FURIA basic: "I learned to have confidence in myself"

FURIA’s VCT Americas Stage 2 run came to an end on Saturday, August 29, after the Brazilian team was defeated 2-1 by G2 Esports, ending its hopes of reaching the playoffs in Brazil and potentially qualifying for Champions. After a difficult group stage, FURIA had managed to turn its campaign around in the Play-In and managed to reach the playoffs but ended up being eliminated in the second match.

In an exclusive interview with Sheep Esports, Luiz “basic” Tessaro reflected on FURIA’s elimination and the team’s struggles throughout the stage. The player discussed the difficulties of adapting to the meta, his transition into the Duelist role, the internal issues the team faced, and his own development during his first full stage at the Tier 1 level.

Luiz “basic” Tessaro: “To be honest, we were too good at the beginning of the second map, and they ended up playing kind of freely. They thought, “Let’s play our game confidently; let’s take these fights,” and we started losing. Then we got nervous and ended up losing. It was complicated. I was missing a lot today as well. I feel like my performance was terrible and could have been better, but it happens.

basic: From the beginning, we ended up not playing the meta comp because shaW (Ian Jardim) felt that I wasn’t confident and wasn’t prepared yet to play Phoenix, because it requires more precise communication. As the stage went on, I picked up the communication, and then we decided to put the meta comp in during the Play-In, if I remember correctly, and we started winning. Then we got here. We played our game, but I felt that we didn’t play what we played in the Play-In. That happens. Playoffs are like that; there’s a lot of pressure. We could have gone to Champions, so it was really difficult. I felt really bad after the loss and felt like I was missing a lot today.

basic: Yes, I feel like I did. By scrimming and playing on stage, I felt that I gained confidence. I did a good job on Phoenix. Unfortunately, today wasn’t my best performance, but I feel like I did what I learned. I don’t have much more to say.

basic: Our coach shaW came to me and said that teams in Europe and China were playing a lot of Yoru and Neon, especially on Sunset, because Yoru has a lot of Operator pressure on the map. And he’s a good agent for koalanoob (Gianfranco Potestio). The Operator is one of his strongest weapons, and there was no one else to play Neon if it wasn’t me. I ended up having to play Neon. If I didn’t accept it, we would have continued with Phoenix and Neon, but Neon isn’t one of koala’s best agents. He is much better on Yoru and Operator, so I had to play Neon. I don’t know what happened to me today. I had been performing really well on Neon. I feel like it was more because my mental state wasn’t very good today, but I tried until the end.

basic: I feel like it was more on my side. We were playing really well on the first map. I was making some normal plays, but I was nervous. I feel like I get really nervous against G2, just like I did in the last game against them, but we ended up winning. On the first map, I was really nervous and played really badly. On the second one, I managed to come back a little, but then they started playing really well, and I couldn’t perform very well on the map. As for the mental side, today we tried until the end. We weren’t angry; we weren’t tilted. I feel like it was more about hesitating too much on our plans. Sometimes the communication wasn’t very good. Those are normal things that happen in playoffs and in decisive matches.

basic: We did have internal problems. It’s normal; every team has discussions. They’re not fights; they’re normal discussions about the game. One person doesn’t agree with a point, another person agrees, and so on. We said, “Let’s play the meta comp and let’s play our game.” We started winning, we started gaining confidence again, and we started gaining confidence in each other. We tried until the end without giving up. Our relationship did improve. I feel like everyone is good; nobody is angry with each other.

basic: To be completely honest, I’m very happy with my performance in Tier 1. I expected not to be this good, and I ended up being really happy with my performance on stage. Especially at the beginning, I wasn’t very nervous about playing on-site. I still didn’t feel that nervous against LEVIATÁN. I thought I would, but I played pretty calmly. I feel like I can improve a lot of things, of course. I’m still very young, but I’m very happy with myself. I’m just upset about my performance today, but that’s something that happens. Nobody can maintain a good performance in every single match.

basic: First of all, never give up on your dreams. It was a very difficult year for me, being on the bench for so long, because I’m very young and, whether we like it or not, I want to play the game. It’s my dream. Believe in your dreams, never give up, and always show your work. What I learned the most was that, regardless of the situation, you have to trust yourself. I thought that we were one of the teams that deserved to go to Champions the most because, whether we like it or not, we fought until the end. We really fought a lot. Nobody knows what happened behind the scenes. It was really complicated, but we suffered a lot. I feel like we deserved it, but the most important thing was that I learned to have confidence in myself. At the beginning, I was thinking, “Damn, what if I play badly?”, but I ended up changing my mentality while playing and seeing that I do have the level to trade shots with these guys here. I’m very happy with myself.”