FUR Ayu after beating C9: “We opened the door now”

One day after being swept 3-0 by MVK, FURIA bounced back in style. The CBLOL representatives took down Cloud9 3-1 in the first elimination match of the Worlds Play-Ins, with their AD Carry Andrey "Ayu" Saraiva named player of the series. DPM Esports caught up with him after the win to talk about FURIA’s strange habit of beating C9, what went wrong against MVK, a possible “last dance” for this roster, and the mirror match he’d love to play against Caliste and KC.

Congratulations. You did it again after the Americas Cup. Are you just the father of C9 at this point? You beat them in Brazil, you beat them at their home, even after they changed their roster. Why do you keep beating them like that?

I really don’t know. I think we have a good matchup against NA teams. We just have a good matchup against them.

Why do you think you have a good matchup? Is it about gameplay, about how they play or view the game?

Yeah, it’s about those kind of things. They play the early game really slow, so when they play the early game slow, we can get to the mid game and late game, and I think we have the advantage at that point. That’s the reason.

How do you explain that advantage in the mid game? Why is your mid game that much better than theirs?

We’re decisive about engages, and we have good map control: flanks and that type of thing. This series was a good example. When we went to fight, they fought us, and we won most of the fights, that’s the reason.

Do you also get the impression that C9 collapsed a bit after their series yesterday, which looked like one they should have won?

Yeah, probably. I think they threw a lot in the series against KC. We also threw a lot against MVK, but we came back much better in this series. So probably, yes.

I want your thoughts on that, because MVK looked like the clear underdogs going into the Play-Ins, and they stomped you before you stomped C9 today. How do you explain it?

What happened is that MVK play a very fast early game, with strong champions early. The past day we didn’t have the best plans in the early game, and they got a lot of advantages there. That was the problem. But we have a good idea of what we want to do tomorrow, so it’s probably going to be fine.

I talked with Gury, MVK’s jungler, yesterday. He told me your jungler likes to play around the bot lane, so he had to do something to prevent that. Do you feel that’s what they did in the early game, and that it snowballed from there?

Yeah, yeah. They prioritized good matchups bot and priority in the early game. They kept invading us and making it hard for us to play the game. But that’s easy to avoid in League of Legends. We just need to plan better. Next time, we’re going to be fine.

It’s funny you say your early games aren’t that good and that you’re better in the mid game, because at MSI against T1, you looked good in the early game. It was more in the mid game that they outplayed you in teamfights.

It depends on the team. LCK teams have the best macro in the game, so they’re probably going to beat us. But against kind of these minor teams, seed 2/3 teams, the advantage is to play really aggressive. That’s our strongest asset against those teams. LCK teams just play macro better, and lane better too. They have the best macro.

So how did you look so much better today? C9 had other strengths, they’re more about stacking drakes and winning slowly. Is it just a matter of how they play, or did you also show up better today? And if so, what happened between yesterday and today?

To be honest, we didn’t think too much about the series against MVK. We just moved on to the next day and thought about doing better.

So we just didn’t dwell on those mistakes. We thought today would be better, and tomorrow we’ll be better too. That’s about it.

Why will it be better tomorrow? What will you have to change? Is it about preparation?

We only just started winning, because we were 0-13 at internationals before today. So, we opened the door now. We’re going to have more confidence on stage, make more aggressive plays and play our game more. It’s because we just started winning. We can think about winning now.

You’ve been together for two years, but you always fell short at internationals. Do you feel it had to be this year for this roster to perform, otherwise something would have had to change next year to break that dynamic?

Maybe. I don’t know about the others, but we have a lot of contracts ending. Mine, our support’s and our top laner’s are ending. So it could be our last dance.

I think we are handling it well.

More globally, Brazil has always been one of the bottom regions at internationals. Is today’s result even more important because it shows Brazilian fans they can still believe in their region, and that CBLOL is improving and can go toe to toe with the best?

Actually, yeah. We need to have a good international, and not just us, LOS too. We need to do better at internationals because we have a bad history at basically every international event. Today is a good example: we can compete, we can play against these guys. It’s good stuff for sure: the community needs to see these win, we need to believe more. In Brazil, people are passionate about everything League of Legends, we have a lot of fans, so it’s good to win and to show we can compete against the other regions.

You’re also a very young player, and I’ve heard people in Brazil call you a “mechanical beast”. Where does that nickname come from? Do you think you’re the Brazilian player with the best mechanics?

People started saying this about me because one streamer started saying it, and then everyone typed it too. I think it’s because when I started playing, I played really mechanically and aggressively. But to be fair, I’m very smart now too, I can make a lot of plans and make my team play around me. So it’s not just about mechanics anymore, it’s about everything. But yes, I have good mechanics, and I’m one of the best ADCs in Brazil.

If you make it past MVK, you’ll face another very strong mechanical ADC: Caliste and KC. What are your thoughts on him, and on KC? Are they a harder team to beat than C9?

Yes, they have a really good team. They play a really aggressive bot lane, and they have the same playstyle as us. They play mages and enchanters bot, Lucian Milio, Ashe Seraphine and this kind of stuff. So a match against these guys, it's kind of going to be a match against ourself, a mirror match. It’s going to be fun if we get to play against KC.

You obviously have a very bright future ahead. What’s your ambition as a player, beyond this tournament? Is there something specific you want to achieve in your career?

For sure, everyone will say the same thing about this question: to win Worlds. I know it’s a long, long way and I have a lot of things to do before that happens.

Because if I can’t, it doesn’t make sense, right? So for me, it’s about this. My first step is to have a good international showing, and then maybe we can look forward to the next steps.

Do you feel you’ve already done the most important part by knocking out what many considered one of the favorites of the Play-Ins, and the rest is a bonus? Or would you still be disappointed if you don’t make it out?

We’re here to get out of the Play-Ins, for sure. We have the level to compete against KC and against MVK. We will for sure get through the Play-Ins and go to the Swiss Stage.

One last question. Any final words for the people cheering for you at home, and for Brazil?

I just want to thank everyone. We showed a better FURIA today than in the series against MVK. So thanks to everyone for believing. And we’re going to play a good series tomorrow.