FURIA were the biggest surprise package of 2025. Although the glory days had seemed long behind them, and retirement seemed to be on the horizon for legendary IGL Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, the arrivals of Danil “molodoy” Golubenko and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis revolutionised the team.

Empowered by the Eastern European imports, the Brazilians would go on to lift four trophies in the second half of 2025, and were even considered to be the big favourites for the StarLadder Budapest Major that closed out the year.

However, just over a month on from their quarter-final exit in that event at the hands of NAVI, FURIA no longer look like the team they were in 2025, and their time to win trophies looks to already be behind them.

Class vs form

They say that form is temporary and class is permanent, and fans of any sport will know there is truth to that when looking at results over an extended period. Take Vitality, for example: in the first half of 2025, when all their players were firing on all cylinders, they went on an unprecedented run of seven consecutive tournament wins. In the second half, when Shahar “flameZ” Shushan’s form dropped off slightly, their class kept them a consistent top-four contender, but they won just two tournaments.

MOUZ are similar, with the strength of their system allowing them to reach the final four in 12 of 16 events played in 2025, but their failure to have all players fire at the same time prevented them from winning more than one trophy.

When speaking of their defeats, both of these teams will mention the “extra percentages” that allow them to push past teams. Percentages found in pistol round wins, clutches, and missed utility. 

These missing percentages are now something we’re starting to see with FURIA, who, despite making it to the semi-finals of BLAST Bounty and now the playoffs of IEM Krakow, look a far cry from the team we saw at the end of 2025.

In BLAST Bounty, they were shaky in their victories over FUT and HEROIC, and poor in their loss to PARIVISION. In Krakow, they fell completely flat in their opener against FUT and weren’t entirely convincing against The MongolZ, despite The MongolZ still reeling from the departure of Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold.

So what are the big differences? And what is preventing FURIA from looking like the title contenders they were before?

Missing percentages

There’s no doubt that FURIA’s system is strong. Modelled on Vitality’s, it’s built upon a rigid and balanced role structure, with YEKINDAR acting as a star opener, Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato as a reliable closer, and molodoy as an impactful AWPer. That said, any system still requires players to hit their shots, and right now, FURIA’s stars are failing to do so. 

In their tournament-winning run, KSCERATO held a 1.23 rating, YEKINDAR had a 1.13, and Yuri “yuurih” Santos had a 1.07. So far in 2026, KSCERATO sits at 1.11, YEKINDAR at 1.07, and yuuirh down at 0.97, with all three struggling especially on the T side. These three players’ T-side struggles have seen FURIA’s T-side round win percentage take a nosedive, from 52.3% to 44% so far in 2026.

FURIA are also facing huge struggles on pistol rounds so far this year. Their 36.8% CT pistol win rate is better than Vitality’s (22.2%) by a considerable margin, but still far below the likes of Spirit and Falcons, who are at 70% and 56.6%, respectively. Their T side pistol rounds, while having a higher win percentage at 57.7% thanks to their 11-8 record, face a different problem – they convert them into a second round win just 63.6% of the time. PARIVISION, the team who defeated FURIA at BLAST Bounty, have also won 11 T pistol rounds, yet have converted those round wins into a 2-0 scoreline 100% of the time.

It’s these differences, as well as the lack of opening kills or clutches that naturally coincide with the lower ratings of the players on FURIA, that are now preventing them from winning their games as easily as they were before, leading to lengthier maps, map defeats, and increased fatigue as a result.

Despite this, it’s likely that FURIA will remain a top team – their system is too strong not to. However, even though their tournament-winning run previously suggested they would outdo MOUZ, it now seems that they are more likely to fall in line with MOUZ as a top-four contender team, rather than a trophy contender.

Like MOUZ, FURIA lacks a true superstar. Where Vitality have stars in every role, FURIA do not. molodoy is incredibly impactful, but he lacks the consistency of Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. YEKINDAR is always capable of breaking a round open, but is doing so far less than Shahar “flameZ” Shushan. As for yuuirh, well, there’s no comparison to the stable force that William “mezii” Merriman has become for Counter-Strike’s most elite team.

It’s these small differences in player quality, as well as the aforementioned missing percentages, that will likely prevent FURIA from lifting trophies as they did before. As Vitality continues to push forward, and Spirit adapts their system in an attempt to catch up, FURIA will need to dig deep to find their form again, because class just isn’t enough to win big in knockout tournament settings.