Another late roster change is shaking up CS Summit 5.
Furia Esports has announced that visa issues will prevent Henrique “HEN1” Teles from competing at the event. In his stead, Furia coach Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira will come off the bench to fill in with the team.
“Unfortunately, we can’t have our important player HEN1 at the CS_Summit. The athlete is in Brazil renewing his visa,” Furia stated on Twitter. “In his place we will have the best coach-player in the world, Guerri.”
Fans first caught wind of HEN1 not competing in the event when he was playing games on FACEIT in the Brazilian region and making social media posts with geolocation suggesting he was still at home. This led to discussion that he was leaving the team or had been kicked. This led to Furia CEO Jaime Pádua F. Filho taking to social media to clarify the reason for HEN1’s absence.
“Hey guys, FURIA’s CEO here…he is not leaving. He is only renewing his visa,” Filho said on Reddit. “He still an essential part of the team, but we can’t control the US immigration protocols. Nothing wrong with his visa as well, but the USCIS has their deadlines, and we need to respect that.”
Guerri is one of Counter-Strike’s most enduring personalities. The Brazilian has a pro career that dates back to 2006 in the original Counter-Strike, playing with a number of teams including GameCrashers.br and CNB e-Sports Club. He took an extended leave from competition in 2009, but returned seven years later to play for CNB’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team.
From there, he eventually worked his way onto Furia’s team, but was transferred to a coaching position after a few months. While Guerri has proven himself as a capable coach, Furia has been on a roller coaster over the last two years and this news isn’t going to help that.
Furia has long been solid but actually jumped into the upper echelons of the CSGO scene earlier this year. The team placed top-four at a number of big events such as the ECS Season 7 Finals and DreamHack Masters Dallas, establishing them as arguably the best Brazilian CSGO team.
This saw the organization sign its roster to long-term contracts in June, but things hit the skids at the StarLadder Berlin Major. Despite being a formidable team, Furia washed out of the Challengers Stage with a 1-3 record.
This was followed by the benching of Rinaldo “ableJ” Moda JĂşnior and the addition of HEN1, a move that the team has struggled with in the months since. Outside a third-place performance in StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8, the team has dipped in both online and live play.
CS Summit 5, which features a relatively light competitive field, offered the team a great opportunity to find its footing, but HEN1’s inability to make the trip undoes that completely. Not only will the team miss out on valuable reps, but it faces tough odds in its opening matches at the event. , Furia stands on even footing with the struggling Virtus.pro and as a clear underdog against G2 Esports. But these underdogs do still have a shot.
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