South America can produce top-tier teams. The team has now made a roster change, bringing Cristian “crr” Fernandez over from Europe to replace Shad. The new trio finished 3rd-4th in rle.gg’s Roster Royale. When asked if True Neutral inspired the move at all, STL stated that FURIA owes their move to True Neutral. “Seeing them perform like they did, right away getting top four [in regionals] and top eight at the Major, lit a spark… You think you have the potential, but to prove it? That’s hard, and they did it right away. When we started proving it in Majors, we knew we could do it too.”
True Neutral never won an international event during their time in South America, but they never had the opportunity because they failed to qualify for the World Championship in RLCS Season 9 and competed primarily in RLCS X, which was held entirely online. Now South America has lost their top team two years consecutively, however, and the region may struggle. STL, however, thinks differently. “South America proved it can be much more than one team, but it will be up to the organizations behind the rosters to provide the structure, specifically bootcamps, for [international] events,” said STL. “Otherwise, they’ll keep going as tourists instead of players… we know how to play [as a region], we just need to get used to the pace of the top tier teams.” If more South American teams put in the work, there could be another team just as successful as FURIA next season.
FURIA, as compared to other South American teams, has had incredible success on the international stage. They qualified for all three Majors and the World Championship during RLCS 2021-22, one of only two minor region teams to do so (alongside Team Falcons). They had a short run at the Fall Major, finishing 12th-14th, but the valuable experience propelled them forward in their next run. STL said that “after Sweden we got called scrim gods, and we were really good in scrims, but we all know what happened in the [Fall] Major.” FURIA knew they could compete, but they needed to prove it to themselves by doing it before they could become an international juggernaut.
FURIA entered the Winter Major having won two consecutive events in South America, and the momentum showed. They won their group in shocking fashion, upsetting heavily-favored The General NRG and Endpoint CeX (twice) to finish first. STL said after their group stage win that there was a mentality change. ”After you’ve done it for the first time, you stop thinking about ‘what if we did this?’ and start thinking ‘we can do it and we know how.’” They suffered a 2-4 loss to G2 Esports in their upper bracket match, and a 3-4 loss to Team Queso in the lower bracket, but still finished in the top six at the event. It was the highest ever finish by a South American team at an RLCS LAN event, and proved how good they could be.
FURIA went into the Spring Major after winning two consecutive events, the second consecutive Split they had done so. They lost their opening matchup to Karmine Corp, but went on a long lower bracket run fueled by the play of yanxnz. He set an RLCS record for goals per game at a LAN event, one which has yet to be broken. They lost to Karmine Corp again for their second consecutive 5th-6th finish at a Major, but looked strong. According to STL, “the [move] was consolidated after the second consecutive top six” at the Spring Major. FURIA had shown enough by consistently beating the world’s best teams in two Majors that a move to North America was doable for the team.
The next major international event was the Gamers8 LAN in Saudi Arabia, which featured a “crew battle” format including matches in 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 gamemodes. FURIA showed their team and individual prowess in winning the event, the biggest LAN in Rocket League history by prize pool. FURIA took home $500,000, and momentum for the World Championship. STL said “we already had the plans way before Gamers8. Obviously winning a LAN helped the cause, but RLCS [success] was the main goal and factor.”
FURIA directly qualified for the World Championship Main Event thanks to their strong Major finishes, and had an opening round matchup with their Spring Major foes in Karmine Corp. They got the better of the matchup this time, however, winning 4-1. They then lost to G2 Esports 4-2, and had a matchup with fellow South American team The Club. FURIA took the series by a 4-3 scoreline, and qualified for Championship Sunday. They then took down Moist Esports in a thrilling 4-3 series, one of the best in RLCS history. They won Game Seven of that series thanks to a goal from yanxnz with two seconds left on the clock, cementing a top-four finish, the best ever for a South American team. Despite how huge the win was, FURIA “would [move to North America] either way,” according to STL. They lost the next series to eventual World Champions Team BDS 4-2, but it was still an incredible final event for an incredible season.
FURIA is now set for another chapter after taking the RLCS 2021-22 season by storm, and ready to take on a new challenge in North America. Among their biggest challenges will be living away from their families for long periods of time. “We will need to overcome that and the North American jungle if we want to achieve our main goal, which is to win Regionals, Majors, and a World Championship,” said STL. “The players will live and play together. It’s a huge factor to be successful in esports, to have a team not just in game but outside of the game. That’s one of the factors that led us to where we are today.” The move will obviously be difficult, but FURIA will do it together, the same way they shocked the world and became a top contender.
