NiKo fires Falcons past Eternal Fire

A 130 ADR showing on the decider of Nuke was a reminder of why Falcons pursued NiKo's signature for so long.

Falcons' core have broken a streak of three successive defeats to Eternal Fire in their highest stakes meeting yet at PGL Cluj-Napoca's quarter-final.

The 2-1 win came in spite of Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen's troops losing on their pick of Dust2, as they came ready for EF's Train gamble and swept to victory on the back of a convincing Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač victory in the head-to-head with a hapless Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş.

NiKo made Falcons crowd favorites in Romania, a rarity for the Saudi-backed organization, and gave the crowd a show with a 1.53 series rating (and 1.91 on the decider of Nuke).

"It took us to play really well to beat EF," NiKo told the stream. "We know that the top dogs are missing. We can [only] beat the teams in front of us and I'm happy we are doing it. I'm hoping for FaZe tomorrow."

The pairing's last meeting, at Katowice, ended in 13-7 and 13-5 wins for Eternal Fire on Inferno and Train and after struggles on the former this event, Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli and Sezgin "⁠Fabre⁠" Kalaycı opted for the newest map in the pool as their pick.

With Train still leaning heavily towards the CT side, EF needed to capitalize on a 3-1 start more than they did as they slumped to a 4-8 half-time score and 11-13 defeat.

But the kicker came on Nuke, where XANTARES disappeared completely. The Turkish star rifler, so often the reliable source of firepower, ended the map 2-7 in opening duels, 2-5 in duels with NiKo, and a server-low 0.55 rating.

That was too much of a hole for MAJ3R to call his way out of as Falcons ran away with the map and the series.

Date	Matches
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025
21/02/2025	FaZe 18:40 SAW	Match
22/02/2025	Falcons 20:00 FaZe	Match

degster arrives in Falcons

NiKo may have led the way but Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov was his Robin.

The sniper made the difference on the tricky Train T side (15-7 K-D, 1.81 rating) as Falcons came back from 9-10 down, and had his second best map in Falcons so far.

A great quad-kill in a tight spot from Floor on the Upper bombsite of Nuke was also crucial in a swing round early on the decider.

With Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif also having impact beyond his roles, Falcons' new roster are heating up just in time for a potential bout with FaZe in the semi-finals.

Did pressure get to Eternal Fire?

Eternal Fire have now failed in the two arena games they have had this year, falling to The MongolZ in Katowice and Falcons here.

A big topic on the desk pre-game was whether they could make good on their earned status among the tournament favorites after arriving as the highest-ranked team in the field.

And ultimately, they have not done so — so was pressure to blame?

You definitely cannot pin the blame on new recruit Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü, their best player on Dust2 with 8 double kills.

So it falls on the existing core, with XANTARES' failings on Nuke most obvious even if he ended the BO3 top of EF's rating charts.

MAJ3R has also spoke of homesickness within the team in the broadcast's interviews with obvious challenges coming alongside EF's decision to attend every Big Event (and their trend of going deep in all of them).

Regardless of where the blame lies, the tournament will go down as a missed opportunity for a team that started 2025 so brightly.

At ESL Pro League in March, the big dogs return to the team list and Eternal Fire will have the spotlight on them as they look to extend their honeymoon even further.