
Analyst Sam “Tech Girl” Wright, in the latest episode of the Feed The Trolls podcast, assessed the situation at FURIA following Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo’s retirement announcement and commented on the possible departure of Danil “molodoy” Golubenko.
The all-Brazilian FURIA roster has always competed in major tournaments, generally finishing around the middle of the standings, but there has always been some kind of mental issue with one of the players. And this has also plagued YEKINDAR for a very long time. There was a lot of talk about his mental state and the fact that he doesn’t always perform at his best, especially while at Team Liquid. There was plenty of that kind of talk. And this is by no means uncommon for any of these players. If we don’t count molodoy, this narrative has been going on for years for all of them. So why are we suddenly surprised? We blame this on FalleN announcing his retirement, but in reality, I think it’s a much longer-term situation that may have been happening with all of these players.
Obviously, when the team signed molodoy, everyone was saying, “FURIA is out of their minds. This will never work. What a mess.” Then he had about two or three good tournaments, and suddenly everyone was like, “Wow, this is the best thing that’s happened since sliced bread.” And right after that, rumor after rumor started flying about where molodoy would go—almost immediately. And that struck me as a little strange, because I thought, “Listen, this guy was a nobody. I’ve heard enough stories about Brazilian organizations and their prison-like contracts.” They took this completely unknown player and locked him down tight. I don’t believe he got a contract that would even allow Team Spirit to come in and start negotiations within the first year.
Has anyone even watched the same interviews with molodoy that I did? He said that FalleN is like a brother to him, and FalleN said that molodoy is like a son to him. He said that molodoy is the reason he now wants to have children, because he wants a son who’s just like molodoy. I’m almost certain there’s a quote like that somewhere. And I just thought, “Why is everyone talking about molodoy leaving?” I think FalleN has him tied to the team, even if the contract itself doesn’t formally bind molodoy. I don’t believe he’ll suddenly leave FURIA just because FalleN is ending his career.
Earlier on the Feed The Trolls podcast, journalist Duncan “Thorin” Shields and analyst Sam “Tech Girl” Wright discussed the situation surrounding FURIA, Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo’s possible retirement from professional CS, and fans’ expectations for Danil “molodoy” Golubenko.
Photo — PGL.