Guerri on FURIA's new direction: "I can’t promise titles, but the pursuit is always for titles"

Now, with a brand new international roster, FURIA is entering a new phase in VALORANT. The organization has learned from past mistakes and wants to correct course after years of disappointing results, starting with the 2026 season of the VCT Americas.

In an exclusive interview with THESPIKE Brazil, FURIA's Head of Esports, Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira, addressed concerns regarding the team's poor results in the VALORANT scene, stating the following.

“It’s funny, because every time we build a project, we always walk away very satisfied with the lineup we’ve put together. There’s always a connection between the captain and the coach, from one player to another, the experience and maturity with the younger players — there are always reasons behind it, you can always explain the whys, all of them in the past. And it was no different with VALORANT. We had the connection; every time something leaked, every season we started, it was always the same thing: ‘Now FURIA will go, now it’ll work, the project makes sense.’ In fact, when I think about the project, we did what we had to do. We bet on Brazil the way we wanted to. We wanted to stick with as many Brazilian players as possible. We had some misfortunes and some bad luck with immigration, with the process getting stuck at difficult moments, where we weren’t able to field the full strength of each lineup.”

No Regrets: Time to Move Forward

Despite the undeniable struggles FURIA has gone through in the VCT Americas, guerri made it clear it's all about looking ahead. The team's new international roster means FURIA is turning a page, and fans have plenty to look forward to.

“I don’t regret anything; I care deeply about everyone who has been part of the team, but the time has come for us to change — to try with different people, with a different mindset, and bring Brazil together with other regions. So, for FURIA, the most important thing for us is to take high performance and Brazil everywhere we go. And today we’re going to do that with this team. And I’m sure it’s not just about the passport — it’s much more about how close we stay to the fans, how much we keep representing Brazil. That’s what I want to show in this new season. So there’s nothing I feel like I should have changed; things happen the way they’re supposed to happen. We learn and evolve with everything that happens. And I’m very happy to be taking this path now, and I hope we can bring some of the success we’ve had in other titles here at FURIA to VALORANT, which is a game that has so much love here in Brazil, and that we at FURIA also love deeply. We want to see our flag, our logo up there.”

Getting invested in the roster

FURIA, in fact, promises a new era in VALORANT with its foreign lineup. Much of that has to do with guerri who, according to him, was more involved in building this roster than he was with previous iterations.

“Look, I connected with the last two lineups — in the last two seasons I did connect with them — but without a doubt this one is the one I’ve connected with the most. I stayed in Los Angeles for almost two months; I lived the routine. I understood what the struggles were, I understood how things worked, how the games work at Riot, I understood the players’ mindset, I spoke with many foreign players. So, in fact, this is the one I’ve been most involved with, though I was involved in the others as well. But I think it’s more about the amount of time I spent; with this one, it was much more, without a doubt. From scouting onward, I lived that performance-driven lifestyle around the world, so I can really speak the player’s language, I can understand the things they say. So that experience of mine, my background as a coach and a player, playing CS since 2001, helped me a lot in this process. And really investing more time to ensure I can get this ship onto the right course… it’s hard to promise results, but I promise that we are on a better path today than we’ve ever been. And that’s the direction I want — evolution, a good path for everyone to develop well. And I think we have a great group to do that. So yes, I was more involved, absolutely.”

Rising Expectations

But just how far can this new international version of FURIA go? According to guerri, it’s not possible to promise titles — but fans should certainly expect positive results. In addition, he added that he wants a strong connection between the foreign players and the fans because the model remains “100% Brazilian.”

“First of all, I’m a very positive guy. I’m not going to sit thinking about negative results. We built this project for positive results. Again, I can’t promise titles, but the pursuit is always for titles; our desire is for titles. We’ve seen that in other games we had a very long process before finally reaching the dream of lifting a trophy. So we are Brazilian to the core — by culture, by audience, by how we deal with day-to-day life, by how we talk to our players. Molodoy in CS is practically a Brazilian already. So that’s our culture. Even though we’re moving toward internationalization, the model is 100% Brazilian. It’s not new, it’s always been like that, and always will be. So I rely a lot on the Brazilian fanbase that wants to see FURIA at the top. There are many people who cheer for Brazil, and FURIA is a Brazilian organization. We’re doing this simply because we want to deliver the performance that the Brazilian audience deserves. So again, I’m sure our fans will fall in love with these guys. They are players with amazing stories, they identify with Brazil, and they want Brazil.”

The full interview with guerri in the original Portuguese can be found below.

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