FURIA made it through to the BLAST Hong Kong grand final after a 2-0 victory against Falcons, and will face Spirit for the chance at winning their third trophy of the season and reclaiming the title in Hong Kong after winning it last year.
Ancient went the distance, needing overtime, while Dust2 was an easier affair. Despite that, the game could have gone a different way after Falcons won an eco round on Dust2 that went down to the wire after Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis disconnected due to a technical issue. FURIA had gotten an early 5v4 advantage when the Latvian disconnected, and Falcons hadn’t done any damage.
“I heard a lot, like a lot of people cheering for us, like, ‘Go FURIA, FURIA,’ after the Mareks crash,” Yuri “yuurih” Santos says of the final stretch of the match. “This helped us a lot.”
Listen to the interview here.
You have a couple of trophies already this season. Now you made another grand final. How exciting is it for you to get to compete for another trophy here in the last tournament before the Major?
Yeah, really great. [Especially] because it’s before the Major, and FalleN is retiring, so getting to the playoffs and going to the finals is really great for us. Everyone is happy. Tomorrow we have one more game, so let’s see.
There were some tense moments, with some PC issues. But you pulled through, a very close Ancient and a very strong Dust2. Tell me about the match itself.
Ancient in the beginning was 3-1, and my PC crashed, so I got tilted and we lost the round. They [were up] 5-1, and after that we started playing well as a team. We won like seven rounds, and this helped a lot because when these things happen, it’s really annoying. I stayed composed, and I kept playing round by round. The team played really well on CT side and T side.
We have been losing Ancient — it was our ban in the past — but now we are trying to play it, you know. So winning against Falcons, and we won against Spirit as well… We are practicing a lot, so this will help us. But I think Dust2 and Ancient were really tense. Even on Dust2, we crashed again [against] an eco, and it could have been really different, the match, if Falcons hadn’t helped us. I really want to thank them for their fair play.
Falcons are kind of a big favorite in China. Was there a little bit extra pleasure in knocking them out of the tournament?
Yeah, of course. We lost like five BO3s against them. We have been losing a lot of matches against them, and winning here, going to the finals, is great. Even with the crowd cheering for them, I heard a lot, like a lot of people cheering for us, like, ‘Go FURIA, FURIA,’ after Mareks [YEKINDAR]’s crash. This helped us a lot.
How about the Spirit matchup? They’ve beaten you the last couple of times you’ve played, but how do you feel going into tomorrow?
It will be a great game. We’re going to play all the maps. It will be a tense match. I think the last time we fucked up, we lost some rounds that we shouldn’t have. And if we win tomorrow, we play situations well like [we did] today, and winning in those situations, I think we can win against them. But it will be a good match, really tough.
