Welcome to EGamersWorld.
We continue our look at what's happening at IEM Melbourne 2025. The title championship features 16 teams battling it out for a $300,000 prize pool.
Among the participants are the Falcons - sAw. They will play each other in a face-to-face bo3 match in Group B.
We are trying to find out who of the pair Falcons - sAw will be stronger and will qualify for the Group B winner's bracket, and who will have to continue their way through the lower bracket of Group B.
Let's go.
Falcons form
We open our analysis of the Falcons vs sAw match with an analysis of the Falcons' form. In this match, the "super club" will play the number one side with odds to win at around 1.2.
For the whole of 2023, the Falcons have been, as they call it, in search of themselves. They started the professional season with appearances at B-Tier tournaments: Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2, OMEN WRG Challenge 2023 and CCT West Europe Series #1. At the first two, they celebrated a top-2 finish, and at the more prestigious CCT, a top-8 finish.
Later tried to make it to the Paris Major . Had two attempts, at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A and BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B. Both were unsuccessful: top-11 and top-6.
In the middle of the year, Falcons continued to bang their heads against the wall. Top-13 at ESL Challenge League Season 45: Europe, Top-10 at ESL Championnat National Spring 2023 and Top-24 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1.
Tried to qualify for IEM Sydney 2023, but fell off at the top-64 stage in the open qualifiers. As a Saudi Arabian club they got a slot at Gamers8 2023, where they played to the best of their ability, which is Top 16.
- Falcons roster: Magisk, NiKo, TeSeS, kyxsan, m0NESY.
At the end of the year Falcons tried to make DreamTeam. So far it's going so well, because they failed the first tournament with the new squad. That was BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, where the team finished top-12.
At IEM Katowice 2024 they got to the IEM Katowice 2024 by ESL Ranking points. There they were in the top 10 before the Long Sogpeg of the tournament, but for what merits - a big mystery.
IEM Katowice 2024 Falcons started with a defeat against the best team of Turkey - Eternal Fire. After losing to the Turks, Falcons were close to crashing out of the tournament in a lower bracket match against Rebels, but managed to stay afloat thanks to a 2-1 win. In fact, a similar situation happened in the match against CoL, where Falcons gave up the first card, but cameback on the second and closed the series with a third. Later they defeated NaVi, and at the end of the championship they took the top 4, Ledgeiv to the future champions from Team Spirit.
Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they completely failed, finishing in the top-28. IEM Dallas 2024 started with a loss to G2, but then confidently ran over Monte with a score of 2-0. However, the Falcons were not enough for much more and at the end of IEM Dallas 2024 they finished in TOP-9-12.
Before the performance at IEM Dallas 2024 they visited Challengers at DreamHack. They got to IEM Dallas 2024 thanks to ESL rankings. However, IEM Dallas 2024 did not manage to go far: TOP-12. In general, in the season 2024 Falcons showed a disgusting game, only moments, like at the BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2024, got into the prizes.
The Falcons' high point in the 2024 season was their performance at PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, where the team finished in the Top 14 before reaching the main tournament.
Dream Team Long Sogpeg's 2025 season began with an appearance at BLAST Bounty Season 1. There, Falcons expectedly failed, finishing in the top 16. At the following IEM Katowice 2025 nothing changed: TOP-16, no chance.
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 is better than all the tournaments the Falcons played in the 2025 season. They reached the play-offs for the first time in a long time, winning the Swiss 3-1. In the first round of play-offs Falcons pleasantly surprised by beating Eternal Fire 2-0. Next up was a win over FaZe, but a loss to MOUZ in the grand finals.
They started ESL Pro League Season 21 with a win over Liquid. Next, we lost to MOUZ and 3DMax. They clung to life at the tournament by beating FURIA, but then came Eternal Fire and the Falcons' elimination at the top-11.
At the BLAST Open Lisbon 2025 Falcons Long started their performance with a defeat to MOUZ and ended up in the bottom of Group A, beating Huns Esports. However, already in the next round they lost to Vp, thus finishing the BLAST Open Lisbon 2025 on the 12th place.
At PGL Bucharest 2025 Falcons lost to CoL and GamerLegion, but barely beat paiN, keeping a chance for play-offs. They went on to beat Rare Atom and qualified for the play-offs after beating MongolZ. They opened the main part of PGL Bucharest 2025 with a victory over GamerLegion. Then they beat FaZe 2-1 and in the grand final they literally wiped out their principal rival G2, winning their first major CS2 tournament in a long time.
