Virtus.pro eliminate Falcons with back-to-back comeback wins

Every single map was hard-fought, with the latter two going to overtime, but Virtus.pro prevailed.

Virtus.pro have kept their BLAST Open Lisbon playoff hopes alive with a 2-1 victory over Falcons, recovering from a loss on Mirage (11-13) with wins on Ancient (19-16) and Inferno (22-20).

Mirage seemed it would be a straightforward affair as Falcons began the map in imperious fashion on their T side, finding opening kill after opening kill off the backs of Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski.

Virtus.pro managed to find some footing on their own T side, however, winning two force-buys early in the half and carrying that momentum into a string of offensive rounds. Just when it seemed the Russians would force OT, degster held firm on B with a 3K hold to secure Falcons the map.

The story was similar on Ancient, with Falcons running out to a convincing lead in the first half, this time abusing Virtus.pro's lacklustre T side. The script then flipped as Falcons struggled just as much on their own offensive effort, often giving up man-advantage scenarios, allowing Virtus.pro to force overtime.

FL4MUS runs down mid and aces Falcons

Virtus.pro made an adjustment to their attack in OT, consistently playing contact into bombsites and catching Falcons off guard, which was enough for the Russians to take the series to a decider.

For the third time in this series, Falcons started well, this time on Inferno, only to let their lead wane. The European combine largely dominated on their T side, bar a spectacular Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev ace, only for Virtus.pro to start to mount a comeback once Falcons were on series point at 12-5. Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev found repeated entry kills after a slow start to the game, helping guide Virtus.pro all the way to another overtime.

VP rush B with two P90s

OT was a frenetic fist-fight, with clutches going both ways, Virtus.pro winning a double-P90 rush, and Falcons completing an impossible retake, taking the map all the way to a third set of extra rounds. Ultimately Virtus.pro succeeded down the stretch, consigning Falcons to a heart-breaking elimination.

With this victory, Virtus.pro have earned themselves a lower bracket final bout with the winner of FaZe vs. Spirit.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
24/03/2025	Virtus.pro 13:45 Spirit	Match

Virtus.pro show nerves of steel

Virtus.pro were down in every single map of this series, often after playing poorly in the early stages, but each time they dug deep and found the resilience needed to haul themselves back into contention.

FL4MUS deserves credit for consistently impactful rounds, whoever called the P90 rush into B is perhaps the bravest man alive, and FL1T's immense entry work on Inferno was worth its weight in gold.

Virtus.pro were in danger of squandering their potential deep run and vital VRS gains if they had not followed up on their victory over FaZe. Now they have a shot at the playoffs and a huge VRS boost with Major invites looming.

Falcons squander innumerable series points

Falcons did not play badly in this series, at least for much of it. In fact they were comfortably the better team early in each map, but they somehow let their leads slip away, to the point where they lost double-digit series points across Ancient and Inferno combined.

There seemed to be concentration issues at times, Falcons were caught by contact plays and gaps they were not considering a few times too often, but ultimately they found themselves bested by an incredibly resilient Virtus.pro performance.

After a finals appearance at PGL Cluj-Napoca, Falcons have now flopped back-to-back tournaments, and seem to have regressed after some promising progress in Romania.