FURIA signed legendary in-game leader FalleN for CS2 on July 3. This will be the first time that the most accomplished CS:GO player in Brazil and the best team in the country will join forces.
FalleN and FURIA had been negotiating since June after FURIA had its worst semester in professional CS:GO ever. The Brazilian team were eliminated in the early stages of several tournaments in 2023 and most notably failed to reach the playoffs of a Major for the first time since PGL Stockholm Major in November 2021. As a result, FURIA parted ways with AWPer Rafael “saffee” Costa and supporting rifler André “drop” Abreu in June.
FalleN, on the other hand, also had a weak semester with Imperial but salvaged it with a surprising semifinal run at BLAST Premier Spring Final in June. The back-to-back Major champion with Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming in 2016 has been repeatedly hinting he wants to retire soon since 2022, but FURIA’s offer seemingly changed his plans.
“People ask me how long I’ll keep playing and the truth is there’s no right limit,” FalleN said in the announcement. “I listen to the fans and hear again a call to make history once more. And this time, wearing the colors of the panther [FURIA’s logo].”
FURIA have been the best CS:GO team in Brazil since 2019, when they started to perform better in tournaments than FalleN’s MIBR. FURIA, however, have never managed to win a tier-one event on LAN and a lot of fans in Brazil believe FalleN was the missing piece on FURIA’s lineup, despite him not being in his prime anymore.
The Brazilian community believes that FalleN is the one that can push the talented riflers KSCERATO and yuurih over the line because of his calling style, which has more depth than arT’s relentless aggressive playstyle. The popular sentiment is that even if FalleN and FURIA fail to win titles, they will have at least tried together instead of never joining forces.
Related: FURIA CS:GO signing FalleN is a no-brainer—here’s why
With FalleN’s addition, he’ll take over the primary AWPer role that belonged to saffee and take over the in-game leadership duties from arT, who most likely will become a dedicated entry-fragger. FURIA is also reportedly bound to sign FalleN’s former Imperial teammate Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes to replace drop, according to GameArena, but it hasn’t been confirmed by FURIA just yet. Chelo can be seen wearing FURIA’s jersey in an advertisement displayed in Times Square in New York.
Fans will get a first glimpse of the new FURIA lineup at the IEM Cologne Play-In stage from June 26 to 28.
Update July 3 12:07pm CT: FURIA announced chelo.
