“On Dust 2, I had a feeling like, ‘bro, every major playoffs we are struggling’” – FURIA’s yuurih on Overcoming Doubt to Beat 9z

Insider Gaming spoke to Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos after FURIA’s dramatic IEM Cologne 2026 Major quarter-final victory over regional rivals, 9z.

The Brazilian rifler reflected on the victory and conquering self-doubt to turn the series around after a difficult Dust 2 and start on Map 2 of Mirage.

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Insider Gaming interviews FURIA’s yuurih at the IEM Cologne 2026 Major

It feels like South American teams playing each other is always crazy. Do you feel that way?

Yeah, we don’t play against a lot of teams from South America, but the 9z are playing really well.

It’s their game. I think they need to keep doing good. I think they show good stats against top teams, so they just need to be proud.

Individually, how are you feeling?

Individually, yeah, I have been playing good this tournament, the Majors, so I have a feeling that it’s good because I know it’s a Major.

I know it matters a lot for me, and of course, the others tournaments really matter, but the Major for me is something different, so everyone wants to win, it’s like a World Cup.

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We talked before BLAST about not feeling connected to your teammates. Is that something which is more present now?

Actually, the last tournament that we lost, it was really about details. Like it was like overtime and more and more that we should win. The last two tournaments we played really, really good, but we f**ked up on details, so yeah, it’s like that.

Tomorrow, maybe after tomorrow, we’re going to play against Aurora, and if we don’t focus on the details, we’re going to lose again, so.

What does this win show about your ability to withstand pressure, because you were down on Mirage after losing Dust 2?

Yeah, so when it started on Dust 2, I had a little feeling like, ‘bro, every major, every playoffs, we are struggling,’ like, we’re not winning the beginning of the match in the playoffs.

And after we lost Dust 2, Mirage was really tough in the beginning because it’s T-side Mirage, it was really, really tough. But when we made six rounds on T-side, I knew that we would win, you know? Because our T-sides started here, and Mirage has been bad, and everyone played really well on Mirage.

Overpass, it was a little bit easier. We like the map, and we are confident in the map.

Do you think that 1v3 that molodoy had at the end of the first half, was something that gave you a lot of confidence?

Of course, when they won the clutch on Mirage, it helped a lot, you know? Last year we were winning a lot of clutches, so if we are getting clutches, we’re going to win the next.