Even the biggest skeptics could not have foreseen this result. After months of great results, in which they played in three Grand Finals and became one of the most respected teams in CS2, Team Falcons were eliminated from the Austin Major.
Nobody understands how a roster composed of players like Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, and other CS2 stars was able to lose against the likes of B8, Lynn Vision Gaming, and MIBR.
All of these teams are not even in the top 16 while Falcons have been, at least in the last several months, the second-best team in the world.
Going from nearly defeating Team Vitality in best-of-five matches to losing like this is not something we see every day.
What was the cause of this disaster? Was it stress? Jetlag? Bad luck?… Nobody knows. All we know is that the rest of the tournament will be a bit less fun to watch.
For Team Vitality, the path to another CS2 Major trophy is now uncontested. The two remaining teams who could give them a run for their money are MOUZ and Team Spirit.
But it’s doubtful that they will win against an opponent that won six consecutive trophies in the last five months and 30 consecutive matches.
Team Falcons’ Elimination
Team Falcons started the Austin Major in stage 2 and their first opponent was B8. After a disastrous first half (3 – 9), they eventually lost 8 – 13.
The second match should have been a lot easier. Chinese teams, such as LVG, are still light-years behind other regions in CS2. On top of that, LVG had been defeated by FURIA in the first match 13 – 4. Team Falcons took the lead in the first half (7 – 5) but could not maintain it. They lost 9 – 13.
The third match, against OG, started with another disastrous result. After decisively winning the first half on Dust II (3 – 9), Falcons lost the second half (10 – 2) and were practically defeated on their strongest map. Even after winning the next two maps, everyone knew they were in poor form.
Against MIBR, the team played the first map well and won 13 – 6 on Ancient. But on Nuke and Inferno, the situation looked bad from the start. The scores were 9 – 13 and 20 – 22.
