FURIA demolish Aurora en route to the Major final

FURIA blew Aurora away to claim the first spot in the Major final at IEM Cologne.

Aurora had been superb throughout but today just came up against a much better team who were just more accomplished, smarter, faster and more explosive.

The Turkish team have had issues on stage and one might have hoped that their comfortable win in the quarter-finals might have assuaged those demons, but instead they came roaring back on Nuke in particular.

Both maps saw Aurora take an early lead before being quickly pinned back into a deficit at the half, with FURIA taking seven T side rounds on Dust 2 after an 0-3 start. As soon as the guns came out there was only really one winner, as the Brazilians on FURIA imposed their will. This was a game where the old duo of KSCERATO and yuurih reared its head once more, and Aurora simply had no answer.

KSCERATO ended the half with an ace, which summed up how things had gone once the rifles had come out.

Neither molodoy nor YEKINDAR started well, but the two combined for a back-breaking round down the stretch. molodoy quickscoped XANTARES and followed up with a second to turn the 4v3 into a winnable round, but Aurora fought back to take the advantage once more, leaving YEKINDAR in a crucial 1v2. He caught the perfect timing onto MAJ3R and held his nerve to win the 1v1 to push FURIA to 11 and out of Aurora’s reach.

Nuke was even more extreme; Aurora took an early 3-0 lead, and a 4-1 lead, but proceeded to lose the next 12 rounds in a row and exit the semi-final much quicker than anyone could have anticipated.

YEKINDAR was a menace, and his triple entry to turn a 3v5 into a 3v2 in the final round of the first half encapsulated everything he is about as a player, and everything wrong with Aurora’s defence.

yuurih, too, hasn’t consistently been the top player he was a few years ago of late - partially due to his changing roles - but he was phenomenal in this series and maybe even better than YEKINDAR. The two of them dovetailed beautifully, with YEKINDAR making space and yuurih abusing it.

The series ended abruptly with a triple spraydown from KSCERATO, as he mowed down Aurora’s hopes, dreams and Major chances in one fell swoop. It was a beautiful way to end it for FURIA, but an ugly one for Aurora.