Team Spirit cruise into Budapest Major Semifinals over Team Falcons

Team Spirit kicked off their StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 playoff campaign with a convincing victory over Team Falcons, with the help of Ivan “zweih” Gogin.

Team Spirit secured their first head-to-head victory over Team Falcons on Thursday, December 11, sweeping Nikola “NiKo” Kovač in the first rounds of the StarLadder Budapest Major playoffs.

According to Counter-Strike 2 bookmakers, the quarterfinal was expected to be a tightly contested affair, slightly favoring the Falcons, who have beaten Spirit three times since May.

However, despite the head-to-head record working against Spirit, the Russian outfit came to play, namely the 18-year-old anchor zweih, who was the main man behind Spirit’s commanding display.

The game kicked off with Team Spirit taking the series lead with 13-4 on Nuke.

• 

  Fast Payouts

Even on the first map, zweih stood out, averaging the server’s highest 2.17 performance rating, ahead of Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, who left his mark at 1.40.

While the Falcons looked toothless on their map pick, the Saudi squad showed more fight on Dust2, taking a 7-5 lead on CT-side before the switch.

A strong start on the terrorist side gave the Falcons a six-round lead, but despite being within reach of victory, they failed to close it out.

A lot of it had to do with zweih’s individual performances, including solo defense of the B bombsite, preventing Falcons from securing a crucial round.

Struggling to find any momentum, Team Falcons saw their lead dwindle as Spirit won seven of the remaining rounds to force overtime.

Things did not improve for Falcons in extra time, as they had no idea how to stop the hot Spirit, who closed out the map with four straight rounds, eliminating Team Falcons from the tournament.

Zweih, who shone individually, ended the series with a 1.59 performance rating and is now averaging 1.67 across the tournament ahead of the semifinals.

While Spirit celebrated a dominant display, Team Falcons showed more cracks, continuing a trend of strong group stage showings and complete collapses in the playoffs.

Maxim “kyousuke” Lukin had his moments of brilliance, ending the series with a 1.04 rating; however, the 17-year-old was the only player on his team with a positive rating.

• 

  The bookies' bookie

Meanwhile, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov posted 0.97 in Thursday’s loss, marking another subpar showing from the Russian AWPer.

With the quarterfinal elimination, Team Falcons are ending the year with just one trophy – from PGL Bucharest – but they have not won a single event since the arrival of their top players, kyousuke and m0NESY.