FURIA's sidde calls EWC result emotionally "really bad" despite top four

A top-four finish that stings

On paper, top four at the Esports World Cup is a result most CS2 rosters would take without hesitation. For Sid “sidde” Macedo and FURIA, it feels like something closer to a missed opportunity.

In an interview published Monday by HLTV, the Brazilian IGL gave an unusually candid assessment of the team’s performance in Riyadh. “Rationally, my assessment is positive; emotionally, it’s really bad,” he told the outlet. He specifically pointed to a squandered 5v3 at 10-7 in their semifinal against FUT as the kind of moment that separates the teams that win trophies from the ones that don’t. “This is not the real FURIA,” he said.

The pain extended into Sunday’s bronze match, a 2-1 defeat against Legacy that sidde addressed directly. He pushed back on any notion that the team had checked out mentally, even after YEKINDAR had said publicly the previous day that he saw little purpose in third-place deciders. “We knew how important it was to win this match,” sidde said. “It carried weight in terms of VRS, in terms of the club ranking in EWC. So we know that, even though nobody wants to play the match, it matters.”

The real problem, he argued, was something more fundamental. On Ancient, FURIA let two separate 4v2 advantages slip away. Sidde’s explanation was blunt: the team was rushing in moments that demanded patience. “In all those situations where we had the advantage, we played too fast,” he said. “The team really lacked that connection in terms of understanding what was happening in the game.”

YEKINDAR steps further into the IGL role

One of the more significant details buried in the HLTV interview concerns FURIA’s tactical structure. Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinsk is already calling the T side on Ancient, Anubis, and Cache. According to sidde, having the Latvian take over as full-time in-game leader is actively being discussed as a possibility heading into the end of the year.

That is a meaningful development for a team that has leaned on sidde in that role. No decision is final, but the fact that YEKINDAR is already handling three maps suggests the conversation is well past the hypothetical stage. This comes alongside ongoing rumors about the future of Danil “molodoy” Golubenko, whose status with the team remains unsettled.

Sidde’s response to questions about potential departures was measured and notably mature: “If at any point we have players who are thinking about leaving, what actually helps us is that they believe they can achieve whatever goals they might be envisioning elsewhere.”

The clock on FalleN

All of these conversations are happening against the backdrop of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo’s impending retirement. HLTV describes it as coming “around the corner,” and with FURIA having won four trophies in 2025, the pressure to add another before that era closes is real and visible.

Finding a replacement for one of Counter-Strike’s most iconic players is not a quiet offseason task. It reshapes a roster’s identity, its communication, and its leadership structure all at once. The fact that YEKINDAR’s expanded role is already being considered suggests FURIA may be thinking about their post-FalleN identity sooner rather than later.

What’s next: BLAST Open Porto

FURIA’s immediate focus now shifts to BLAST Open Porto 2026, currently in its group stage. After a trophy drought that sidde seems to feel personally, Porto represents another chance to turn a strong 2026 tournament run into something tangible.

The self-awareness sidde showed in this interview is striking. A lot of teams at EWC would have led with the top-four finish and called it a success. FURIA’s IGL is pointing at the 5v3 they didn’t convert.