FalleN after FURIA beat Imperial fe: "It really felt like we should have lost [Mirage]"

The Brazilian captain admitted his team got lucky with an overrotation from Imperial fe at 12-11 that allowed his team to recover and win in overtime.

FURIA are one win away from advancing to the top-16 stage of IEM Katowice after securing a 2-0 victory over Imperial Valkyries (16-13 Mirage, 13-1 Dust2) in their opening match of the Play-in.

The Brazilian side lived up to their status as favorites upon arriving on the server, going on an 11-1 run after losing the pistol and conversion on Mirage, but a resurgence from Ana "⁠ANa⁠" Dumbravă on the defense spearheaded an 11-round comeback for Imperial Valkyries to hit map point before they lost in overtime.

Marcelo "⁠chelo⁠" Cespedes and Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo led FURIA's effort on the first map before Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato took over on Dust2, where no chance at a comeback was offered with a 13-1 lockout.

"Those girls play very well," FalleN said in a post-match interview on broadcast, crediting Imperial Valkyries for their showing on Mirage.

"It's real, they are on a very strong level. I don't think any other female team has come any closer to this level, and I have seen girls playing since 2001 when we had a lot of girls playing in Brazil as well.

"They have a lot of good players together, they understand the game, the strategies they run make a lot of sense. They are doing strategies that are used by a lot of top teams when they are playing their games, and there are maps that treat them well."

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2025 Play-in
30/01/2025	BIG 18:30 Imperial Valkyries	Match
31/01/2025	Wildcard 13:30 FURIA	Match

Imperial fe continues to make their case despite missing in-game leader tory

All eyes were on the women's team competing at their second tier-one event after they took the fight to Natus Vincere online in BLAST Bounty Season 1, but the absence of in-game leader Victoria "⁠tory⁠" Kazieva due to visa issues proved a blow too large for the team to recover from.

However, they once again showed they have what it takes to compete among teams in the top 30 with their showing on Mirage. They came back from 3-11 and were in a 5v4 at 12-11 but overrotated to B to allow FalleN's side to push into overtime, where a clutch from Zainab "⁠zAAz⁠" Turkie wasn't enough to allow Imperial Valkyries to steal away the win.

"We sweat a lot on the first map, it really felt that we should have lost," FalleN admitted.

"They had a 5v4 at 12-11 and I don't know why they only played one on A Site, that was kind of lucky for us. If they had played standard, they would have won the first map and we'd be playing Train right now."

ANa makes the difference on Mirage after poor series against NAVI

ANa, who has been crowned the Women's Player of the Year for three years in a row, had a disaster series against Natus Vincere in BLAST Bounty, finishing at the bottom of the board with a 0.54 rating and 15-33 K-D.

She had another slow start against FURIA but shrugged it off on CT side with multiple opening kills, repeatedly dismantling FURIA's defaults to kick off the comeback effort.

"ANa was hitting some crazy shots in Mid, she was controlling Mid even better than what I was doing on CT side," FalleN said. "There was a round where chelo was prefiring Connector and she was instantly killing him through a smoke.

"They were able to capitalize with getting some opening kills, and they were playing solid on CT, anchoring the A site very well. They gave us lot of nerves, I felt like we have lost this game, we should have lost."

ANa couldn't keep that level going on Dust2, although that was in part due to all of Imperial Valkyries getting outclassed. She found a few openers and a triple kill that led to her team's sole round win, but finished the map with a 0.43 rating and missed a number of shots in a far cry from the consistent dominance she shows in the women's scene.