Falcons fend off MOUZ comeback to reach EWC semis

MOUZ nearly recovered a 6-12 deficit on the Nuke decider but faltered to pistols in round 23.

Falcons are through to the semi-final of Esports World Cup after beating MOUZ 2-1 (13-9 Ancient, 8-13 Inferno, 13-10 Nuke) in Saudi Arabia.

It was the eighth time the teams faced off this year but the first since Falcons brought in Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin, and the budding Russian star found consistent impact alongside Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski to reach his first Big Event semi-final, where he will face Aurora.

Date	Matches
Esports World Cup 2025
23/08/2025	Aurora 20:20 Falcons	Match

After Falcons' squandered advantages continued to stand out in their recent matchups, their tenacity on Ancient seemed to signal the opposite. That didn't last for the whole series, however, with multiple rounds lost to pistols and failed second-round conversions making the match far harder than it needed to be.

That applied on both Inferno and Nuke, leading to a loss on the former but not on the latter, thanks largely to a substantial lead from the first half and a back-breaking 1v2 clutch that saw Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov charge through Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás's flames. Even that was nearly not enough, however, with MOUZ recovering to double digits before Falcons sealed the series on a half-buy.

Falcons show poise on Ancient

Early rounds weren't going Falcons' way with Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo standing tall in defense of A and cutting down a Middle attack, helping put MOUZ ahead 5-3 before kyxsan and kyousuke pulled back a 3v5 on B with a half-buy.

It was one of four disadvantaged rounds that Falcons turned around and one that became the catalyst in their recovery, with m0NESY adding a triple kill to win a post-plant on B and hitting a few stylish taps to end the half with a 1v2 clutch.

Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi dominated the second pistol round with a quad-kill and MOUZ swept the anti-eco to push their opening duel record up to 10-4, but their good fortunes soon turned sour. kyxsan and kyousuke continued to shine in late-round situations, finding double kills repeatedly to win trade battles and recover 4v5 disadvantages as Falcons gave up just one more round in a dominant CT showing to close out the map.

MOUZ bounce back

Falcons couldn't carry that into Inferno, where their attempts to trade out fruitfully fell short to MOUZ's deathball executes. Their show of strength on Ancient fell apart and they were back to squandering advantages, including in the second round where MOUZ won a force-buy after losing the pistol.

Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin did well to bleed time down low and push his team into weaker bombsites, aided again by another stellar opening gambit from Jimpphat, and a triple kill from torzsi — helped by an overpeek by kyousuke — after Falcons won their second round had MOUZ in firm control at 6-2 as the map started to spiral.

Better utility usage to stall out MOUZ and multi-fragging from Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač on B brought Falcons back to life, with the Bosnian grabbing an ace against pistols to drum up 10 kills in a row before MOUZ swept the final round of the half to stay in the lead.

A 3v5 recovery and 1v2 clutch from kyxsan could have breathed some life into Falcons if not for them immediately losing to another force-buy, and though they found success on B with pistols of their own in the following round, they lost all their guns trying to chase down torzsi in CT.

That proved costly as MOUZ ended up with the economic advantage, which only grew after they completely shut Falcons out of the next round. torzsi and Spinx continued finding high-impact early kills and Brollan single-handedly shut down B with a quad-kill to put MOUZ on map point, which they wasted no time in converting to push the series to a decider.

kyxsan and kyousuke stand tall on Nuke

The buck stopped there for MOUZ, however, with Falcons entering flow state on Nuke. kyousuke downed four in the opening pistol and his team never looked back, with the budding Russian star combining with kyxsan and NiKo for a 7-0 start.

kyousuke and kyxsan added further misery to MOUZ's day by recovering a 2v4, and though Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman finally had an impact round after a dead-quiet series and torzsi chipped in to bring his team back to four at halftime, the deficit would prove too much to overcome.

A force-buy battle at the start of the second half, where Falcons squandered another pistol victory to a force-buy, gave MOUZ the slightest window to come back into the game, but a double from kyxsan and heroic 1v2 clutch by m0NESY set Falcons on match point before pistols stopped MOUZ's comeback effort in round 23.

More highlights from Falcons vs. MOUZ:

• TeSeS 3k wins Falcons the force

• kyousuke and kyxsan combine to convert half-buy 3v5

• m0NESY hits nice spray transfer to complete 3k

• Spinx pistol 4k shuts down Falcons' retake attempt

• kyxsan and kyousuke stay aggressive to break MOUZ's economy

• m0NESY knifes xertioN to kick off Inferno

• Jimpphat double headshot spray through smoke bails MOUZ out in 3v5

• Spinx farms against pistols with clean double taps

• Falcons begin claw back after NiKo triple kill

• NiKo aces against pistols

• kyxsan and TeSeS combine to pull back 3v5

• Brollan single-handedly shuts down B to set MOUZ on map point

• kyxsan's FAMAS takes down three on first gun round

• Jimpphat's heroics all for naught as kyxsan and kyousuke recover 2v4

• torzsi knocks down four to prevent loss to pistols

• NiKo recovers from force-buy loss with 3k