NiKo HAS DONE IT! Falcons are your IEM Cologne Major Champions!
It was Falcons v. FURIA in the final of IEM Cologne after a frenetic playoff stage culminated in a match that went entirely the way of Falcons, contary to their previous hard-fought outings in the playoffs.
The main storyline was the date with destiny between either Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo or Nikola "NiKo" Kovač. The former won in Cologne the last time the German city hosted a Major, while the latter is the best CS player to have never won a Major Championship.
While at IEM Rio, FalleN announced that he would be retiring at the end of the year, giving himself two more chances to add to his two Major titles at the end of his storied career.
For NiKo, it was a chance for him and teammate Finn "karrigan" Andersen to make amends for crumbling v. Cloud9 at ELEAGUE Boston 2018 while with FaZe. karrigan, however, had won a Major with FaZe in 2022, while NiKo fell short in a final once again in 2021 with G2.
FURIA had the first pick in the best-of-five, and they chose to begin the affair on Mirage. In an interview with HLTV, Falcons leader karrigan joked, "I feel like we are playing MR15 at this playoffs so far," in reference to the amount of overtimes they have played in the LANXESS.
Falcons made sure this would not be the case on Mirage, as they sprinted out to an 8-0 lead on the CT side. FURIA closed the gap to four rounds, but that was as close as they would get. Falcons took the first map away from the Brazilians, 13-8, to take a 1-0 lead in the grand final, thanks in no small part to AWPer Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov's map-high 19 frags.
Falcons have made Anubis their home in the Major, winning it in their past three matches. This felt like a must-win for FURIA, but it was Falcons who started hot again with a 4-0 lead on the less-favored CT side. FURIA found an answer, finally, to take a slight 7-5 lead at the end of the half.
The T side is where Falcons hit their stride, which is why they brought in veteran caller karrigan. The Dane has unlocked the Russian duo of m0NESY and Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin. They were the only ones to post double-digit frags in the second half, leading Falcons to surrender just one round and win the map 13-8.
With their backs against the wall, Inferno was the third map and FURIA's second choice in the series. FURIA finally won a pistol round in the series, but were immediately humbled by a Falcons force buy and a sneaky double from René "TeSeS" Madsen. FURIA battled back from 3-1 to 3-3, but when they had the chance to take the lead, they were stonewalled by a ridiculous USP triple kill from karrigan in a round with only saved weapons. Falcons took that momentum and built an 8-4 lead at the half, with karrigan putting together one of his best halves of the season at 12-8.
Falcons found their fifth pistol round of the match, but FURIA won the second-round force buy this time around to begin to build a comeback on Inferno. The first gun round went the way of Falcons, leaving FURIA with little room for error at 10-7 down. Traded rounds favored the leading Falcons, with an eleventh round coming by way of a force buy and lethal opening from kyousuke. at 12-8 down, FURIA's last hope was a scuffed buy. NiKo started the round by headshotting FalleN at bottom banana. This led to Falcons exploding into A, where FURIA couldn't stop the superteam.
NiKo and karrigan exorcised the Boston 2018 demons and are your IEM Cologne Major Champions!
FURIAFalcons| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko |
51 - 41 | +10 | 73.5 | 79.4% | 1.26 |
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
38 - 42 | -4 | 66.1 | 71.4% | 0.90 |
 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis |
35 - 51 | -16 | 72.8 | 68.3% | 0.89 |
| Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo |
37 - 44 | -7 | 67.3 | 71.4% | 0.89 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
33 - 37 | -4 | 61.2 | 69.8% | 0.85 |
| Falcons |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač |
52 - 32 | +20 | 85.5 | 79.4% | 1.43 |
 Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin |
55 - 43 | +12 | 93.0 | 76.2% | 1.34 |
| Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov |
46 - 35 | +11 | 73.5 | 73.0% | 1.31 |
 René 'TeSeS' Madsen |
28 - 40 | -12 | 51.5 | 69.8% | 0.81 |
| Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
29 - 45 | -16 | 59.1 | 68.3% | 0.75 |
For Falcons, this is the first Major Championship for NiKo, m0NESY, kyousuke, and TeSeS, while it is karrigan's second Major win. karrigan joins Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy, Robin "ropz" Kool, and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut as the only players to win a Major in both CS:GO and CS2. This is also coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen's sixth Major title, winning four with Astralis and one each with Vitality and Falcons.
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