"The reason for our success in Stage 2 was expanding our map pool": Lycolis goes through Stage 2 after FURY's Asia LCQ win

_{Banner image: Ubisoft / Kiril B.}

FURY became a living meme following the conclusion of the first stage of APAC South 2022. Back then, the Thai roster scored zero points after seven matches played and became the region's laughing stock.

"I think it was a roster problem," Sillapakorn "Lycolis" Dokmaikhaw explained in a pre-BLAST R6 Major Atlanta interview for SiegeGG. "In the end, most of the players agreed with me to rebuild the team; Hajime, Darkk, and I remained on the main roster."

Heading to last year's Stage 2, the team brought Sumate "i9" Srimabut and Sirasit "BGMan" Ariyasirisopol. While the team's performance improved massively, they could only reach a sixth-place finish.

Finally, the results came in Stage 3 as the team qualified for the Six Jönköping Major. Although they went winless in Sweden, since then, FURY has only missed out on the Six Invitational 2023.

Eventually, FURY decided to make an extra roster change. In February 2023, the team parted ways with Chayapat "HealthcareOG" Boonyamanop and brought the "young gunner" Kritsanai "Kritj" Saemsub in to "add more firepower from a young gunner."

"I think the reason for our success was choosing players that are fresh and have a passion for our goal, with these new talented individuals in the team, it lights up everyone to continue to pursue success in this career," Lycolis explained.

One year after FURY's APAC South 2022 Stage 1 performance, the team is now the best in South Asia. However, there have been some ups and downs.

FURY's start to the season was one to forget, as the Thai squad finished in fifth place. This meant that, to play in the region's Last Chance Qualifiers, the team had to play an open qualifier first.

"We couldn't play our best unlike in practice," Lycolis said. "After losing to Champion on the last playday, everyone's mental wasn't in a good mood... zphyrK had a team talk with everyone to keep our focus on the LCQ."

The Thai's victory against Shaheens meant they would have to defeat Bleed Esports to qualify for the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen. The team based in Singapore was the favorite to take the win after completing a perfect stage in the South East Asia League.

However, FURY managed to upset Bleed Esports and took the series by 7-4, 8-7. After defeating the favorites, the Thai roster secured a trip to Denmark.

"We decided to risk it all and choose to play Sky against Bleed on Map 1, and the result was unimaginable," Lyclois explained. "Map 2, Bleed was just losing to themselves, I felt that Bleed was pushed to a place they hadn't experienced before and couldn't perform their best."

That same day, FURY defeated Elevate in a BO3 series that included two maximum overtime wins. With that result, the Thai secured US$40,000 and 150 SI Points.

Unfortunately, the team couldn't survive to the initial group stage as they lost to SANDBOX Gaming and MNM Gaming. Against the Europeans, the team won a map and was two rounds away from qualifying for the next round.

"Everyone feels that we did decent but just not good enough. It reflects us of our mistakes and bad decisions in matches, we took notes of it and hoped to fix it in Stage 2," he explained.

In Stage 2, FURY showed great confidence in the South East Asia League and finished in second place with six regulation wins and one loss.

Later on, FURY earned an extra US$40,000 and 150 SI Points after winning the Asia Last Chance Qualifiers Stage 2. The team defeated Bleed Esports once again despite losing in Nighthaven Labs by 0-7.

"The reason for our success in Stage 2 was expanding our map pool, we practiced a lot of maps this stage and it helped us to be in a position to control map bans," the Thai explained.

"Of course, we did lose Nighthaven Labs by 0-7 to Bleed, that was an unexpected loss from our side, but we will work on that before the major starts," Lycolis said.

According to the player, another important reason behind FURY's improvement was the signing of VoRn.

"He was able to become a full-time coach so he is always there to watch our scrim so I don't need to focus on everyone's mistake and focus on myself. Other than that is a much more strict schedule for practice," he explained.

Heading to Atlanta, the Thai roster is on the verge of qualifying for the Six Invitational 2024 as the Thai roster has gathered 370 SI Points. Despite the possibility of qualifying for the tournament held in Brazil, the Thai are now focused on the BLAST R6 Major. "We hope to perform our best siege on the main stage for a chance to bring the trophy back home," Lycolis concluded.