FalleN : "9 Pandas said playing us and winning doesn't matter. I wanted to make sure it does"

FURIA Esports  have been making steady forward progress since adding Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros to their ranks in the player break, making the playoffs of Esports World Cup and the main event at IEM Cologne.

They have continued that trend in Belgrade, recovering from an opening loss to 9 Pandas to secure first place in their group and progress from the Play-in. In the process they grabbed a revenge victory over 9 Pandas and a morale-boosting BO1 win over  Eternal Fire .

The 9 Pandas match came with some added spice, as Aleksandr "⁠shalfey⁠" Marenov had stated to HLTV that his team's result over  FURIA Esports  was "not a big win," before Gabriel "⁠ FalleN ⁠" Toledo then said in an interview with esports.gg that 9 Pandas were "not that good."

Fresh from his team's two victories,  FalleN  saw down with HLTV to discuss  FURIA Esports 's campaign in Belgrade so far, his revenge arc against 9 Pandas, and how far along  FURIA Esports  are in their development with skullz among their number.

First off, congratulations, how does it feel to make the main event?

It feels amazing. I think we progressed well after the first match, kept playing well, getting better and getting form. I'm glad that we won first place, it's a good result for us.

How does it feel to get a win over Eternal Fire ? It must be a confidence-booster, they were top-eight at the last Major.

Yeah I like Eternal Fire a lot, we respect each very much and we do pracs against each other once in a while. It's a team that we like to play against, I think they play very well, very structured, and I like watching their games as well. It's always a pleasure to play them and I'm happy with the win, it's a big win for us.

You had a couple of struggles on Dust2, twice today you got to 12 rounds and couldn't close it out. What was going on there?

Ah sometimes it just doesn't go your way. I think we had a couple of chances to finish here and there, maybe I could have called a bit better to finish it up earlier. There's a few small things that could have gone differently, but overall I think the opponents were putting up a defense as well, they were able to contest us.

In the end, it's not about who throws the first punch, it's about who can take more of them.

You had a really good day today, particularly against 9 Pandas you were on fire, rolling back the years. Why do you think that was?

I really wanted to win this game. I heard that they said playing against us and winning wasn't a big deal, like it doesn't matter. So I just wanted to make sure it does matter, because otherwise you go home.

You were very aggressive I think particularly in that game, lots of opening picks on Dust2. Was it along the same lines, wanting to take control of the game?

I felt like on the first Dust2 I played during the tournament I used the Long spawns too much on CT side, so it was pretty much a one-sided game for me. For some reason I always got the Long spawn.

In this game I came with a different approach, and yeah I was winning the fights, we had some set plays in order for me to capitalize and get some openings, and the rest is just happening. I'm very happy with finding those kills and finding this impact for the team.

You brought skullz in and it's a little bit of a different-look FURIA Esports now. Where do you think you are in your journey, how far along are you from getting to top-form, prime FURIA Esports ?

Honestly, I think we are not where we want to be at, but I think we are on the way, we have been progressing and having good results with skullz so far. So for us its all about getting more understanding of the game, getting more cohension, mainly on maps like Dust2 for example, where KSCERATO and yuurih didn't have many reps with the last iteration. For us it's all about improving every game, improving every tournament.

For me personally, it's all about finding a way to play more games like I played today, and being able to mix the roles I have inside the team. I also have to IGL, I have to AWP, so I'm trying to find the balance where I can put more impact on the numbers frag-wise as well, without stopping the other stuff I do for the team as well. It's all about trying to find the combination.