In what was deemed to be a promising showing for Team Falcons as one of the hyped teams to put up a fight against Team Vitality – arguably their most challenging opponent heading into this competition. Now all those talks would be fading into the distance as the Falcons are set for an early break and will now move on from their hopes of getting a chance at the major.

No one expected the Falcons to lose this early, especially when they have been winning impressive games and have certainly found ways to win when it matters most. Not this time against MIBR, however, and now it seems that the team is set to get back to the drawing board with the hopes of eventually figuring out their woes and try to solve their struggles moving forward.

To be fair, the Falcons are a top pick to watch out for at the beginning of the tournament, and this is going to be quite a sting. The team fell flat when it mattered most, and they could not find ways to answer the call, which says a lot about how it is expected from the team to be playing at the high level like their contender peers do for most of the season.

A Disappointing Loss

Falcons initially controlled the series with a win at Ancient to conclude a 13-6 rally in the match opener as the T side, showing that they are going to dictate the series. However, the games got a little bit interesting when they pushed for Game 2 at Nuke, where MIBR caught the Falcons sleeping to take a 10-2 lead in the map.

Despite a 7-2 run from the Falcons, MIBR worked well to deny them the comeback and claimed a 13-9 finish to tie the series at 1-1, forcing a series-decider to ensure that they would not go down without a fight.

As expected, both teams put up a stand in the final map, which proved to be quite fun to watch as it was decided in Inferno – of all maps. Falcons started by winning the first three rounds, but MIBR responded to take an 8-4 leaf by the half and showed that this is going to be a fun ride for both teams.

MIBR did not let up in the second half and won the pistol and conversion rounds. Falcons tried to claw their way back with six wins in the next rounds to even it up at 10-10, forcing an overtime. By Round 42, fans were treated to a massive roller coaster finish, but it was MIBR who stole the show with a defuse to win the game.

A Disappointing Finish

Considering that the Falcons fielded a strong group composed of Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, the team was definitely expected to win no matter what. However, this ending has shaken a lot of the “favorite” talks at this point, and that no lead is safe when it comes to these majors.

For what it’s worth, m0NESY did step up well in the loss with 30 frags and seven assists on 26 deaths. NiKo, however, did not show up for his big game as he only had 18 frags and eight assists against 24 deaths.

Now, it is going to be a long, tough break for the Falcons, and this is indeed a tough look for the team at this point in time.