FURIA JoJo: "I don’t think this lineup will stay together"

’s Worlds 2026 campaign has come to an end. On Saturday, October 17, defeated the Brazilian team 3-1 in the Play-In Lower Bracket final, following a 3-0 sweep in their first meeting on the opening day. FURIA had beaten 3-1 the previous day to reach the series but could not stop the Vietnamese team.

With the victory, MVK will face on Sunday, October 18, with a place in the Swiss Stage on the line. FURIA, which lost the CBLOL final just five days before its opening match against MVK, leaves Worlds 2026 without advancing. Following the series, Sheep Esports spoke exclusively with FURIA support Gabriel “” Dzelme about the elimination, the team’s performance and what comes next.

Gabriel “JoJo” Dzelme: “The feeling right now is just horrible, to be completely honest. It’s absolutely horrible because I feel we were capable of doing much better than we did. We fell short in a lot of areas today, just like in our previous series against them. We were playing very poorly and felt off in almost every aspect of the game. It’s hard to describe the feeling. Maybe it’s exhaustion because we didn’t have much time for anything, or maybe we’re just tired of everything at this point. It’s difficult to know exactly why things went so wrong for us. But there isn’t much we can do now. We just have to accept reality and look toward the future.

JoJo: I think it’s a bit of a bad look to use that as an excuse, but the schedule definitely didn’t help us. If it had been , it would have been even worse because they still had to play in the promotion tournament. Everything was very rushed. One day, we were playing the final; the next, we were traveling back to São Paulo. The day after that, we were already traveling internationally, which takes up an entire day. Then we arrived and had a full day of media activities, followed by rehearsals, tech checks and all those routine things.

We didn’t have much time to scrim. We managed to get three games in through a mix that was put together at the last minute. We were also three patches behind, so we didn’t really know what to prioritize or what we were going to do. We had to figure things out very quickly with what we had. We can’t keep complaining because we knew the schedule would be tight for us. We tried to do the best we could with the little time we had and all the rushing around.

JoJo: I definitely agree, but I don’t really know why it happened. It’s very difficult to figure out the reason. I don’t think we’re a team that chokes, you know? We’re not going to come here, choke and be afraid to play against these guys. It could be exhaustion, individual problems with each player or a collective issue that we weren’t able to solve. It’s very difficult to pinpoint exactly what the problem or mistake was right now. We were definitely far below our level, and that left everyone disappointed.

JoJo: I see them as very different situations. At MSI, we had time to prepare and were playing well, so leaving without a single win was horrible for us. Here, we knew we wouldn’t have much time, but we also knew we were capable of performing well. We managed to beat Cloud9 yesterday and take one game off MVK today. It wasn’t good, definitely not good, but I don’t consider it worse than MSI.

JoJo: For me, the difference is that they take everything more seriously and don’t waste time. I feel that here in Brazil, we waste a lot of time on discussions that make absolutely no sense. To be completely honest, I also feel we’re much less knowledgeable about the game than they are, and most players don’t make the slightest effort to learn about it. That’s why 90% of the discussions revolve around mechanics. They never involve the map, what you should be doing or things like that. Honestly, those discussions are exhausting.

I’ve been here for a long time, I’ve experienced them a million times, and I know they’ll never lead anywhere. It’s tough, but that’s how things are. I think it’s very difficult to change the environment or find several players who want to change it, because new players will come in wanting to just click and play. It’s complicated. I see the new generation struggling a little to find the right path, and finding someone to teach them is also difficult.

JoJo: I’ll be completely honest: I’m absolutely exhausted. It was a difficult year in many ways. I improved a lot as a player and as a teammate. But during this last split, I had to put in 15 times more work outside the game to handle various things because I saw the team getting more tired and everyone becoming more discouraged. Having to be there every day saying, ‘It’s going to work out, it’s going to work out, it’s going to work out,’ being the person who has to motivate everyone, was very exhausting. We also had to maintain a good atmosphere within the team. I improved a lot in terms of working with the group, and individually, I was also playing well, considering the circumstances. I think I performed much better in the CBLOL than I did internationally. The word is exhausted. I’m completely exhausted.

JoJo: There are a lot of things, but it’s difficult to talk about them all. I think I learned a lot about how to manage a group. I wouldn’t necessarily call them new players, but a group that was more exhausted. You have to bring them together and show them that we can still get there if we do the right things. It’s complicated, but I think that’s the main lesson.

JoJo: Looking back at these two years, I feel happy. We managed to build a group that worked really well within the CBLOL. We could have achieved much more internationally, especially last year, when I think we were playing better and had more fight in us. So I’m happy with what we accomplished. It’s difficult to know what the future of this lineup will be. I don’t even know what my own future looks like yet. I just think we’ll need a week or two to get home and for everyone to think about what comes next. But, to be completely honest, I don’t think this lineup will stay together. That makes me a little sad when I think about everything as a whole, because I don’t think I’ll ever find teammates as good as these guys, both in-game and outside the game. What remains is that these two years are something we can be proud of as a group. We shouldn’t look at them as wasted time or think that we failed to accomplish anything together.

JoJo: If I stay, FURIA is definitely my priority. I’ve already made that clear to them. But I still don’t know what my future looks like. I need to go home, get back to Brazil and think about what I want and whether this is what I want to continue doing. It’s too early to think about that. I need to rest and consider everything properly. I don’t like making these decisions in the heat of the moment. It’s not good.

JoJo: I don’t know what message to give because it’s very clichéd to come here and apologize for the twentieth time, saying that we played badly and that we’ll improve or something like that. We just can’t lose hope. We have good players. LOS will perform well at Worlds. They’ve had time to rest and prepare before coming here. Even though we’re out, I hope people continue supporting Brazil at Worlds. LOS still have matches to play, and I think they’re very capable of performing well and surprising people internationally.”