FURIA and Falcons set to face off in the final: BLAST Rivals Hong Kong semi-finals recap
After four days of high octane CS2 action, we're now down to our final two teams at BLAST Rivals Hong Kong.
Those two teams, FURIA and Falcons, were hugely impressive on day four, booking their spots in the Grand Final off the backs of solid 2-0 wins in their respective semi-finals.
Let's take a look at how they got there.
FURIA dominate paiN
Thanks to their close game in the Group Stage, there was a little bit of intrigue over whether or not paiN would be able to cause an unlikely upset in the first semi-final of the day.
And spoiler alert: they couldn't.
Map one, Nuke, was brutal. A very open display of how strong FURIA have become, they put up a brick wall on their CT side as they closed it out with a 9-3 lead thanks to a combined 26 kills out of YEKINDAR and KSCERATO.
They didn't let up on their T side either, blasting through paiN's defences to round out the game 13-3 after four quick rounds.
Overpass was much closer and needed an overtime in order to find a victor, but when KSCERATO was putting up a 2.05 rated map, there was only ever going to be one winner.
FURIA began the map on the T side, putting up a respectable four rounds as paiN did what was needed to head into their T side with a chance at pushing us to a third.
KSCERATO took over in the second half, though. FURIA's long-standing star went nuclear on the CT side, registering 22 kills and just 6 deaths as he put paiN to the sword time and time again.
paiN did manage to secure overtime, but simply ran out of steam as we headed into the extra rounds. FURIA only allowed paiN to plant the bomb once in those first three overtime rounds, before taking a single T side round to wrap up the map and series. 16-12, and another Grand Final for FURIA booked in.
Falcons comfortable against Vitality
Heading into our second semi-final there was on big question: Would Vitality get to face FURIA in a rematch of the IEM Chengdu final, or would Falcons finally get past their 3rd-4th curse?
As it happened, it was the latter of those two outcomes that came to pass.
Kicking it off on Inferno, Vitality headed into the break with a 7-5 lead after a solid but not incredible T half. A desirable outcome, but not an great one.
Falcons responded with a 7-5 half of their own, sending the game to OT. The game remained close in OT, but it was Falcons who were just stronger, two rounds in either half saw them steal their opponents' map pick 16-13.
Falcons carried forward their momentum as they headed into Nuke, kicking off the game by winning seven out of the first eight rounds on their T side.
Vitality did manage to pull off a few rounds towards the end of the half with make it 7-5, but with Falcons now heading onto the more favourable half of the map, they had their backs' firmly against the wall.
Things went from bad to worse for Vitality as Falcons managed to secure the pistol round, extending their lead to 9-5. Vitality did then pull one back, but a quick three-round salvo from their opponents saw Falcons claim map point at 12-6.
Just two rounds later, Falcons had done it. They shut down Vitality as apEX got lost towards the B site, and well timed aggression in Lobby saw kyxsan pick up two to take the final round of the game away from Vitality. Falcons won the map at 13-7, setting themselves up with a blockbuster final vs FURIA tomorrow.
