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GUIDES
Simple Radar
© 2026 TLDR Media, All Rights Reserved.
Starring: The best series of the year.
Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in 18 months, we’ll be getting a different Major champion.
With Spirit and Falcons felling G2 and Vitality, we’re down to the final four in Cologne after a day that will be very hard to top.
Plus, today we release something special.
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If you told us before this quarter-final that G2 would put up a fair fight against Spirit. We’d say, yeah, that’s fair.
If you told us G2 would push Spirit to their limits and have a genuine chance at winning, we’d laugh and remind you that G2 have SunPayus on their team.
The Spanish sniper got off to a rough start on Overpass, where HeavyGod dragged his team to a 7-5 deficit at the half with +13.67% round swing.
SunPayus did then take over the game on the CT-side, where he led G2’s charge to a first map victory with Spirit only claiming two T rounds.
Suddenly, the semi-final doors opened for G2.
Though if either team wanted to pass through those doors, they would have to face the ultimate test of endurance, as the game was an utter marathon from here on out.
Dust2 was a closely contested map throughout, with both teams trading clutches left and right. huNter- and donk both clutched to keep their teams in the game, though the latter of the two had the last laugh by sending the game to a third map with a 1v2 post-plant play from Car on B.
After already fighting so hard on the first two maps, you’d be forgiven for thinking G2’s window of opportunity had already closed, but then rolled around the biggest brawl of all, Mirage.
Spirit were unable to handle G2’s T-side brawls in the first half of the map, and with the latter boasting an 8-4 advantage at the end of the half, the unthinkable started to look likely.
Once Spirit swapped over to the T-side they were able to find their footing and level the score at 9-9, only for G2 to immediately regain composure and reach map point.
It looked all but over, especially when donk died first in the 22nd round, but tN1R had other plans; he pulled four kills out of nowhere to keep Spirit in the game.
Ultimately, even with G2 winning four clutches across Mirage and Spirit only winning one, Spirit’s single clutch and overall play throughout the four OTs that ensued was just more decisive.
Every time G2 had the chance to put themselves in a position of strength during overtime, they failed to do so, with the best example being magixx’s 1v4 clutch on the B-site.
Sure, it was a fantastic moment in the arena and for Spirit, but if G2 weren’t walking into Market one-by-one, it just wouldn't have happened.
The map became an all out brawl following magixx’s life-round, but sadly for G2, in a game like that, the superior talent will always win. Thankfully for us, the semi-finals are saved because of it.
magixx got an impressive 1v4 clutch to secure the triple-overtime.
But not because he managed an impressive flick or a crazy lurk play. No, because four of the G2 lads decided that they really need to trade whoever came in front, and all walked into him holding mouse 1.
Cool for magixx, terrible for G2.
Falcons didn’t win that game, Vitality lost it.
Sorry for spoiling the end result already, but if you haven’t been watching the Major at this point yet, what are you even doing?
Vitality - Falcons opened with Anubis, and Falcons started off strong. Win the pistol, don’t lose to the force, and before you knew it they were up 5-0. It almost made us believe karrigan had found his way and Falcons were actually good.
Almost.
Out of the eleven rounds that followed, Vitality won ten and looked like they were back in their winning ways. The only discrepancy was an absence of performance from ZywOo, who ended up dropping a stinker of a 0.95 rating on that map.
Which might explain why Falcons went on their own little winning streak, all the way up to 12-10, only for Vitality to tease us with an OT but ended up giving Falcons their map pick 13-11.
Alright, no worries, guess we’ll go to three maps because Inferno was up next and all of you know that that’s a favourite for Vitality.
Even though ZywOo finally remembered he was in contention for GOAT and put up 26-13, 108 ADR, 1.67 rating performance, the map was still a close affair with once again a 13-11 scoreline, this time in favour of apEX and his men.
With all of those rounds and close affairs, plus the 5+ hour game before it, things were starting to drag on and you could tell. Vitality weren’t as focused as they usually look, and the match was chaotic.
This meant Dust 2 once again saw Falcons off to a good start, leading 8-4 at halftime. It once again almost made us think Falcons weren’t the chokers we’ve always branded them as.
Almost.
For a second, Vitality looked alive again and brought things back to 12-10, only to tease us with OT again and lose the map 13-11.
Falcons have made it past their first hurdle to not being sh-t.
Once again, star-player ZywOo looked lost and wasn’t doing what he should be. 0.91 rating from him and a mezii topfrag just ain’t gonna cut it guys.
