After a close match against huge underdog 9z, YEKINDAR admitted that there was a mental block to get over.
Heading into this Major quarter-final, FURIA had not yet reached a Major semi-final with this roster, despite being the number one team at one point.
Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Galinskis admitted on the desk that there was a “mental block” to get over.
It was a mental block for the team. We were in this situation in Austin. When you’re playing against a team from the same region, and we lost.
The series started off in the same fashion, with 9z winning the first map convincingly over FURIA, who couldn’t put a foot right.
FURIA took on 9z in the quarter-final of the IEM Cologne Major. After defeating them in 2-1 fashion in a war of attrition, they move onto play Aurora tomorrow in the semi-final.
9z owned FURIA on Dust2
YEKINDAR did not expect 9z to pick Dust2, and that may have showed during the map.
9z started on T-side playing an incredibly slow style that kept catching FURIA with their pants down. They walked repeatedly into understaffed bombsites, with FURIA having the wrong reads.
The only round FURIA won in the first nine rounds came in a retake in which Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos bailed his team out – a theme that would repeat.
Ignacio ‘meyern’ Meyer, an inconsistent player with the AWP on 9z, was solid throughout Dust2. He helped log a dominant 9-3 half to kick off the series with FURIA sweating.
FURIA managed to put together a coherent T-side, with Danil ‘molodoy’ Golubenko getting into the game. He managed to pick off two players in Round 17 to steal a 3vs5 round.
In Round 18, yuuurih won a 1vs2 clutch that kept FURIA in it.
At 12-8, FURIA had a chance to keep the streak going, but Maximiliano ‘max’ Gonzalez won a calm 1vs2 clutch to take the opening map.
Clutches and locked in YEKINDAR denied 9z on Mirage
9z kicked off Mirage in the same style as Dust2, getting into a 4vs1 right away with a mid push. However, they had to go against yuuurih, who won every 1v1 duel to win the round for FURIA.
Despite this, 9z responded with the force buy win. They started gaining a large economic and scoreboard lead that made it seem like a 2-0 was coming.
They made mistakes here and there that gave FURIA chances. In Round 7, they had a 3vs2 that they gave up due to overthinking the round, and vacating the bombsite FURIA would attack.
After being up 6-3, they gave up two clutches, one to Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato in a 1vs2, and in the round of the series against molodoy. The AWPer won a 1vs3 clutch that gave FURIA a sixth round.
Afterwards, it was the YEKINDAR show. He was a constant thorn of the side of 9z, finding opening kills through smoke. Despite 9z showing some fight, FURIA closed out.
Luciano ‘luchov’ Herrera, 9z’s highest-performing player, would go onto say after the match that “losing some rounds” at the start of Mirage made the series get away from them.
Luchov: “On overpass, we couldn’t do anything”
By the start of Overpass, FURIA had fully powered up, and were ready to face 9z.
9z won the pistol round and the conversion, but would only get one more round after that. The rock of FURIA, yuuurih, demonstrated more stellar form to completely halt 9z.
FURIA’s B defense was impenetrable, forcing 9z to go A, where they had no better luck. They got three rounds at the half.
The second half saw 9z win the pistol, but once weapons came out, FURIA was the superior team. 9z’s AWPer, meyern, only got five kills in the map, despite being given the AWP.
FURIA closed out the map 13-6, and go on to play Aurora in the semi-final on Saturday.
Player of the match: yuuurih
Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos was the most consistent player throughout this series. He’s the only one who came alive on Dust2, and won critical clutch rounds that closed the series for FURIA.
He had the highest rating on the server (1.20) as well has the highest damage per round (85). He won two clutches in the series, one on Dust2 and one on Mirage.
