The hunt resumes in South Korea. FURIA are returning to the Mid-Season Invitational as the CBLOL's lone representative, having claimed Brazil's only ticket to Daejeon with a 3-1 win over LOS in the Split 1 grand final on June 6th. MSI 2026 runs from June 28th to July 12th at the Daejeon Convention Center II, with the Esports World Cup in Paris waiting immediately after. A long summer abroad lies ahead for the black panther of Brazilian League of Legends.
The Pack That Never Scattered
A panther hunts alone, but this one moves as a pack. The five players who lifted the trophy in São Paulo are the same five who have prowled together since last year, untouched by a single roster change. That continuity is the bedrock of everything they do. The lineup won LTA South Split 2 in 2025, a run that took them to MSI 2025, where they pushed G2 Esports to five games in the Play-In and proved they had not travelled just to make up the numbers.
The territory only grew this season. After a disappointing third place at the CBLOL Cup, FURIA bared their teeth at the inaugural Americas Cup, sweeping Cloud9 3-0 in the grand final after already mauling them 2-0 earlier in the event. With Cloud9 having finished second in the LCS Lock-In, the result carried real weight in the simmering North America versus Brazil rivalry. Pedro "Tatu" Seixas seized the moment in his stage interview to flag the imbalance: the CBLOL has one MSI spot, the LCS has more.
Cornering the Prey
The Split 1 playoffs were a clean kill. FURIA swept LOUD, then swept regular-season leaders RED Canids to reach the final with nearly two weeks of scouting time banked. LOS, dragged through a long lower-bracket grind, never stood a chance.
One bond inside the den runs deeper than the rest. Toplaner Guilherme "Guigo" Ruiz and support Gabriel "JoJo" Dzelme have now played four grand finals together across their careers — CBLOL 2021 Split 2, CBLOL 2022 Split 1, LTA South Split 2 2025, and CBLOL 2026 Split 1 — and won every single one. Four finals, four trophies.
Marking the Territory
The pack protects its own. Jojo posts the second-best KDA of any player qualified for MSI 2026 at 7.8, behind only Zhuo "Knight" Ding, while Andrey "Ayu" Saraiva sits not far off at 6.5. Those figures are no accident — they are the product of a team that funnels safety and resources toward its botlane. FURIA also lead the CBLOL in raw kills per game at 15.8, a sign that when the fights break out, they are the ones doing the killing.
The Apex Predator
Jungler Tatu, who has just celebrated his twentieth birthday, swept the individual honours. He claimed both regular season MVP and grand final MVP. He thrives when handed resources, ranking first among CBLOL junglers in both KDA (6.4 versus a 2.9 average) and gold per minute (423 versus 379). He also carries a +176 gold lead at fifteen minutes, alongside a 42% first blood rate.
He is also a genuine showman, unafraid to pop off on stage in moments of euphoria and let his emotions fly. That kind of openness is rare in League esports, and it is refreshing to see. He already owns the 2025 LTA South Split 2 and 2024 Americas Challengers titles, an impressive cabinet barely a year and a half into his tier-one career.
Patient In The Dark, Lethal In The Light
A panther does not pounce at first light. FURIA are not the most aggressive team early. They sit a middling sixth in the league for first blood (46%) and actually post a negative CS difference at fifteen minutes (-13), the kind of early figures you would expect from a struggling side, not a champion.
What sets them apart is everything that comes after. They lead the entire CBLOL in towers (8.0 per game), drakes (2.8), heralds (0.7) and barons (1.2) — every objective but grubs, where their 1.4 sits on the league average. The gap is staggering: where the league averages 0.7 barons and 5.6 towers, FURIA bury opponents under macro pressure and better teamfight execution once the laning phase ends. A modest +123 gold lead at fifteen minutes snowballs into a stranglehold by twenty-five. They do not win the opening exchanges — they win the map.
That dominance flows through the bot side. The team leans on a front-to-back identity, with Guigo soaking pressure up top by playing nearly always tanks, while the Tatu and Jojo tandem hunt for timers and angles to collapse on the midlane. The goal is to set up Arthur "Tutsz" Peixoto Machado in comfortable positions for his laning phase. Tutsz favours enablers and setup champions — Annie, Twisted Fate, Ryze and Galio are his most-played this split — freeing his jungler and his botlane to play aggressive champions from ahead and snowball the game in the midgame.
Hunting Season In Korea
This is arguably the most promising side the CBLOL has sent abroad in years, and nobody should look down on them. FURIA can trouble any Western team, and they should sit above both LCP representatives. A clash with LYON would be the one to watch, given how closely the two styles mirror each other — and with a coin-flip's chance the two are drawn together in the opening round, it may come sooner than later. FURIA would not be favourites in that fight — but the panther rarely warns its prey before it strikes.
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