This entire Bo3 was wholy unimpressive from the players you’re expecting to impress, which is exemplified by the fact that the HLTV matchpage only features one highlight on it.
That came from map one, where kyousuke got a 4k on the pistol round. Lay thine eyes on my field of good plays and see that it is barren.
Everyone’s been saying FURIA (1.62) have an easy road to the final.
Sure, 9z aren’t exactly powerhouses despite their impressive run in Cologne, but that doesn’t mean that Aurora (2.20) in their current state will fail to give FURIA a run for their money.
Wicadia has levelled up and surpassed XANTARES as the best Turkish player, and XANTARES still isn’t half bad either. They certainly shoot hard enough to get the job done.
If you feel like backing Aurora to ruin FURIA’s party, then sign-up to Razed and play now.
FURIA, you can not f-ck this one up.
Seriously, you guys know how to win events. We watched you do it in style at the end of last year. We know you’ve had your choke moments, but you’re playing Aurora, they’re the kings of the choke.
Well, let’s give Aurora some credit; they looked pretty stellar against BetBoom. But there’s a serious experience gap between those two teams, so there was really no excuse for it not to be as comfortable as it was given how used to crowds the Turks should be.
Wicadia also seems to have finally overtaken XANTARES as the true star, too. Which is pretty scary, given that XANTARES is still capable of absolutely bumming people on a moments notice.
Still, you’re FURIA. You’re an elite team. You’re captained by a two-time Cologne AND two-time Major winner in FalleN. Reaching the final with ease was the minimum expectation when you were gifted this side of the bracket, and this is the time to prove you’re worth that expectation.
Given that FalleN will also be calling it a day this year, you’re also never going to be presented with a better opportunity than this one to win him a meaningful trophy.
Fail that, though, fail your chance to make it to the easiest Major final of your lives, and it’s time for a serious inquest into the future of this team.
FalleN will soon be departing, but should there be another departure before his time is up?
He can’t bow out empty handed.
To celebrate the launch of our Speed Reader pass, everyone who subscribes automatically enters in the draw to win:
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Find €4 and go sign up already.
So much for lunch. We told you the G2 quarter-final wouldn't take long… and then the world #12 dragged Spirit to a deciding map and six overtimes deep into it before finally being put out of its misery. Our mistake. Falcons, for their part, did the business we doubted them for, downing Vitality 2-1. The reward for knocking off the scariest team on the planet? A date with the one side they can't seem to put away.
Spirit, the world #3 to Falcons' #4, roll in on a 13-match win streak, and recent history says they own this matchup, though not quite as cleanly as the bracket suggests. Falcons did take a 2-0 off them at IEM Rio, before Spirit handed it straight back 2-0 in the same event and then went a step further, 3-0'ing them at PGL Astana. Their last two meetings have ended five maps to none.
The headline, as ever, is donk, posting a 1.48 over the last three months — the best player on either side by a distance, and a rifler at that. Falcons can at least point to one duel that flatters them: in the AWP battle, m0NESY's 1.26 actually edges sh1ro's 1.17. The trouble is that winning it might not matter much, because the man who decides this series is playing a different sport entirely.
Then comes the eternal one more star curse. The man Falcons signed to banish it — karrigan — has been a passenger with a rifle, anchoring the side at an alarming 0.80 over three months while running a (albeit new) system Spirit took apart 3-0 just five weeks ago. He's rated below every Spirit player on the server, donk to zont1x. When your IGL is the worst gun in the building and the other team owns the best, it starts to get grim in a hurry.
There is, in fairness, one flicker of hope, and its name is Nuke. It's the single map in the pool where Falcons have a better win rate than Spirit, and it’s the one map Spirit look truly mortal on. The snag? Spirit won't touch Inferno, so they'll happily bin it, while Falcons, who won't go near Overpass, give a ban straight back. That hands Spirit a veto where they get to point at Dust2 and Ancient — two of the highest win-rates on any map in the building — and dare Falcons to name a third map they're actually favoured on. Spoiler: there isn't one.
So Falcons will likely lock in Nuke, pray, and hope donk decides to be human for once. He won't.
We won't make the lunch-alarm mistake twice. If G2 can take Spirit to six overtimes, a Falcons side with actual firepower (and a semi-recent 2-0 over this team in the back pocket) can absolutely make a night of it. They'll probably still lose. But "probably" is doing more work than Spirit would like.
