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We continue to watch the battles of BLAST Rivals Season 1. The $350,000 title tournament culminates with the grand finals.
Falcons and Vitality will battle it out for the BLAST Rivals Season 1 title and $125,000. Once again the teams will fight for the right to call themselves the champion of the top tournament.
We are trying to find out who of the pair Falcons - Vitality will be stronger, and the main question is whether Falcons will be able to defeat Vitality.
Let's go.
Vitality's form
We open the Vitality vs Falcons match with an analysis of Vitality's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.6.
After the triumphant Paris Major a Vitality said goodbye to Dupreeh, and flameZ took his place. The "newcomer" Vitality has already had time to adapt and looks good: the young Israeli has KDA 1.09 and this is the third result of the team. He, by the way, started his ascent on the big stage with OG.
- Vitality roster: apEX, ZywOo, mezii, ropz, flameZ.
In their debut match at IEM Cologne 2023 Vitality only confirmed their status as one of the main favourites of Group B. OG tried, but were defeated 16-6 by Mirage and 16-13 by Anubis.
After defeating OG, Vitality took on MOUZ, who were dealt an even bigger blow by the Bees, 16-4 and 16-5.
In the match for seeding in the play-offs Vitality met another top club - G2 Esports. A nerve-wracking game where Vitality pulled out a 19-17 win on Inferno in the extra time, but then lost 10-16 to Vertigo and 8-16 to Mirage.
Starting the play-offs from the first round stumbled Cloud9. "Cloud9 tried to fight back and almost succeeded on the second map, but ZywOo and company were undeterred: 16-11 Mirage and 19-17 Inferno. However, this was the end of Vitality's stay at the tournament: they met ENCE in the semi-finals and lost with 1-2 score and dropped out of the championship.
The top 4 at IEM Cologne did not embarrass Vitality at all, on the contrary - it fuelled them. Before the end of the year they pocketed 3 more wins at title tournaments: they took revenge on ENCE in the Gamers8 Grand Final and beat FaZe twice at BLAST tournaments (Fall Final 2023 and World Final 2023).
Before playing at PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B played BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, where they passed the group stage without any problems and at IEM Katowice 2024, where they failed very unexpectedly, finishing top-12.
At the PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B Vitality stomped GamerLegion and Heroic without any problems, giving up a total of 5 rounds in two maps. And then it was worse - a loss by C9, but a win over ENCE allowed Vitality to reach the Major.
Vitality attended the first Major tournament of the season - PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach the top 4, but Ledge and FaZe Clan. Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they again started very cheerfully and easily made it to the grand finals, but there they were swept by MOUZ.
At the IEM Dallas 2024 Long Season, they started with a very difficult win over Monte, and then closed G2 Esports dry. But in the match for seeding in the play-offs quite unexpectedly Ledge and 9z Team with a score 0-2. The play-offs IEM Dallas 2024 started much more confidently, closing Heroic with 2-0. Then a confident win over Spirit, but a loss to G2 Esports in the grand finals.
Before appearing at Esports World Cup 2024, Vitality attended Blast Premier: Spring Final, where they reached the Top 4. At EWC 2024, Vitaltiy Long Sogpeg started off with a solid win over M80, which allowed them to go straight into the play-offs.
At the "Major in Riyadh" Vitality finished in the top 8, which is hardly a good result. They were quickly rehabilitated by winning the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024. At the end of the season they visited PW Shanghai Major 2024, where they reached the main stage, but failed against FaZe in the first round.
Long Cologne 2025 season started with an appearance at BLAST Bounty Season 1, where they managed to reach the final stage, but not beyond the first round: defeat by Eternal Fire and final top 8.
At IEM Katowice 2025 Vitality started their performance right from the group stage. They defeated 3DMax and FaZe in turn, which gave them passage to the final of Group A and a slot in the play-offs. Then they defeated Vp with the score 2-0, thanks to which they got straight to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, they handled a pretty chippy MongolZ, and in the grand finals they ate Spirit, swatting the best team in the world 3-0.
At ESL Pro League Season 21 Vitality made it through the group stage with a 3-0 win. Next up were wins over Liquid (2-0), MongolZ (2-1) and a triumph in the grand final against MOUZ (3-0).
At BLAST Open Lisbon 2025 Long Sogpeg started with a clean win against Astralis (2-0). Followed with a win against Vp with a similar 2-0 score. In the play-offs seeding match they beat MOUZ 2-0. In the grand final match they beat Spirit (2-1). In the grand final, they defeated MOUZ 3-2.
At IEM Melbourne 2025, Vitality won Group B and progressed straight to the semi-finals. In the grand final match, they ran over The MongolZ without a chance, closing the match with a 13-3 score on two maps. In the grand final against Falcons Vitality showed a real masterclass, beating Falcons 3-2 in one of the best grand finals in history.
At BLAST Rivals Season 1, Vitality won Group A by first slamming Wildcard 2-0 and then beating MOUZ 2-1. In the match to advance to the grand finals, Vitality defeated Spirit 2-0.
Vitality's mappool
Vitality's best map is Nuke. It has 4 matches and 4 wins.
Anubis (7 matches, 85% wins), Mirage (4 matches, 75% wins) are very good. In general, Vitality doesn't have any bad cards that they play. Vertigo - 71% wins in 7 matches, Inferno and Overpass - 3 wins in 5 matches.
Ancient is not played.
Falcons Form.
We continue the analysis of Falcons vs Vitality match with the analysis of Falcons form. In this match they play as an outsider with odds to win around 2.4.
For the whole of 2023 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 was 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 in the top 12.
At IEM Katowice 2024 they got to the IEM Katowice 2024 by ESL Ranking points. There they were ranked in the top 10 before the tournament's Long Shogpeg, 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 map, 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 the first major CS2 tournament in a long time.
IEM Melbourne 2025 opened with a win against sAw. Then they outplayed NaVi, but in the match for seeding in play-offs Ledge and Vitality, thus Long Sogpegov in the main stage from the quarter-finals. In the first round of the play-offs they destroyed GamerLegion, ending the game 2-0, while giving up a total of 7 rounds in the series. The semi-finals followed pretty much the same scenario, 13-3 and 13-6 in favour of the Falcons. In the grand finals, Falcons lost to Vitality 2-3 and it was one of the most colourful matches in Counter-Strike 2 history.
At BLAST Rivals Season 1, Falcons continued to show off their high class Counter-Strike 2. They defeated FaZe and Spirit in the group stage, thus winning Group B and advancing straight to the semi-finals of BLAST Rivals Season 1. To make it to the grand finals, they beat MOUZ 2-0.
Falcons Mappool
The best map of Falcons is Nuke (1 game, 1 win). Next is Ancient (1 win, 1 loss).
Among the unfavourable maps for Falcons are Vertigo and Anubis. On the former they have 3 matches and 1 win, while Anubis has 1 loss.
History of head-to-head meetings between Falcons and Vitality
Previously, the teams have crossed paths with each other several times during various tournaments. Since the 2025 season they have met twice and both matches were taken by Vitality.
Predicted result of Vitality vs Falcons at BLAST Rivals Season 1
The replay of the IEM Melbourne 2025 Grand Final should be a hot one. Falcons lacked a little bit in Australia and they can definitely handle Vitality, which we saw twice in the last tournament. In my opinion, it will be an even game here, but I will give the win to Vitality.
Bottom line: Vitality wins.
