Falcons vs G2 headlines EWC Round of 16

The Saudi tournament will kick off in less than two weeks.

m0NESY and NiKo will face their former team in Riyadh

The Esports World Cup (EWC) has revealed the bracket for this year's Counter-Strike competition. Scheduled for August 20-24, the tournament will feature 16 teams, invited through the VRS, and a $1.25 million prize pool.

The tournament will be played in a single-elimination, best-of-three format, meaning that teams will be eliminated after one loss. EWC used the August VRS ranking to determine the seeding, with Spirit, MOUZ, G2 and Falcons all placed on the same side of the bracket.

Falcons vs G2 will be one of the standout matches of the Round of 16, pitting Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov against his former team for the first time. At IEM Cologne, Falcons failed to live up to the hype generated by Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin's signing as they were eliminated in 9th-12th place following defeats to The MongolZ and FURIA.

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Cologne champions Spirit will lock horns with HEROIC, who recently signed Alimzhan "⁠Alkaren⁠" Bitimbai on loan from the Russian organization, while Vitality will go up against Liquid on the other side of the bracket.

Below you can find all of the opening matchups:

Date	Matches
Esports World Cup 2025
20/08/2025	Natus Vincere 13:00 3DMAX	Match
20/08/2025	GamerLegion 13:15 The MongolZ	Match
20/08/2025	TYLOO 16:15 Astralis	Match
20/08/2025	Vitality 17:05 Liquid	Match
20/08/2025	Spirit 20:10 HEROIC	Match
20/08/2025	FaZe 20:15 Aurora	Match
21/08/2025	MOUZ 13:00 Virtus.pro	Match
21/08/2025	G2 13:00 Falcons	Match

Note: The schedule displayed above is provisional