Map Falcons
The best map Falcons - Nuke (1 game, 1 win). Next is Ancient (1 win, 1 loss).
Among the unfavourable maps for Falcons are Vertigo and Anubis. They have 3 matches and 1 win on the former, while Anubis has 1 loss.
Form sAw.
We continue our analysis of the sAw vs Falcons match with an analysis of sAw's form. In this match sAw are in a catch-up position, with odds to win at around 6.
They started the year with qualifications for ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference. There they shared the top 1. Then there were two Top 4s at CCT South Europe Series #2 and OMEN WGR Challenge 2023.
There were also appearances at major championships, such as ESL Pro League Season 17. However, it was not possible to get a high result, only TOP-28, but the experience of the game.
Later sAw took the top 8 at CCT North Europe Series #4, top 4 at ESL Challenger League Season 44: Europe. In April 2023, sAw played at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, but failed to rise above the TOP-16. But they managed to do it later, at local tournaments.
This was the case at Masters League Portugal Season 11: Online, where sAw won the trophy by beating For the Win in the final. This was the case at ESL Masters Espana Season 13: Onilne Stage, ESL Masters Espana Season 13, CCT West Europe #4.
- Composition sAw: MUTiRiS, rmn, ewjerkz, story, arrozdoce.
Before taking part in CCT Online Finals #5 sAw played a lot of championships and, to be fair, they were good almost everywhere. They took top 2 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, CCT North Europe Series #6, Aveiro Techdays Cup 2023, Master League Portugal Season 12: Online Stage.
We also played in big tournaments, such as Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where unfortunately for us we couldn't rise above TOP-12. At the end of November we won Master League Portugal Season 12 and XL Games Clash 2023.
CCT Online Finals #5 sAw Long Sogpeg were very confident. They easily ran over Team Space in the first round of the top set, winning 2-0. What happened next was more difficult.
In the second round of CCT Online Finals #5 sAw met Aurora, who were stronger than the Portuguese. The match lasted 3 maps and sAw even won the first one, but it didn't go any further and as a result Aurora reached the semi-finals winning their series 1-2.
In the match for the third round of play-offs CCT Online #5 sAw met Zero Tenacity. The Portuguese had no trouble getting past their vis-a-vis, closing out the series with a score of 2-0. However, Fnatic could not be defeated and sAw finished in the top 4.
Next was Top 4 at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2024 and a similar place at ESL Challenger League Season 48: Europe. Before playing at Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, sAw won ESL Challenger Katowice 2024.
PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, sAw started with a loss to SINNERS, but then won Dynamo Eclot and Falcons. But they failed to beat NaVi in the match for a slot in the Major and as a result it was 2-2. However, they failed to qualify for the Major tournament: Ledge and BB went 0-2 in the match for the slot.
Season 2025 Long Sogpeg started with a performance at BLAST Bounty Spring 2025, where they finished in the top 32. Then no better performance at IEM Katowice 2025 with a final top-24.
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 was one of the best tournaments of the season. sAw managed to reach the play-offs by going the longest way: in the group stage, after 0-2 losses to FaZe and MOUZ, the Portuguese club beat FlyQuest, Complexity and 3DMax. But the play-offs were apparently not enough: 0-2 against FaZe and TOP-6 in the end.
ESL Pro League Season 21 Long Co-qualified from the first stage, which went 3-0. Surprisingly beat NaVi in the second stage, but then earned 3 losses in a row, finishing the tournament on top-14.
Mappool sAw.
The most successful map for sAw is Nuke, where the Spaniards have 3 wins with 1 loss. Followed by Vertigo with a score of 2-1 and Ancient with a score of 3-2.
Neutral choices are Inferno and Anubis. Both maps have been played 4 times and on both maps the stats are 2-2.
The worst situation is on Overpass, where sAw won 2 matches out of 6.
Mirage are not playing.
History of head-to-head meetings sAw - Falcons
The teams have played each other twice in the last year, with sAw winning both matches.
Predicted result of Falcons vs sAw at IEM Melbourne 2025
Falcons will win this match. After the arrival of m0NESY the team will definitely gain, and the recent victory at PGL Bucharest 2025 Falcons are in good spirits and clearly in shape.
Bottom line: Falcons win.
