Falcons have taken down MOUZ and are in the semi-finals of the Esports World Cup 2025. With no shortage of criticism up until this point, the Falcons will be facing a rejuvenated Aurora side who are looking deadly coming into the tournament.
VETO
- Falcons removed Overpass
- MOUZ removed Dust2
- Falcons picked Ancient
- MOUZ picked Inferno
- Falcons removed Mirage
- MOUZ removed Train
- Nuke was left over
Map 1: Ancient; Pick: Falcons; Winner: Falcons
Falcons got on the board with a force buy conversion in the second round and managed to keep up with MOUZ, who have historically performed well on Ancient. MOUZ, having edged out a lead, Falcons levelled the scoreline before the end of the half. MOUZ started the second half with two solid rounds before the Falcons went on a tear to hit map point. Winning 6 rounds in a row, the Falcons outclassed MOUZ and closed the map, but not before losing one more round. Winning the map 13-9, the Falcons had their stars in m0NESY and kyousuke firing on all cylinders with the rest of the cast chiming in when needed.
Map 2: Inferno; Pick: MOUZ; Winner: MOUZ
Falcons dropped the ball right after winning the pistol on their defense as MOUZ put up a streak to go 5-1 up. The remainder of the half went by in both teams trading rounds before MOUZ concluded with a narrow lead of 7-5. Having gone into deficit, the Falcons failed to recover as MOUZ rushed their way to the map point. While Falcons did win a few rounds on their offense, they were few and far between, leading to MOUZ closing the map and taking us to Nuke. With a rating of 1.69, Torzsi stopped the Falcons from going 2-0 as match headed to the third map, having secured an impressive win.
Map 3: Nuke; Pick: Decider; Winner: Falcons
Coming off the back of a crushing defeat, the Falcons started strong with a streak of 7 rounds and managed one more before MOUZ salvaged their half, trailing 8-4. Moving to the offence, the Falcons opened the final half of the series with a pistol round win and dropped the ball right afterwards. While the Falcons did manage to win a few rounds, MOUZ kept pushing with little to nothing going for them. It took a miraculous m0NESY 1v2 clutch to put the Falcons on series point, and it seemed an easy task thereafter. MOUZ started mounting a comeback, pulling in 10 rounds before an eco A-site rush from Falcons sealed the deal for them.
MOUZ are failing to hit a consistent level at big events, and having fallen to Vitality many times in the last season, they have yet to win a big event this season. While they remain 3rd in the world, their inconsistencies might not keep them there for long.
As for the Falcons, they have had their fair share of criticism, and now they rejoice. With MOUZ out of the picture, Aurora remains a challenging hurdle on their way to the finals.