Non-fans seemed sure that LTAS representatives FURIA, including their top layer Guilherme “Guigo” Araújo Ruiz, were doomed for ignominy at MSI 2025, but we spoke with Guigo about almost beating G2, what the team can do to rally back to make the Main Stage, and what he thinks of Yunara.

FURIA have been scrim gods all year long, but until Split 2, it seemed like they might be the latest of many teams to never cash in on a Scrooge McDuck-sized swimming pool of ScrimBucks(tm). However, the LTAS champions have already proven themselves to be significantly better than most fans acknowledge going into the Play-In stage. HotSpawn spoke to Guigo after a strong series from the young top laner.

Guigo says Game 5 was a shame, but one they can recover from

Nick: How are you feeling coming off that very close five-game series? Where are you at right now?

Guigo: Right now I’d say I’m pretty pissed. Not going to lie, game 5 was, in my opinion total shame. Total shame for us, for Brazil, everything. So I’m really mad with that game in specific. But in general, I think it was an OK series. [It] wasn’t like the highest level possible. I think G2 isn’t in the best form also, so we let it slip.

Nick: What do you think went wrong for you guys? Was it Game 5 of Fearless? The draft got weird? Were there some moments of execution to you?

What are the things that you look to fix for your next match?

Guigo: I think the first thing that comes to mind is respecting a little bit more some players’ opinions. I think in draft we’re having a little bit of a disagreement, because Tatu didn’t want to play the Lilia Jarvan matchup, and we kind of said, ‘oh, it was a good spot. I think you should play it anyway.’ So I think we kind of rolled over [him], this type of thing. But in general, looking at it now, I don’t feel like it was a draft problem. I think the game was totally playable. So I think the emotions got a little bit to us in this last game. I think we were more emotional, more like rushing things. I think in the other games I felt we were a little bit more rational, doing more like conscious plans and stuff. So yeah, I think it was a little bit emotional.

Nick: The other matches of the play-in stage are happening right behind us. Who do you think is going to win out of GAM and BLG?

Guigo: Probably BLG, I think there’s not much secret to that. But as far as GAM again in the international tournament, they can take one game, do some surprising things. So I’m rooting for them also.

If you think BLG is going to win, that means you’re playing GAM. How do you like your matchup against GAM?

Guigo: I’ve never played Kiaya before. I think the last time I saw him play against Brazil was against Robo, if I’m not mistaken or against Weiser. But in general, I think he’s a pretty good guy. I think we will have like a pretty even matchup in general, depending on the champions. I think someone could go better, someone could go worse, so I’m really excited to play against him.

Nick: In an interview with Thinkcard, he was talking about you and your botlane and saying he thinks that you guys are very underestimated in this tournament. How do you feel that you have a reputation for being scrim gods all the way from split 1, you win split 2 and yet people, in particular [fans of] LTA North, like to act like you guys don’t deserve the slot to MSI. There’s been a lot of conversation from some LTAN fans being like ‘oh, we could have sent Cloud9.’

What do you say to the fans who think that you know it would be better to send another NA team?

Guigo: I think like honestly the highest level team is FlyQuest like by far, even though like the series against Cloud9 was close, I think FLY is a little bit higher and against like every other team besides FLY that I think is like a little bit better than us, and that’s like uncontestable. I think the other teams we can all beat, and honestly, we kind of beat everyone in LTA South, and that’s why we’re here. So I kind of don’t care about that, you know, so… if they think something, they can just come at us and beat us, you know?

Nick: Yeah, exactly. OK, next question. It has absolutely nothing to do with pro play. It’s all for fun. Have you seen Arcane?

Guigo: Yeah.

Nick: So they’ve announced there will be another season. They haven’t said where. There was that Noxus cinematic at the start of the year, but nothing’s confirmed. What if Riot came to you and was like, ‘Guigo, we’ve run out of ideas, you need to decide which champion the next show is about.’ Which region? Where are we going? Who are we seeing on the big screen? Who would you like to see?

If you got to make your dream animated show, who’s it about?

Guigo: That’s a good question. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that… There are a lot of champions that individually I like Illaoi, Sett, but I don’t think they would have like a very big part on the show. So if I want to think a little bit more like an important champion, I really like Swain, and the teaser showed that he’s probably going to show also, so that would be the champion.

Nick: Well, you might get what you want. He was noticeably absent during that trailer, which I think means that, if we go to Noxus, it’s going to be about Swain, it’s going to be about Mel. So you may get what you want. Riot is doing these themed seasons this year, which is new.

If you have to decide what the theme is for a season, whether that’s a skin line or a region of the world, you got to remake Summoner’s Rift and have a cool skin. Where would you take us?

Guigo: I think Void is pretty cool. Void is pretty f*****g cool.

Nick: You want like a full void map, like all purple?

Guigo: Yeah. It would be pretty cool.

Nick: There was like half-void season, but it was only the monsters that got voidy. The map wasn’t that voidy. Do you have anything to say for the LTA Sul fans who, by the way, were popping off in Sao Paulo? They were showing us, there were shots on the camera. Every time you guys won a fight, they were jumping out of their seats, hugging each other.

Guigo: Yeah, Brazilians are like this. I would say keep rooting for us, keep cheering. I think even though we lost today, I think we showed that we can win against this team. So I think I would say probably BLG that looks a little bit more distant, but GAM and G2, for sure, we can win. So yeah, cheer for us. We will be giving our best to give you guys admiration.

Nick: Even though it’s slightly unrelated, the new champion Yunara has been revealed, and she’s this sort of old school ADC that’s a hybrid of magic and crit, AOE damage, and single target damage.  I assume you’ve seen some videos and stuff.

Guigo: They let us play it yesterday, for content.

What do you think of Yunara? Do you think she’s going to be pro playable if her numbers are strong enough? Or is she more of just like a fun gimmick champion?

Guigo: I think she’s she’s going to be totally viable in pro play, in my opinion, because I think she has a lot of mixed damage because of her passive that gives AP damage based on her grits. So I think this should be very OP for ADCs. It felt like a mix of a lot of champions like her E being like Sivir, Vayne passive, also when you ult, you have a dash. So it looks like a very fun champion. So I think she’ll be totally viable. [It] looks like the type of ADC that people will like.”

Nick: Thank you so much for taking the time, man. It was a pleasure to watch you play today, and I am really hoping that you guys run it all the way because I want to see you guys on main stage.