Pimp on FURIA’s slump: “Outside of the Major, they’ve achieved practically nothing.”

I’d prefer the first match to be best-of-two. I think we always favor best-of-three matches, but my stance—and I’ve mentioned this a couple of times already—is that I’m not opposed to best-of-one matches. I think it adds a little variety. As a team, you have to be good not just in the best-of-three format. It’s a different format. It’s a different mindset. It’s a different situation where you have to go out there and be ready from the very start. There’s no room for error here. In fact, there’s no room for error in anything. And we discussed this when we were talking about the Majors. Of course, if every match at a Major could also be a best-of-two, I wouldn’t mind.

A single-elimination bracket with 16 teams is really, really cool. And with this format, it’s hard to argue for any kind of seeding. Naturally, you should get a reward for finishing first in your group. But if there’s seeding before the 16-team playoffs, we’ll constantly see the same matchups, right? You won’t gain anything from pulling off a major upset in the group stage, because you’ll know you’ll end up in a tough playoff bracket anyway. Let’s say you made it out of the upper bracket—I don’t know who exactly advanced, say, GamerLegion. They made it through the upper bracket. Then they’d simply be the lowest-seeded team among those who made it out of the upper bracket. In other words, they wouldn’t gain any particular advantage and wouldn’t necessarily end up in a very favorable position, because with the seeding system in place, they’d face Team Vitality, which advanced from the lower bracket. So I don’t know what the solution is here. But I think that’s just part of the game when you have such a randomized bracket. It’s a matter of chance whether you get a good bracket or not. 

I don’t know what’s going on with FURIA, but ever since FalleN announced his retirement, if you look at the results of all the tournaments… Excluding the Major. And I know it’s easy to say, “Let’s just forget about the Major.” But outside of it, FURIA has performed poorly. Outside the Major, they’ve achieved practically nothing. They finished last at BLAST Rivals Spring 2026. They also performed poorly at the next tournament. And then at the Major, as I already said, yes, they played more or less well, but FURIA’s path to the Grand Final was also relatively easy. I think even YEKINDAR said that before the Major started, they felt they weren’t even contenders to win the tournament. And suddenly they found themselves in the Grand Final. So even he himself agreed that things aren’t going very well for FURIA. 

Amid all the rumors about YEKINDAR and molodoy potentially leaving—instead of YEKINDAR taking on the role of captain and continuing his career with FURIA—and I thought that was the whole idea, or at least the whole plan—this makes me a little worried about FURIA. If this is really the case, if players start moving to other teams, if YEKINDAR leaves, if molodoy leaves, and FalleN retires, the team will turn into a dead team or a zombie team, so I’d rather spend my time watching Aurora Gaming, or FaZe Clan, or some other up-and-coming teams that will continue to exist.