The Brazilian side broke a four-year fast when it comes to winning the LAN trophy with a 3-1 victory against Apex in the Ellis Masters grand final.
Although they didn't come to the tournament as favorites when you consider that three of the top six teams in the world (MOUZ, ENCE and Complexity) played in it, FURIA managed to exceed expectations, take advantage of the weak play of the favored teams and reach the first LAN title yet from 2019.
Since the release of CS2, FURIA has devoted itself to training and playing in tournaments, including several weeks of preparation at the RLG training center, and the hard work is starting to pay off. Despite the fact that at times they were able to play weak games, the team is playing better and more coordinated, and the new trophy will surely give them the necessary wind behind them to continue developing and improving their game.
They opened the Elisa Masters with an unexpected win against Complexity in Group B, but were then easily defeated by Apex in the winner's match. In order to survive and reach the semi-finals, FURIA had to beat the best-ranked team in the tournament, the third team in the world according to the HLTV ranking list - MOUZ, which they did.
In the semi-finals, they defeated HAVU Gaming, who made a big surprise in the A group where ENCE and GamerLegion won, and the convincing 13-1 victory over Nuke, which cemented their place in the finals, will be especially remembered.
Meanwhile, Apex defeated ENCE in the second semi-final and scheduled a rematch against the Brazilians, this time in a Bo5 match.
Apex banned Nuke, Fury Anubis, and the match began on Inferno. It is interesting that FURIA triumphed on all three maps they won with an identical 13-9 score, and on Inferno they won primarily thanks to a strong CT side in the first half where they gained an 8-4 advantage.
Apex equalized with a 13-7 victory over Ancient, and it is interesting that they achieved the only victory in the final exactly on the pick of the opponent. Then came Vertigo where Apex held a minimal 7-5 lead at halftime, but FURIA masterfully played the CT side where they took eight out of ten rounds.
Finally we looked at Mirage where a similar development to the third map took place. Apex matched the opponent in the first half, but again FURIA kicked into fifth gear when they switched to the CT side and put an end to the grand final with a 7-3 series.
Although FURIA deservedly won the finals, Tim "nawwk" Jonasson at least took home the consolation prize of MVP after finishing the entire event with an average rating of 1.28, scoring many key runs for his team throughout the competition.
