KSCERATO feels he can improve in the next years and wants to win a big trophy for Brazil.
"It's always harder for Brazilians," FURIA's CS2 superstar Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato told esports.gg off the bat, quoting Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest Formula 1 pilots ever.
The pressure for results is as high as it has ever been. Nearly seven years have passed since the Brazilians dominated the scene in 2016 and 2017 under the eternal Luminosity Gaming and SK Gaming lineups, and though FURIA and KSCERATO came close to winning a third CS:GO Major for Brazil in IEM Rio 2022, it ended in a massive blow.
KSCERATO, however, wants to bring another Major trophy for Brazil before considering moving abroad like almost all CS2 analysts and pundits have suggested by now.
"I want to win my first world championship for Brazil," KSCERATO told esports.gg at BetBoom Dacha CS2 2024 in Belgrade, Serbia. "It's something that I've wanted to do since I was a kid and I watched FalleN play. And it's not just my dream, it's one I share with people who played with me, my brother, and my friends, as I didn't get here all by myself."
The losses hurt KSCERATO more than fans imagine
As FURIA's woes grew in 2023 and 2024 after the IEM Rio Major at the end of 2022, it became more common to see fans complaining FURIA players don't care about losing as much as they do. Because there are big Counter-Strike tournaments nearly every moment, people come up with the narrative that players jumped from one event to another without caring about the results.
Turns out, it's quite the contrary. The losses hurt KSCERATO probably more than the vast majority of players because he has an impeccable memory. His memory allows him to remember everything that happened in matches without the need to watch the demo, which as we can imagine, causes all sorts of problems when he goes to bed.
My mind keeps reliving the rounds until I found an answer [to why a round went wrong, for example]," KSCERATO said. "And when I don't find an answer, I recur to people who are close to me to help me find it. It's very complicated, nobody likes to lose. I think that people don't like to lose even at rock-paper-scissors, and makes sense, we were raised like that.
Is KSCERATO in his prime? Not according to him
The reason why so many analysts and pundits want KSCERATO to move abroad is because he's in his prime nowadays and shouldn't waste his potential with FURIA. The superstar, however, doesn't think he got there yet.
I don't have fear of wasting this so-called prime, because I don't think I'm in my prime
Though some statistics—1.18 rating, 1.19 impact, 81.4 ADR, on LAN in 2024, according to HLTV—prove KSCERATO is a superb rifler, especially considering FURIA haven't win consistently this year, the Brazilian sees himself getting better over the next years.
"I don't have fear of wasting this so-called prime, because I don't think I'm in my prime," KSCERATO said. "I think I'm just getting started and I still have a lot of things I can improve on. I'm still very young, just 24 years old, and nowadays players can keep performing despite aging thanks to psychologists and
physiotherapists. I love CS, it's the game I played the most, and I must have around 50,000 or 60,000 hours recorded."
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How the new coaching staff can help FURIA improve their results in the upcoming months
FURIA made big changes during the off-season. The organization promoted the former head coach Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira to head of esports and gave the assistant coach Sid "sidde" Macedo a chance to take over the reins.
FURIA also did what many fans wanted, and hired two foreigners in the form of Viacheslav "innersh1ne" Britvin and Hunter "Lucid" Tucker to assist Sidde in his new role. All the changes have been beneficial, according to KSCERATO.
"It's been very cool, both innersh1ne and Lucid pay attention to stuff that it's hard for coaches to notice during the games as the coach has to watch all five monitors," KSCERATO said. "They can notice the small details, and sort of draw a timeline of the whole round, and point out precisely what went wrong and when. They also bring in new stuff for us, which makes us more unpredictable. As for sidde, he's a hard worker and a good coach. He learned a lot with guerri and also got to know all of us [during his time as an assistant]. So, it's been wonderful to work with all of them."
While fans might think that the losses will eventually take a burden on KSCERATO, he assured esports.gg that all the hate that pops up on social media is only fuel for him. He understands the Brazilian community is driven by results, and is determined to get more fans on their side again by bringing in more trophies home.
KSCERATO and FURIA have an excellent opportunity to improve their season at FISSURE's tournament BetBoom Dacha over the next few days. The Brazilians will take on 9 Pandas on Sunday, Aug. 25 to kick off their journey in group B of the play-in.
