FURIA are one win from defending their Thunderpick World Championship title, and Yuri “yuurih” Santos said a final against Falcons would make the run feel even better. After FURIA beat Aurora in two maps to reach the championship match, the rifler told HLTV the team would be happy to lift the trophy again, especially against one of Counter-Strike 2’s strongest lineups.
The semi-final adds another strong result to a season shaped by a dense schedule. FURIA have been moving from event to event with only a few days to rest, and Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo had already said earlier in the tournament that a title could give the team useful momentum. Yuurih echoed that view after the win, saying the main reward for the workload is simple: becoming champion.
FURIA reach another final after beating Aurora
Yuurih said the result mattered because FURIA have not reached many finals recently. The Major was the exception he pointed to, and he also took satisfaction from beating teams that had caused problems before. FURIA had already defeated Legacy in the event, and the Aurora win carried extra weight because they had lost to that same opponent in their previous meeting.
“It feels good, right? It’s been a while since we made it to a final, besides the Major,” yuurih said. “It’s also nice to beat some teams like Legacy and now Aurora, too, since we lost to them last time.”
The Aurora series was not smooth for FURIA, even though they closed it out in two maps. Yuurih said Inferno should have been easier, but anti-force problems and a lost gun round on A gave Aurora chances to get back into the map. He felt FURIA should have been ahead 11-4 with a healthy economy, which would have made the game much simpler.
Instead, the match tightened, and FURIA had to recover after giving away control. Yuurih said the team also dropped another gun round on A, which made the situation more difficult. The force-buy at 10-10 changed the direction of the map, though, and he believed that round put the team back in charge.
He was blunt about the errors. FURIA made life harder than it needed to be, and yuurih said the team “messed up a bit.” Even so, the force-buy stopped Aurora’s momentum and gave FURIA a path to finish the series.
The decisive round came at 10-10, when YEKINDAR changed the plan on the fly. According to yuurih, FURIA started on A, then shifted to B after the call. There was enough time to make the move, and the round played out exactly as the team hoped.
“YEKINDAR had a good call: we were A, he told everyone to go B,” yuurih said. “We had enough time to go B and I was able to bait for molodoy in triple, FalleN used a flash, then I went triple. We played this round well. We will always believe.”
That round helped FURIA settle the map and finish the series, sending them into a final against either BETBOOM or Falcons. For yuurih, the opponent matters almost as much as the trophy itself, because the team has been trying to measure itself against the best squads in the field.
Why Falcons stand out for FURIA
Yuurih said a title defense would feel particularly good because of the opponent and because of FalleN’s retirement timeline. The veteran is expected to step away at the end of the year, and FURIA are trying to give him another trophy before that happens. In that context, Falcons stood out as the most appealing final matchup.
He also named Spirit and MOUZ as teams FURIA want to beat more often. That list shows the standard the roster is aiming at: not just surviving a busy season, but beating the strongest teams when a title is on the line. For FURIA, Thunderpick has become a chance to measure that progress in a final rather than in an early-stage match.
“I think we would be very happy, especially if it’s against Falcons,” yuurih said. “We’re trying to beat the best teams, you know? Falcons, Spirit, MOUZ. If we win a final against them, it would be very good.”
FURIA’s run also fits the wider story of their season, which has involved a lot of travel and very little downtime. Earlier in the event, FalleN spoke about the value of a win as a way to carry momentum into the rest of the year, and yuurih framed the same issue from the player side: the schedule is demanding, but a trophy makes it worthwhile.
He put the point in simple terms after the semi-final. Winning is still the best return on all the work, especially after several tournaments in quick succession and only brief breaks between them. The Thunderpick final gives FURIA a chance to turn that workload into another title and to defend the trophy they won last year.
That win over Aurora also came after a tournament path that already included a few reference points for FURIA. The team had taken care of Legacy earlier in the event and then followed it with the semi-final victory over Aurora, which yuurih linked directly to the squad’s recent history against both teams. The pattern mattered to him because it showed FURIA were correcting losses they had already taken.
The final will now decide whether that progress turns into a repeat Thunderpick title. If Falcons are the last opponent, yuurih has already made clear that the matchup would carry extra value, both because it would come against a top team and because it would cap another busy stretch for FURIA with a trophy.
GAMER2GO previously reported on FURIA’s workload concerns in an interview with sidde, and the team’s Thunderpick run has kept that issue in view. Aurora’s bracket progress has also been part of the wider event storyline, after Wicadia’s rise and the team’s earlier playoff run.
What yuurih took from the semifinal
- FURIA beat Aurora in two maps to reach the final.
- Yuurih said it had been a while since FURIA reached a final, aside from the Major.
- He pointed to recent wins over Legacy and Aurora after previous losses to both teams.
- He said FURIA have been playing several tournaments with only a few days of rest.
- He named Falcons, Spirit and MOUZ as the best teams FURIA want to beat.
- He said a final win over Falcons would be especially satisfying.
FURIA vs Falcons would be a nasty final. I still remember a match where one saved force-buy flipped everything, and that’s the kind of swing this team keeps living on.
saved force-buy as in they were already in trouble, yeah? sounds more like they almost threw Inferno before pulling it back
I get what you mean, but that kind of chaos is also why FURIA can look sloppy for long stretches. They make the hero rounds work, then you read the part about anti-force issues and the lost gun rounds on A and it feels like they spent half the map donating chances. Still, if they keep winning the ugly maps, that matters more than pretty CS.
was the 10-10 call the key?
yeah, sounds like it. when you get the read wrong once and still recover on the force, the whole map changes. that A-to-B switch was probably the only clean part of that late game.