Team Falcons and MOUZ have progressed to the BLAST Rivals Semi-Finals after MOUZ defeated Vitality and Falcons took down G2.
The Counter-Strike tournament now moves on to the semi-finals, with MOUZ facing Spirit and Falcons facing FURIA for places in the Grand Final.
apEX takes responsibility for defeat as MOUZ upset Vitality
The first series of the day saw MOUZ take an encouraging piece of revenge against Vitality, who have so often stood in the way of MOUZ at CS events.
MOUZ were able to defeat Vitality 13-8, 16-14 on Mirage and Cache to mark another positive sign of progress for the roster after their IEM Beijing 2026 victory.
MOUZ progressed to face Team Spirit in the semi-finals, while Vitality will proceed to the pre-Major bootcamp as they aim to recover their form for the PGL Singapore Major 2026
After the loss, Vitality IGL Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire was quick to take responsibility for Vitality’s defeat. The Frenchman has just returned from paternity leave after the arrival of his first child, and cited rustiness both individually and poor calling as reasons for Vitality’s loss.
apEX averaged a 0.53 rating across the series, recording a 17-39 K/D. That performance came a day after Vitality lost 0-13 on Mirage to FURIA in an uncharacteristic collapse in the Upper Final of groups.
Falcons defeat G2 as m0nesy hits highlight
Falcons took on G2 in the other quarter-final as cousins Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovač and Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač took each other on once again.
The matchup tends to be a chaotic one, and Dust 2 proved to be just that, going the full 24 rounds as G2 stole the map away from Falcons, who had picked it.
Onto Mirage, Falcons found an unlikely hero in René ‘TeSeS’ Madsen, who delivered multikill after multikill, including clutch wins to propel Falcons to a 13-2 victory on Mirage.
Despite TeSeS’s heroics, the map will undoubtedly be remembered for Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov’s 3k at ramp that saw the young AWPer swap between the AWP and Deagle to deliver a scintillating triple.
Onto Anubis, Falcons broke G2’s economy early with a second-round force buy on CT, leading to a faltering 6-6 half for G2 on the favored T side.
From then on, it was simply a matter of exploiting the map’s dynamics and G2’s unfamiliarity with Anubis, tearing G2 apart and delivering a 13-8 victory on the map.
Falcons will now face FURIA in the semis in what will be a rematch of the IEM Cologne 2026 Major Grand Final. That time, Falcons won 3-0, but FURIA are back in championship form after victories at the Thunderpick World Championship and PGL Masters Bucharest.
Who will take the trophy home? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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