Team Liquid falter against a weakened Team Falcons - BLAST Bounty playoffs day one

When you can't beat Team Falcons without arguably their best player (and certainly their best rifler at the moment), maybe you should consider making some changes.

Team Liquid through either an inability or an unwillingness to find another player have ended the roster season with the same line-up, and are getting similarly underwhelming results. Something something, definition of insanity. Falcons came into this game without kyousuke (and NucleonZ in his place) and still were relatively comfortable, albeit with one map going to overtime.

We mentioned in the preview that ultimate was the player to watch because he can be the difference maker, but he often wilts against the best teams in the world. He fulfilled the prophecy, and really struggled in the first map and failed to impose himself on Dust 2 - an AWPer's paradise.

m0NESY ended the series with 50 kills, just shy of double ultimate's 27, which is essentially the story of the game. In kyousuke's absence, m0NESY just did the job of two people and won the game on his own.

For Liquid, this should be a bit of a wake-up call.

Speaking of an AWPer winning the game on their own....

molodoy did as molodoy does and completely took over the game against HEROIC and saved FURIA from what could have been a disastrous start to 2026.

HEROIC are also playing this event with a stand-in for Alkaren, but you wouldn't be able to tell at all. They were superb on Mirage and took FURIA to the cleaners, with KSCERATO and yuurih in particular looking uncharacteristically flustered. It was yuurih's worst map to date, and KSCERATO seemed to not be his hyper-aware self, missing a lurker at top mid and allowing a free triple kill in the most egregious example.

FURIA managed just three rounds on Mirage (molodoy still went 13-8?), and this still wasn't the most one-sided map, as they hit back with a 13-2 win. molodoy's 14-7 scoreline was the pick of the bunch, but this was a more well-rounded performance.

You'll never guess who was the top performer in the final map.

20-11 and a 1.79 rating was enough for FURIA to squeeze over the line on Nuke, with a pretty comfortable lead looking like it might slip away at the end but it was too little, too late for HEROIC. molodoy was undoubtedly the player of the match, and we're not sure we've ever seen someone have such a good K/D in a 13-3 loss before.

What a find he has turned out to be.