Falcons muscle past Spirit to claim Grand Final berth

Man, what a game. We love Counter-Strike.

Falcons are in the Grand Final after a gruelling marathon of elite Counter-Strike, and we loved every single second of it.

It took two overtime wins for Falcons, but that’s exactly when karrigan is at his best, and it’s no coincidence they’ve started winning these close games since he took charge of the team - and his fragging hasn’t been quite so bad, either.

In fact, it was he who made a game-saving play, diving through a smoke to deny a plant and move Falcons to 11 just as Spirit looked to drive a stake into their hearts.

There were so many moments in this game - TeSeS won a gorgeous 1v2 late on in the series, the aforementioned karrigan smoke dive, magixx beating NiKo in a crucial 1v1 and seemingly knocking him off his game for half a map (or more), Falcons losing a 2v4 with another mini-map moment… and all that was in under half the series.

Falcons took map one, Anubis, in round 30 after sh1ro somehow turned a 2v4 into a won round with all four kills to keep Spirit alive in round 29. sh1ro, it must be said, had a fantastic series and was a huge part of the reason Spirit were even in the game for most of it, as donk was abnormally quiet.

Not bad, just quiet.

kyousuke had another step-up on the stage, and is quickly becoming the player Falcons need. His aim is absolutely stunning, and he won the all-important 1v1 to take the map. He was also part of some very important 2v2 wins down the stretch, as tN1R and zont1x failed to convert against him and NiKo, which… actually, fair enough.

Mirage was a completely different story; Spirit were the better team throughout, and kyousuke went missing. NiKo was keeping Falcons in it, but after he overthought and sleepwalked into magixx in a 1v1, he too disappeared and Spirit coasted to a 13-8 win.

tN1R struggled in some big moments on the first map, but had no such issues on Mirage where he was a constant thorn in Falcons’ side. He consistently found openings and cut rotations on Spirit’s offense, and was integral to everything moving along smoothly. One such example saw him sneak out ramp and find a free kill after hiding under balcony, and opening up the A site for an open plant.

Dust 2, though, was the map of back-to-back-to-back highlights. This map was like a Hollywood film at times.

Falcons got a lot of joy out of the B site on their T side, as zont1x really struggled to have any impact as the anchor. In truth, it was a poor series from him throughout all three maps, but it was most noticeable here. It didn’t help that donk is the first rotator in, and he too had an off-map.

Even so, Spirit won the half. sh1ro was lights out again, and magixx was getting lots of work done every time Falcons did go A. magixx was also able to mind control Falcons into throwing a practically unloseable 4v2 on the B site, post-plant, as NiKo overpeeked and died into him and things fell apart from there.

TeSeS smoked donk and sh1ro in a 1v2 despite donk hitting one of the greatest shots you’ll ever see in the same round not long before that. Genuinely, there was something crazy happening nearly every round in this game.

The second pistol saw Falcons overrun Spirit in the tunnels with some perfectly timed CT aggression, before Spirit could get the guns out and settle down. They were down 9-10 when they too lost an unloseable round on the B site, allowing karrigan to push a smoke dry and catch the planter and donk with their metaphorical pants down, and somehow pull Falcons into a lost round.

magixx then called his bluff and rushed B with Tec-9s, achieving the same position without the same result, and with an eco after that, we were at 11-11.

NiKo had had a very poor map, but as the game drew closer his influence grew. We moved into overtime after the teams shared dominant rounds, but NiKo finally found his feet and found massive impact to help Falcons to three CT rounds in a row - and predictably, they finished the game on the weak B site, with zont1x and donk unable to inflict even a point of damage on the onrushing Falcons players.

What a game.