FURIA have officially announced the addition of Rafael "saffee" Costa, with the 27-year old arriving as a replacement for Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo, after he was officially removed from the team's starting roster in November by head coach Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira.
Saffee made waves in North America after moving to the region with paiN late in 2020, putting up huge numbers against the best teams in the region as he averaged a 1.27 rating across 2021, helping the team secure a title win in DreamHack Open January.
He also was a pivotal factor in helping paiN qualify for PGL Major Stockholm's Challenger Stage, where the team lost in tight fashion to Virtus.pro and Renegades.
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They were able to secure a win against Sharks, before bowing out of the tournament with a loss in the 12-14th place match against perennial power Astralis.
With FURIA struggling to return itself to a world-contender after Henrique "HEN1" Teles' left one year ago, saffee quickly became a big target to join the team, that became an even bigger story after the team benched Paytyn "junior" Johnson in June after he struggled with adapting to a language change.
Following a strong close to the 2021 season, FURIA was able to bag their guy in saffee, and they hope he can help lead the team back into contention for Big Event trophies this season.
FURIA roster: Andrei "arT" piovezan, Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato, Yuri "yuurih" Santos, Andre "drop" Abreu, Rafael "saffee" Costa; Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira (head coach), Marcos "tactius" Castilho (assistant coach); Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo (inactive).
