Esports World Cup 2025NiKo back to his best as Falcons take down G2
The Bosnian superstar has a 1.03 rating in the last three months, but topped the scoreboard against his cousin and former team.
Falcons have began their Esports World Cup 2025 campaign with a brawly win over G2.
While a win is a comfort for Falcons after they left IEM Cologne with a 9-12th placing, it was far from a controlled performance with anti-forces falling by the wayside on Ancient and several two-man advantages thrown away.
But the good news for Falcons was the return to form of Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, who both looked off-color in Germany last time out.
The PIF-funded Esports World Cup is a home event for Falcons, who are competing in a whopping 22 events in Riyadh. After winning in 2024, they also lead the Club Championship so far.
"We definitely did [let the pressure get to us]," NiKo said post-game. "It was a very hard game mentally, and I'm really proud of the boys that we dictate the tempo of the game even though we lost some stupid rounds. We had good protocols through the whole game.
"There were nerves, we knew what was on the line. I'm just happy how we handled everything."
NiKo in form, but same old Falcons?
NiKo was far better today than he was in Cologne, with a 96 ADR series, as was m0NESY who ended on 92 ADR — though we are still waiting to see Falcons play with all three of their stars online at once, after a quiet match from Maxim "kyousuke" Lukin.
But if anyone expected Falcons to be a more controlled team, they would have been mistaken as the series descended into a brawl full of 2v4s, 3v5s, and force buys going back and forth.
A team so stacked with playmakers and high-skill individuals is always going to have a more brawly playstyle than the most tactical teams out there, but it should still be a concern for Falcons that chaos was the default for most rounds in the series.
SunPayus' early G2 form leaves a lot to be desired
Álvaro "SunPayus" García has never quite looked the same player in CS2 as he was in 2023, but G2 could still expect a solid level of performance when they signed him and Eetu "sAw" Saha from HEROIC.
So far, however, the Spaniard has really struggled, and has a 0.82 rating in his first 10 LAN maps.
Map one here was a new low, as SunPayus ended Ancient with a 0.41 rating and -11.2% Swing. Train was better, but G2 need more from their sniper in an otherwise promising roster.
More highlights from Falcons vs G2:
 G2 |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 - 32 | -0.19% | 82.2 | 76.2% | 1.13 | |
| 29 - 35 | -2.61% | 81.8 | 66.7% | 0.96 | |
| 25 - 32 | -1.44% | 65.4 | 64.3% | 0.93 | |
| 31 - 33 | -2.27% | 74.2 | 69.0% | 0.85 | |
| 24 - 29 | -4.88% | 55.5 | 64.3% | 0.70 |
 Falcons |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 - 31 | +5.86% | 95.8 | 76.2% | 1.52 | |
| 33 - 25 | +4.54% | 91.9 | 73.8% | 1.33 | |
| 31 - 31 | +0.88% | 73.0 | 81.0% | 1.12 | |
| 32 - 23 | -1.25% | 72.5 | 73.8% | 1.09 | |
| 23 - 30 | +1.35% | 70.6 | 73.8% | 1.05 |
Eetu 'sAw' Saha
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Alimzhan 'Alkaren' Bitimbai
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