ableJ: "I think we are one of the best teams in the world in terms of individual talent"

After FURIA stunned Vitality 2-0 in the first quarter-final of DreamHack Masters, we spoke with Rinaldo "⁠ableJ⁠" Moda Junior to find out the team's emotional state, break down the series and discuss the mindset for the match against Liquid in the semi-finals.

FURIA continue to impress in Dallas, as the Brazilian squad successfully bested Vitality in the first quarter-final to set up a math against title favourites Liquid in the last-four stage.

ableJ and company aim to play their own game against Liquid

In a brief post-victory interview, we found out about FURIA's emotional state, how the team managed to develop confidence over the course of the event and their expectations going into Saturday's clash against the world's #2 team.

You just bested Vitality with a blowout 2-0 series score. Tell us what's going through your mind right now.

It is a rather unique feeling, we went into the tournament with no pressure and no expectations. If we had won just one game that would have been great already, but it turned out that we are playing very loose, with no pressure whatsoever, and it is working.

On your way to the quarter-final you bested the likes of NRG and fnatic. Did you go into the event fully knowing this was possible, or did you gradually gain confidence leading up to this result?

We know that those are good teams, but we are also very good and we have players who are individually very strong. I think we are one of the best teams in the world in terms of individual talent. I think I am just as confident now as I was when we entered the tournament. These are good teams, but we are playing loose, with no pressure, just doing our thing.

Talking about the series against Vitality, it was apparent that you were confident on the T side of Inferno, where a 10-5 half was followed up with a 6-3 defence. Break down what went your way in the first map.

On Inferno, we got off to a really great start as T. We pretty much did everything we wanted and we were able to constantly put pressure on the B site, which is something we like to do. After that, we knew that the job was half done as our CT side is good and we already had ten rounds as Terrorists.

Briefly on Nuke - the CT side was very dominant in that you left little room for Vitality to come back at 12-3. Talk us through how such a solid defence was secured.

It was a really calm game, we started out as CTs knowing everything they do. Unlike ENCE, they really follow a system, a pattern, they are not a team that plays loose, trying to find kills or force rotations, so we took advantage of that. We just played default and punished them, and it worked out great.

On Inferno arT really stepped up, producing a 1.41 rating. Give us some insight on his performance - was he fired up?

He is someone who plays better when he is calling. Normally it is the other way around, you have an IGL who frags less to make his team better. He was really hyped, he knew everything they were doing and destroyed them.

You are now set to face Liquid, the current #2 team in the world. Would you say the team is feeling confident and prepared going into the semi-final?

The feeling is the same as when we were playing NRG. They are good, but we will play our game and just shoot them in the face.

Rinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Age: 20 Team: FURIA Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 257 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.63 FURIA #19 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Liquid #2 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Vitality #5 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinMathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut