FURIA and Falcons book their spot in the IEM Cologne Major Final
The first Major of 2026 is coming to a head, as the finalists of IEM Cologne were determined on the competition's penultimate day.
FURIA v. Aurora was the first match of the semifinals, where the Brazilians swept the Turks with aplomb — a stark contrast to the close matches that made up the quarterfinals. This puts Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo on the doorstep of defending his ESL One Cologne Major 2016 title, the last time the Cologne tournament hosted a Major Championship.
The second semifinal was between Spirit, who have been flawless thus far at the Major, and Falcons under the leadership of former FaZe IGL Finn "karrigan" Andersen. A barnburner of a match ended in favor of karrigan and Falcons, as the Danish IGL has made the final of four of the first five CS2 Majors.
Aurora elected to choose Dust2 as the series' first map. It was a back-and-forth affair in the first map, but it was FURIA who came out better with a strong second half, winning 13-9 and stealing Aurora's map pick.
FURIA's Nuke pick went entirely the way of the Brazilian side. A strong 8-4 scoreline on the less-favored T side set up FURIA to run away with the series and win 13-4.
The often-overlooked Yuri "yuurih" Santos stepped up in a huge way, dropping a match-high 34 kills with a 1.62 rating.
AuroraFURIA| Aurora |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın |
26 - 28 | -2 | 73.2 | 74.4% | 0.92 |
| Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli |
20 - 25 | -5 | 56.9 | 69.2% | 0.83 |
| Özgür 'woxic' Eker |
21 - 26 | -5 | 62.4 | 59.0% | 0.82 |
| Caner 'soulfly' Kesici |
22 - 32 | -10 | 59.1 | 64.1% | 0.73 |
| Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş |
19 - 30 | -11 | 68.7 | 71.8% | 0.72 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
34 - 19 | +15 | 90.7 | 84.6% | 1.62 |
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
29 - 20 | +9 | 68.7 | 76.9% | 1.38 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
32 - 28 | +4 | 80.7 | 66.7% | 1.30 |
 Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko |
31 - 18 | +13 | 87.0 | 82.1% | 1.23 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
14 - 25 | -11 | 59.8 | 76.9% | 0.86 |
Falcons' pick of Anubis kickstarted the second series of the day. Neither side could be separated at halftime, as Falcons transitioned to the T side in the second half. It was more push-and-pull in the second half, as Spirit took a brief 12-11 lead with the chance to take their opponents' map.
Falcons bounced back with a huge round from Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin to force overtime. They took that momentum into OT and flew to a 15-12 advantage. Spirit almost forced a second overtime, but Falcons held on to win CS:GO-style 16-14 and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
The second map of Mirage started very similarly to the first, as neither side could find the edge in the first half, despite Falcons starting up 4-0 on the CT side. Falcons won their fourth pistol of the game thanks to a 1v1 clutch from Nikola "NiKo" Kovač against Spirit's Danil "donk" Kryshkovets. Spirit fought back, though, and took control of the game. The Russians won seven rounds in a row to hold serve on Mirage and force Dust2.
Spirit finally claimed a pistol on the final map, but the parity from the previous maps' first halves continued. This time, though, Spirit clutched onto a 7-5 lead heading into the second half. Falcons returned to form in the second pistol round of D2, but it was Spirit who regained the lead at 8-7 after the first gun round. Falcons battled back to take an 11-9 lead thanks to a ludicrous smoke push from karrigan, but Spirit didn't let Falcons get to match point thanks to a B pop in an upgraded pistol round.
Spirit tied the map at 11-11, but Falcons answered back on an awkward buy to secure match point. Despite NiKo's best efforts in round 24, Spirit forced what felt like an inevitable overtime in this series. Falcons seized control in the overtime period, taking all three rounds on the CT side thanks in no small part to clutch late-round plays from kyousuke and AWPer Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov. Falcons gave Spirit no chance to get back into the match, splitting B and winning the map after a thunderous site take.
SpiritFalcons| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
69 - 49 | +20 | 86.8 | 75.9% | 1.24 |
 Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich |
57 - 56 | +1 | 77.7 | 74.7% | 1.16 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
52 - 53 | -1 | 73.1 | 74.7% | 1.05 |
| Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets |
55 - 61 | -6 | 71.8 | 69.6% | 0.97 |
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
37 - 54 | -17 | 56.2 | 69.6% | 0.77 |
| Falcons |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
59 - 52 | +7 | 80.3 | 75.9% | 1.26 |
| Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin |
60 - 57 | +3 | 81.7 | 75.9% | 1.18 |
| Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov |
68 - 51 | +17 | 84.7 | 75.9% | 1.16 |
 René 'TeSeS' Madsen |
52 - 50 | +2 | 65.3 | 69.6% | 1.01 |
| Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
34 - 60 | -26 | 58.5 | 75.9% | 0.73 |
Tomorrow, the grand final between FURIA and Falcons is set, where either FalleN will repeat as Cologne Major Champion or NiKo will finally win a Major after reuniting with karrigan.
Will FURIA emerge victorious, or will karrigan and NiKo exorcise their demons from ELEAGUE Boston 2018? Find out tomorrow as FURIA take on 
Falcons at 11:00AM.
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