IEM Katowice 2025G2 send NiKo's Falcons home in last place
NiKo's old team came back to haunt him with a comeback from 4-9 down on the decider.
Falcons have been eliminated from IEM Katowice's main event in last place at the hands of Nikola "NiKo" Kovač's former team G2.
"I was hoping not to have this so fast, so soon," NiKo told the broadcast pre-game, but fate put him against G2 in an elimination match just one month into his new Falcons project.
The series went the distance after both teams lost their map picks, with G2 able to come back from 4-9 down on T side Mirage to win 13-11.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Katowice 2025 | ||
| 01/02/2025 |
Finished
0:2 |
Match |
| 02/02/2025 |
Finished
1:2 |
Match |
G2's off-season was about replacing NiKo in the aggregate: his openers with Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa, and his mid-round multis with Nikita "HeavyGod" Martynenko.
And, fittingly, the young duo scored a 2v4 victory late in Mirage that was the final nail in Falcons' coffin, off of a malbsMd triple opener and a HeavyGod double to close.
"I'm super disappointed," NiKo told the stream. "We are still a new team and knew it would be a tough event, we faced a very hot EF and G2 are one of the best teams in the world.
"I truly believe this was not the real face of us. We have done much better in practice. Here, it just came down to nerves a bit, a bit of pressure to prove to people we have a good team. Maybe that hurt us a little bit."
G2 are also under the microscopes of the community, but were able to win despite playing poorly for much of the series.
The spectre of an available Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek looms large over the under fire leadership duo of Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski and Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, but the storied double act showed their resilience under pressure by sticking to their guns for the T side comeback.
The road only gets tougher for the team, however, as they await the loser of FaZe and Vitality's heavyweight bout in the lower bracket.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Katowice 2025 | ||
| 03/02/2025 |
19:45
|
Match |
| 01/02/2025 |
Finished
0:2 |
Match |
| 02/02/2025 |
Finished
1:2 |
Match |
m0NESY yet to get rolling in 2025
Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov dominated a patchwork BetBoom, but against top opposition his 2025 has been disappointing on LAN when placed next to his #2 placing in the top 20 players of 2024.
A match against former friend NiKo and known suitor Falcons was a chance to change that but The Flash ended the first two maps at the bottom of G2's scoreboard — even below Snax.
Dust2 was m0NESY's sixth worst lan map in G2 as he ended on a 0.52 rating.
m0NESY's off day could have cost the squad before the heroic Mirage comeback, and the Russian superstar's frustration was evident in the post-game interview.
"I played fucking awful," he told the stream. "After Dust2 I wanted to throw my mouse in the trash."
Some good rounds on Mirage (and two key triples on Ancient) were proof of his quality but we are still waiting to see his peak form.
Comms cost Falcons
"I cannot hear what is going on in the server because we are panicking," Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski was broadcast as saying by ESL in a voice comms snippet. "And it's happening since the first half. Chill, boys. We are playing a fucking game."
With the decder at 9-4, Falcons seemed to have got themselves under control but Emil "Magisk" Reif, spotting A Lurker HeavyGod running back to T spawn with his back turned, called for a B rotation that allowed G2 to execute A unopposed.
That round was the turning point, as Falcons — despite often having the correct read — fell victim to G2's repetitive and simple A executes.
"We played some good CS," NiKo said. "But also, we had some moments where we were on the right site and we didn't close out the round. This hurt us, even yesterday [as well]."
An early highlight of the year contender wasted
Magisk has had an awful 2025 so far, averaging a 0.76 rating in his first 7 maps, but he rolled back the years here in a confidence-boosting 1v4.
Surrounded on all sides, position noted, he turned the 1v4 scenario into a round win in just nine seconds for one of the clutches of the year.
It was just a shame it couldn't prevent the team's elimination.
 Falcons |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 54 - 43 | +0.51% | 93.5 | 71.2% | 1.29 | |
| 48 - 45 | +0.31% | 78.8 | 72.7% | 1.16 | |
| 49 - 44 | +0.02% | 77.1 | 69.7% | 1.05 | |
| 42 - 47 | -1.22% | 67.3 | 66.7% | 1.01 | |
| 25 - 41 | -0.06% | 50.7 | 68.2% | 0.76 |
 G2 |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 - 42 | +0.39% | 76.6 | 71.2% | 1.11 | |
| 44 - 43 | +0.12% | 75.1 | 71.2% | 1.06 | |
| 43 - 50 | +0.19% | 75.7 | 74.2% | 1.02 | |
| 47 - 39 | +0.28% | 68.1 | 63.6% | 1.02 | |
| 37 - 46 | -0.82% | 66.0 | 66.7% | 0.89 |
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
William 'mezii' Merriman
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski
David 'frozen' Čerňanský
Helvijs 'broky' Saukants
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