The biggest game of the year - Falcons vs FURIA preview

We’ve made it all the way to the Grand Final.

The whole season has culminated in this one BO5 series, with either Falcons or FURIA claiming their first ever Major win. It’s a clash of two of the most legendary leaders of all time, and some of the best players in the world, and it’s going to be absolutely incredible.

We’re just a little bit excited.

FURIA have coasted to the final without ever really playing a crazy game. They could - and maybe should - have lost to 9z in the quarters as they were so slow to start, but bailed themselves out with some wild rounds, and since then have been in cruise control. Aurora didn’t get close to them, and 9z crumbled on the last map.

Falcons on the other hand have had to expel all sorts of bodily fluids - blood, sweat, tears, you name it - it’s come out of them. Is that weird to say?

They’ve toppled the best team of all time in a back-and-forth BO3 and then last night squeaked past the most in-form player in the world, and probably the best, to beat Spirit in another classic.

Their route to the final couldn’t have been harder, while FURIA’s couldn’t really have been much easier; but that matters naught in the Cathedral.

The match-up

These two teams are incredibly well-matched.

When you start with the AWPers, you have molodoy who can be a bit more of a livewire than m0NESY, but equally as dangerous. m0NESY has become a far more stable player - to the point that yesterday he was actually dropping a lot of shots and still carrying maps. His ridiculous accuracy was not as on show as it used to be, but he’s become a better, more consistent player who doesn’t need the flashy bits all the time - just in the big moments.

molodoy is far more old-school; if he were a footballer, he’d be a Barclaysman. If he were a cricketer, he’d play Bazball. He plays with a Samba flair that makes you forget he isn’t really Brazilian; he’s aggressive, flashy, supremely gifted and a glorious watch. He’s sort of like m0NESY of a few years ago, ups and downs included.

He can win you the game outright and he can go missing, but we’d imagine at least one of the maps in this game will be molodoy’s. He will take over at least once, the question is whether Falcons can handle it.

As the de facto ‘second star’ role players go, NiKo and KSCERATO might be the most overqualified in history. Both are up there in terms of best riflers ever to touch the game, but with very different philosophies. NiKo was always a bit more of a playmaker, and though he’s toned it down a bit on this team you can tell sometimes that he wants to make things happen more than let them happen to him. KSCERATO is content to sit back and let the sheep run onto his blade - forcing opposition players into bad choices with clever positioning and incredible micro decisions, then punishing them with pixel-perfect aim.

TeSeS and yuurih, similarly, are both good enough to be stars on a worse team, but work as safety nets and rifle depth on these sides. TeSeS has been a player reborn under karrigan, and looks nearly as dangerous as he did on HEROIC, while yuurih had looked under par for a bit, yet has roared back into form at this Major.

There are two potential mismatches in this series; FalleN vs karrigan, because as always, karrigan can’t frag. He’s been alright in the playoffs thus far, in fairness, but FalleN is a more talented player who also can call for an elite team. The impact of having your fifth player be a bit better is somewhat limited, though, as proven by the fact Falcons are here.

Possibly where the game will be won and lost will be in the star aggro rifler role. YEKINDAR and kyousuke are two of the most enthralling watches in world CS. Both play the game on a tightrope and yet keep sprinting on it. kyousuke is probably the better version, in truth - he’s a bit more consistent, but his ceiling is probably slightly lower than YEKINDAR’s. We realise that sounds insane, but peak YEKINDAR is genuinely unstoppable.

The guy has lower lows than a lot of tier one stars, but when the Latvian is feeling it he is a force of nature. Relentlessly aggressive, filthy first bullet aim and unwavering confidence make him a battering ram of a player, and when you let that Trojan horse through the door into your site, KSCERATO pops out from behind him and locks you out.

If we see the best of YEKINDAR, FURIA can and probably will win. If we don’t, kyousuke has proven to be capable of carrying games against the world’s best.

YEKINDAR has the keys.

Expectations

It’s the Major final. Everything goes out the window and it comes down to who has the cojones in the big moments.

karrigan has them, and you’d want to back Falcons in every big game because of it - but NiKo has failed in two Major finals and everyone knows the demons that haunt him. Yesterday he went way off the boil, and Falcons can’t afford to have him off his game again.

FURIA are hard to pick as a winner confidently because their game relies on two enigmatic stars. YEKINDAR and molodoy are match-winners but they’re also liable for an off-game, and you don’t get many chances in a Major Grand Final to have a bad game. We know we’re going to get elite output from KSCERATO, so it probably only needs one to have a Major-winning performance.

If we absolutely HAD to pick a winner, we’d just about plump for Falcons. kyousuke/NiKo is historically unprecedented as a rifle duo, and having m0NESY behind them makes it even scarier. With TeSeS back to his best, they just don’t look beatable.

But FURIA are miracle workers - and it’s a World Cup year. You don’t bet against Brazilians in a World Cup year.

It’s going to be a beautiful game.