malbsMd and G2 fall to Falcons in close series to miss out on Major playoffs

Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa and G2 have exited the StarLadder Budapest Major following a close 2-1 loss against Falcons in Round Five of Stage Three. The result sees Falcons claim the final spot in playoffs at the Budapest Major as they chase their first Major trophy while leaving Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken as NA's sole representative left in the competition.

Also read: FaZe survive v. Passion UA, advance to StarLadder Budapest Major playoffs

The series was a nail-biter for both teams, with the series starting off as a tight race on Ancient as the team international lineups finished the half tied 6-6. This deadlock was broken by fantastic play from Matúš "MATYS" Šimko as he led G2 on the T-side to first take an 8-6 lead before keeping Falcons at arms length to secure their opponent's map pick 13-9.

Moving onto Inferno, it was quite sloppy for G2 on their map pick as they struggled immensely on their T-side, starting the half down 5-1 while ultimately 8-4 at half time. Things did not improve for G2 on their CT-side as they were unable to gain any ground, leading to a quick 13-4 win for Falcons to tie up the series.

With the series tied up, the first half of Dust2 saw Falcons claim an early 3-0 lead on their T-side before G2 answered back with five of the next four rounds. The final three rounds were locked down by Falcons to give them a modest 7-5 heading into the final half of the series. Falcons' lead was briefly entrenched after they won their CT-side pistol and the following round before G2 came back in a big way by securing the next five rounds to take a 10-9 lead.

With Falcons potentially facing elimination from a Major before playoffs once again, Falcons' "princes" went huge in the final rounds of the game with Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin and Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov going huge as an AWPing duo with a bevy of multi-kills rounds to help Falcons take the next five rounds to secure a spot in the Major playoffs.

StarLadder Budapest Major 2025

Bo3

1 - 2

Falcons

All maps

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Nikita 'HeavyGod' Martynenko	34 - 40	-6	67.4	74.2%	1.01
Matúš 'MATYS' Šimko	38 - 48	-10	71.2	75.8%	0.91
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač	39 - 44	-5	76.7	74.2%	0.87
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa	32 - 44	-12	55.4	67.7%	0.87
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García	36 - 44	-8	62.1	67.7%	0.84

Falcons	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov	59 - 31	+28	101.9	83.9%	1.49
Maxim 'kyousuke' Lukin	51 - 42	+9	90.7	79.0%	1.37
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač	50 - 34	+16	80.4	82.3%	1.28
René 'TeSeS' Madsen	35 - 38	-3	57.0	79.0%	0.89
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski	23 - 38	-15	59.5	77.4%	0.87