Falcons and losing grand finals - name a more iconic duo.

PGL Astana’s climax promised a lot but delivered very little, much to our dismay. In the end, it was the same story we’ve seen time and time again: Spirit’s absurd firepower vs Falcons’ chronic inability to get over the final hurdle. CS’ hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby.

Dust2 started as a tight affair, giving us the illusion that we might actually get a competitive series. It went all the way to OT, where that hope quickly faded, as tN1R and donk made it clear they weren’t messing around.

Mirage came next, and you could tell Spirit had shifted into another gear. Falcons tried to answer back here and there, mainly through kyousuke as their only consistent performer - who looks to have taken a step toward overcoming his usual dip in form when Playoffs roll around. Still, Spirit were simply too much to handle.

That momentum carried straight into Ancient, where donk decided he’d had enough and proceeded to tear through Falcons like a hot knife through butter with his 17-5 score on the T-side. This 4K was particularly disgusting.

And so that marked Falcons’ first grand final under karrigan’s leadership. Not a terrible start, right? Sure, but then you zoom out and remember that this was their eight straight grand final loss, a trend that points to deeper issues that even one of CS’ greatest IGLs might not be able to fix. Big test in Cologne coming up for NiKo and the boys.

For Spirit, this is a strong follow-up to their second-place finish in Rio last month, and yet another sign that the players look far more comfortable with the freedom they have under S0tF1k compared to hally. Might be time to start drafting that ‘looking for team’ tweet, buddy.

Finally, we have to mention the legendary third-place decider between MOUZ and magic. Truly on the series of all time. Let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be an S-tier tournament without the perennial bronze medalists doing what they do best. There’s one silver lining for MOUZ though: at least xertioN seems to have finally found his role.