FURIA FURIA Brazil Rank #5 mwzera Leonardo Serrati havoc Ilan Eloy Khalil Khalil Schmidt entered the year as one of Brazil's favorites. The powerhouses were clear, or so it seemed. Gamelanders Blue Gamelanders Blue Inactive and FURIA.

Just as Gamelanders had their star in Leonardo "mwzera" Serrati, FURIA had theirs in Alexandre "xand" Zizi. The rest of the roster was formidable, and perhaps was deeper from top to bottom than any other in the country.

The rivalry between the two teams seemed to be exactly as fans had hoped. In one of the first Challengers tournaments of the year, FURIA defeated a dominant Gamelanders squad. Then they met again in Brazil's Stage 1 semifinals.

Gamelanders won. The tournament was single-elimination. FURIA finished in the top four, but outside of the grand finals.

Unfortunately for FURIA, that tournament was a sign of things to come for 2021.

FURIA entered Stage 2 with a renewed sense of determination, and ran through the first couple of Challengers tournaments without losing a match. They qualified for Stage 2's final bracket without issue.

There, they lost to Team Vikings Team Vikings Inactive Veroneze Vinícius Ribeiro Ds Daniel Silva swag João Neto pollo Julio Silva in the upper bracket. They rumbled all the way back to the lower bracket final, where they just needed to beat Sharks Esports Sharks Esports Inactive gaabxx Gabriel Carli prozin Wallacy Sales KILLDREAM João Ferreira Addicted Eduardo Torres to qualify for Masters: Reykjavik. Instead, they lost 2-1.

They finished third. Once again, no trophy. But this time, that also meant no LAN.

Stage 3 gave FURIA another chance at glory. The team started the playoffs by beating the two teams that had eliminated them in the last two stages — first Gamelanders, then Sharks. That put them into the upper bracket final, giving them two opportunities to qualify for Masters: Berlin.

First, they lost to Liberty Liberty Inactive guuih Guilherme Mariano pepa Matheus Colleto duhT Eduardo Teixeira Zanatsu Carlos Eduardo tockers Gabriel Claumann in the upper bracket final. Then, they lost to Keyd Stars Keyd Stars Inactive in their very next match, the lower bracket final. That meant another third-place finish, and another trophy-less tournament. Another stage without going to LAN.

A year of top four finishes was still enough to guarantee FURIA a spot in the South American Last Chance Qualifier. But that tournament started looking as disappointing as the other three, as they began with a loss to KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #3 keznit Angelo Mori Mazino Roberto Rivas adverso Benjamín Poblete mta Nicolás González Shyy Fabian Usnayo Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro 's toughest rivals in LATAM, Australs Australs Inactive Capi Ignacio del Rio adverso Benjamín Poblete Tacolilla Vicente Compagnon Melser Marco Eliot Machuca Amaro kiNgg Francisco Aravena .

But FURIA is good at crawling back from an early defeat, especially against teams that have bested them before. FURIA made it out of the group stage and into the top four by beating Sharks Esports. Then, FURIA beat Gamelanders in the semifinals. FURIA beat Australs in the grand finals.

FURIA had spent 2021 being the gatekeepers of LAN in Brazil. All four teams to represent the country in international LANs had to beat FURIA to get there. When no one was able to beat FURIA in the playoff bracket, FURIA naturally qualified for LAN themselves.

FURIA has worked hard for this opportunity to play on the LAN stage. And while their group is certainly a challenging one, they won't roll over without a fight. This team, after all, was supposed to be here when it announced its roster at the beginning of the year. The path was far rockier than they expected, but that just means they had to fight for it and earn it.

And when you fight for something, you treasure it and guard it more fiercely than you would have otherwise.

For FURIA to successfully guard their treasured LAN appearance and create some underdog magic, the team will have to do at least two things no Brazilian team has done at a VCT LAN yet: beat KRÜ, beat a European team, and beat a North American team.

And if they can do that? Well then they'll have a shot at overcoming a personal barrier: the dreaded third-place finish.

Doing that at Champions would make them the top team in Brazil, regardless of how many VCT events they fell short of winning previously.