Falcons sour Spirit's return event with victory in first meeting

The IEM Melbourne finalists emerged victorious in their first match against donk and company.

Falcons have earned a bye to the semi-final of BLAST Rivals Season 1 after edging out a 2-1 victory over Spirit in the Group B upper bracket final.

It was the first meeting between the cores as Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov was in the lineup when HEROIC faced Spirit at the Shanghai Major, and marked only the second match for Spirit after they had nearly a month off due to illness leading to their absence from IEM Melbourne.

Spirit started the series out in terrifying form, but couldn't contend against a superlative Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač on Ancient and were punished for several mistakes down the line in an incredibly tight Dust2 decider.

Falcons continued their uptick since adding Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov and earned 'The Flash' a victory on his birthday over 2024's Player of the Year, earning an extra day off as they await the winner of FaZe vs. MOUZ in the semi-finals.

The loss is significant for Spirit as it puts them on the same side of the playoff bracket as Vitality, who they will face if they can defeat Wildcard in the quarter-finals.

Date	Matches
BLAST Rivals 2025 Season 1
02/05/2025	Wildcard 18:25 Spirit	Match
03/05/2025	Vitality 19:00 Spirit	Match

Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets dominated Connector and Middle as per his norm to open up proceedings on Mirage, but it was Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia's impact from Catwalk that truly proved a thorn in Falcons' side.

The 19-year-old bagged four multi-kills in the first half, the same as donk, but cleared 2024's best player by over 60 damage per round to finish Spirit's CT effort with 148.7 ADR.

Falcons struggled to default in Middle largely because of that, and the few gun rounds they found success on came courtesy of a Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski spray transfer, a weak setup created on A by an entry, and a boost to directly counter zont1x's authoritative reign over Catwalk.

Spirit wasted little time in putting Falcons to the blade after the swap, a donk triple in the pistol keeping their momentum going and some great calls out of Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov not opening up a single window of opportunity.

Much of the discussion on the desk coming into Ancient centered on the battle between NiKo and donk in Middle, but the Bosnian was comfortable sitting back early as Falcons won the pistol and went up 3-0 thanks to a FAMAS triple from m0NESY.

They lost a 5v3 in the ensuing round to a force-buy couldn't win out the economy war after Spirit clawed back another 3v5 two rounds later, and it seemed like they would romp to victory after kyxsan inexplicably left B in a 3v3 and allowed Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov to win a back-breaking 1v3 clutch.

However, Spirit's 6-4 lead was turned on its head by NiKo, who tallied multi-kills in five of the following seven rounds — including two triple kills, a quad kill, and a 1v2 clutch — in a transcendent performance that saw Falcons coast to victory after winning nine straight.

NiKo went 3:2 in his head-to-head against donk, but the Bosnian's utter dominance was truly showcased by his 6:0 record over Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev, 7:2 record over zont1x, and 7:1 record against chopper.

The series culminated with a highlight-filled brawl on Dust2, starting early with m0NESY hitting an absurd headshot to complete a 3K and win Falcons the second-round force.

Spirit regained control once guns came back up, but were set back when m0NESY and René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen robbed a round with pistols with a pinch into Middle.

It was sh1ro that rose to the occasion again for Spirit, much like on Ancient, falling just short of pulling off a 1v4 clutch, winning a 1v2 in the next, and bagging a triple in the final pistol round to get his team back in the running.

The Shanghai Major champions surged up to double digits off the back of that, 10-5, but struggled against Falcons' early gun rounds as aggression up Middle from donk failed to pay off and NiKo won a 1v2 clutch to bring the gap within one round.

Falcons then made a critical mistake by trying to force the issue at Long against a half-buy, coming out on top of the initial trade but faltering in their site hit to give up a must-win round.

That could have proved a costly mistake as Spirit hit series point two rounds later, but Falcons weathered the storm and won out the trade war to force overtime, where they won a 3v5 and 3v4 to clean sweep their way to victory.