degster shines as Falcons eliminate The MongolZ in Bucharest

The European squad survives another elimination match thanks to a great performance from its Russian AWPer.

Falcons have booked the final spot in the PGL Bucharest quarter-finals following a hard-fought 2-1 victory against The MongolZ in the 2-2 Swiss stage round.

Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski's troops came back from a map down to defeat the Asian giants, with outbound AWPer Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov leading his team's efforts with 50 frags over the last two maps.

It's the first playoff appearance for Falcons since Cluj-Napoca, following early exits in Stockholm and Lisbon. After dreadful showings against Complexity and GamerLegion, they seem to be getting closer to their A-game, though questions remain about their title credentials in Bucharest. In the quarter-finals, they will go up against Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson's troops once again.

Date	Matches
PGL Bucharest 2025
11/04/2025	GamerLegion 09:00 Falcons	Match

"After we got destroyed in those first two matches, we didn't feel good," Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač said after the match. "It was embarrassing how we played. It was just not acceptable. We kept talking after each game, we kept addressing the issues. We tried to find solutions and we never gave up.

"Props to Danny [zonic] for keeping us alive throughout the tournament. It was very tough after we lost to GamerLegion. He was one of the reasons why we came back and managed to qualify for playoffs. And the players stepped up massively in these moments as well. I'm really happy to see us find our groove again."

Ayush "⁠mzinho⁠" Batbold was a force during the first half of Mirage, racking up 17 frags (ten more than his closest teammate) and putting up a 135 ADR as The MongolZ cruised to an 8-4 lead on the T side, preventing Falcons from stringing rounds together.

Falcons' struggles continued in the second half as they were once again unable to win the conversion after taking the pistol round. With Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren taking over on the CT side, the Mongolians held off a late comeback attempt from Falcons to put the game to bed.

Falcons showed a much different side of theirs on Dust2, where degster led the way to an 9-3 lead on the CT side with a stunning 15-3 score. After a quiet game on Mirage, NiKo delivered a performance befitting his CS stardom, putting up a 180 ADR on the T side to power Falcons to an easy win.

Ancient began with back-to-back aces from René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen and degster. Falcons rode that momentum to a 4-0 start, but then The MongolZ finally hit their stride, with the half ending in a 6-6 stalemate.

The MongolZ carried that momentum into the second half and quickly hit double digits. With pressure mounting, Falcons picked up the pace, winning six in a row to reach match point before wrapping it up in overtime, where they managed to keep their composure after a massive blunder that could have proved costly.