sidde says FURIA must avoid arriving at the Major burned out in Counter-Strike 2

FURIA coach Sid “sidde” Macedo said the team is trying to manage exhaustion and frustration before the Major after reaching the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 24. He said the roster hit a “low point” during Katowice’s group stage and has spent the second half of the year moving from one event to the next with little time to reset.

The workload is not easing up. FURIA still have three events left before the Major, where Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo will play his final event. Sidde said the team needs to use every short gap in the schedule well if it wants to arrive in shape rather than worn down.

Playoffs after a difficult group stage

FURIA’s run to the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 24 did not look like a sudden return to the level that brought trophies earlier in the year, but sidde still treated it as a solid finish given the travel and the mental strain on the roster. He said the team had already been through a rough patch in the group stage, then recovered enough to fight its way into the knockout rounds.

“We had a very low point during the group stage, but after that, we recovered well,” sidde said. “We came together as a team, and we put up a good fight today.”

That recovery mattered to him because it showed the team could pull itself back together after a poor spell. He said the team did not win the series, but the response after the group-stage dip left him proud of how they finished the event.

The result also fits a wider pattern for FURIA in recent months. The team has been dealing with a heavy travel load, repeated tournaments and the pressure of trying to keep performance level high while moving between regions. Sidde’s comments after elimination pointed to that grind as one of the main reasons the roster has not found the same consistency it had last year.

Keeping focus when everything piles up

Sidde said his job now is as much about attention and temperament as tactics. He described the problem as one of constant mental clutter, with every player carrying something different while the team tries to stay competitive through the end of the year.

“My job is finding the right things for us to focus on because everyone has a lot on their minds,” he said.

He added that FURIA need to accept the limits of what they can control. The team will not win every match, and it has to deal with setbacks without letting frustration take over. In sidde’s view, keeping motivation up late in the season is part of the challenge, especially when the players know they have not yet matched the level they showed last year.

He said managing those frustrations is now a major part of his work. The team has to keep pushing even when it feels close to the end of the season, and that pressure has been stacked on top of the normal demands of practice, prep and travel.

That pressure showed up again in the way sidde talked about the team’s recent level. Rather than describing a clean upward line, he portrayed FURIA as a group that has to keep rebuilding its focus after repeated disruptions. The issue is not one bad event, but the accumulation of many small ones across a crowded calendar.

Short windows before Thunderpick and Bucharest

Sidde said the opening part of FURIA’s season was especially punishing because the team played so many tournaments, crossed several regions and spent a lot of time on flights. That schedule left them without enough time to reset properly or make the playbook updates they wanted.

“Whenever we have some spare time between tournaments, for us it’s something very valuable,” sidde said.

He pointed to the days between now and Thunderpick, along with the period after Thunderpick before Bucharest, as brief chances to work. Those gaps are not a real break, but they do give the team room to add details to the playbook and fix parts of the game that have slipped.

That is why sidde kept returning to balance. FURIA need to make the most of the time they do have, but they also need to avoid draining themselves before the Major arrives. In his words, the aim is to reach that event with enough energy left to compete instead of feeling “100% burned out.”

The timing matters even more because the Major will be FalleN’s final event. With three tournaments still to go before then, FURIA are trying to protect both their form and their energy while they move through the last stretch of the year.

Yekindar’s timeout and the problem with loose rounds

Sidde was also asked about a timeout in which Mareks “Yekindar” Gaļinskis told his teammates they were “playing FACEIT” instead of playing properly. Sidde said he understood the frustration behind that message and agreed with the basic point.

He said FURIA have plans for their rounds, but too often those plans break down because the team gives away early kills around the map or skips steps in the way it approaches the game. In his view, the problem is less about one bad moment and more about the team losing the structure it needs.

“He’s right in that,” sidde said.

He added that Yekindar helps keep the group accountable when players are not doing the things they should be doing. The complaint, sidde said, is really a call for the team to play more seriously and keep its focus on the basics instead of drifting into loose, reactive Counter-Strike.

That ties back to the fatigue issue. When the team is tired, sidde suggested, it becomes easier to miss steps, lose discipline and fall out of the shape it wants on the server. Before the Major, FURIA now have to correct that while also dealing with travel, limited practice time and the pressure that comes with a final event for one of their long-time leaders.