Losing a semi-final doesn't just eliminate you anymore. You get to be the showmatch.

With those stakes set, the teams at PGL Cluj-Napoca had everything to play for. Falcons, especially, seemed as motivated as ever, dominating in their matchup against FaZe with a 2-0 win. NiKo was on a mission, deadset to avoid a third-place decider and desperate for a trophy to justify his move to Falcons.

Nobody believes in you, what are you prepared to do about it?

Honestly, you could ask MOUZ the same question, because we didn’t expect to see them here after benching siuhy.

Weirdly, despite us doubting them, MOUZ didn’t care.

Instead, they stared Astralis down and made them choke like prime Liquid. Astralis had a 12-4 lead on Inferno but choked it into overtime, where Brollan’s Red and White army closed out. Map 2 might’ve gone the Danes' way, but the decider on Ancient was a slaughter. cadiaN’s brains were splattered on that stage.

Fortunately for them, they got a chance at redemption vs FaZe. A third-place decider can be good for something.

Though it started off… familiarly. Astralis got the lead at 12-8 on Map 1 but got dragged into overtime again. It was at this point that FaZe decided they also didn’t care about winning because it took another 28 rounds to settle the map in their favour.

Credit to Astralis though, their heads didn’t drop. They cleaned house on Inferno, despite dropping another 4 rounds while on match point. And at least map 3 of Ancient was an actual clean win for cadiaN and Co.

By winning this game, Astralis took home an additional 60 grand in prize money, and extra VRS points which will hopefully lift them out of online qualifier hell. We have to admit, it’s better than a showmatch.