FURIA and Team Falcons decide IEM Cologne on Sunday with US$500,000 on the line
Brazil will have a representative in the grand final of the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major. FURIA dispatched Aurora Gaming with a comfortable 2-0, while Team Falcons edged Team Spirit 2-1 in a semi-final fought to the very last round. The title clash takes place this Sunday, in Germany, with the champion taking home half a million dollars.
How FURIA’s semi-final went
The Brazilians gave no quarter. The team rolled over Aurora Gaming 13-9 on Dust II and applied an overwhelming 13-4 on Nuke, ending the clash without any drama.
Yuri “yuurih” Santos was the absolute standout, closing the day with a positive differential of 34-19 in kills and a 1.62 rating. Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato chipped in with 29-20 and 1.38, and Latvia’s Mareks “Yekindar” Galinskis tallied 32-28 with a 1.30 rating. On Aurora’s side, no player finished the series with a positive rating. It was complete domination.
Falcons knock out Spirit on the edge
The other tie was more tense. Team Falcons opened the scoring by winning Anubis 16-14, momentarily lost control on Mirage – a 13-8 defeat – and went to decide everything on Dust II. The result: 16-12 and a place secured.
Bosnia’s Nikola “NiKo” Kovac led the campaign with 59 kills, 52 deaths and a 1.26 rating, being voted the player of the game. Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin recorded 60 kills with a 1.18 rating, and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov was the most prolific in raw numbers: 68 kills and 1.16. For Spirit, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov did his part with 69 kills and an impressive differential of 20, but it was not enough.
What is at stake on Sunday
The tournament brings together 32 teams competing for a total prize pool of US$1.25 million. The grand final will be in a best-of-five maps format – unlike all previous stages, where the ties were best-of-three. The winner pockets US$500,000; the runner-up takes US$170,000.
FURIA arrive as third-placed from the group stage, with a 3-1 campaign in the third round. Team Falcons finished that stage in fifth, also with 3-1. Neither of the two was an outright favourite – Spirit and FURIA’s own opponent led the stage with 3-0. But both advanced, won in the quarters and eliminated the leaders in the semis. Now they face each other for the title.
