FURIA Jojo: "We really want to go back internationally because we embarrassed ourselves at MSI"

defeated 3-2 on Saturday, September 26, and advanced to the Lower Bracket Final of the CBLOL. The series went all the way to five games, with FURIA overcoming their rivals to keep their hopes of reaching the grand final alive.

Following the victory, Gabriel “” Dzelme spoke exclusively to Sheep Esports and assessed FURIA’s performance in the series, as well as the inconsistency the team has experienced throughout the split. The support also discussed the rivalry with RED, Pedro “” Seixas suspensions, the possibility of the roster going through a “Last Dance,” and the prospect of playing a potential final in Rio de Janeiro.

Gabriel “Jojo” Dzelme: “Overall, RED played much better than we expected, but I also feel like we’re losing a lot to ourselves. We’re playing too rushed. When we need to be aggressive, we aren’t. Our decision-making has been kind of weird, and that had never been a problem for us. Today was really strange. We gave the guys a lot of advantages back in most of the games. But now I’m more tired and relieved that we managed to have the mental strength to work through that and come out with the win.

Jojo: It’s really difficult to know exactly what it is, because it could be something emotional from today, especially because of everything that has happened with RED this split. But I think we need to be more focused and more centered. We can’t let something that happened before or something external affect us inside the game. I think everyone can do a little more and try to pull each other up. If someone is getting a little rushed, you have to pull them back in the game and stuff like that. Since we’ve been together for such a long time, I think we’ll be able to deal with this well. I think we understand it a little less today.

Jojo: Honestly, I didn’t really care that much. I mostly wanted to win today because I’d been joking with RED’s owners for weeks about them going to China to play in the Demacia Cup. So, for me, I just wanted to win so I could talk back to them about going to China. As for the Tatu and (Eloy Rodríguez) situation, and Tatu having to miss a week, I didn’t really care that much. I knew that the week without him would be more difficult, and when he came back, we would get back to our rhythm and keep going. So, for me, it was pretty much whatever. It was like: “A week without Tatu is going to be difficult, we’ll have to work harder. Then he’ll come back and we’ll continue the tournament.” That’s more or less how I dealt with it.

Jojo: Maybe we would have made it through the upper bracket, but these are things that can happen. It happened, and we have to know how to deal with it. I would never turn to Tatu and say, “We’re here in the lower bracket today because you screw up.” No. It was something that happened. He didn’t think either of those things would happen, and neither did we. We have to know how to deal with it. I think we’re a group that has been together for a long time, and we’re mature enough to face it together. Now we’re in the lower bracket, so alright, let’s give it our best because there’s no second chance anymore. As a group, it didn’t affect us that much, and we’ve already moved on.

Jojo: It definitely does because we’ve been together for a long time. Everyone knows that two years is a long time for a team, and most of the players’ contracts are coming to an end. But we mostly use it as a joke. We started joking about it among ourselves, and it also serves as a way to motivate us. Honestly, it’s not that we’re going to break up the team for good, but if this is our last time together, then let’s give it our best and win.

Jojo: It’s true that we argue a lot, but we know that we’re not arguing over stupid things. We’re arguing because we want X person to improve, Y person to improve, or for a situation to be better for us. Everyone there is mature enough to deal with that. We argue, then a scrim ends, and we’re going out for dinner, we’re all together talking, watching something. So it’s very easy to deal with, and I also think the FURIA environment makes everything very comfortable, from the staff to everyone at FURIA itself. It’s an organization that’s very easy to work with. Since I joined, everything has been very easy to deal with. It’s something I didn’t have at other organizations. It could be because of the group we have, it could be because of the organization, but I believe it’s more because of the group we’ve found and the fact that everyone gets along. There’s no need to talk behind someone’s back. We just go up to them and say it to their face.

Jojo: Regardless of who comes, we have to win to become champions. So we’re going to keep working on our own game without thinking too much about that.

Jojo: I think it carries a lot of weight, and the main difference is that there will be a crowd this time. I’ve already won many titles, but this will be the first final I play outside São Paulo, in an arena with a lot of people. So I’m really excited about it because it’s one of the experiences I haven’t had in Brazil. I’m really excited to get there and have that experience, and also leave with the win because I want to go there to win.

Jojo: I think the focus right now is more on winning the title here, but we really want to go back internationally because we embarrassed ourselves at MSI. We didn’t win a single game. We want to go back and show that we can compete. It was a really bad tournament from our side, but we know we have the potential to go toe-to-toe with those guys internationally, and we really want to show that.”