Vitality and Falcons through to semi-finals: BLAST Rivals day two recap
It's day two of BLAST Rivals and what a day of Counter-Strike it was.
With four banger games of CS to get through, we bid farewell to two teams today, as well as saw two teams advance straight to Saturday's semi-finals.
Let's recap the action.
Wildcard send paiN packing
Despite recently being reinforced by dgt, paiN saw their time in Copenhagen cut short as they met a resurgent Wildcard who lost to Vitality on day one.
Wildcard were firing on all cylinders from the get go, it took just two rounds for Sonic to pick up an ace as Wildcard hit Inferno's B site.
7-5 in favour of Wildcard at the break, it could have been more if not for a moment of magic from pain's AWPer, nqz.
However, despite biguzera's incredible 1v4 in round 21, Sonic pulled off another highlight as he picked up a 1v3 in the very next round to take the game away from paiN. Wildcard then took the map 13-10, with Sonic topping the scoreboard with 23 kills to his name.
Anubis was far more dominant for Wildcard, they sent paiN packing with a 13-5 scoreline thanks to going 12-0 on their T side. phzy was the star in that run, picking up 17 kills in the first half.
paiN attempted to mount a comeback, winning five T side rounds of their own, but they left too much of a gap to close and became the first team eliminated from the competition.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenVitality come from a map down to take down MOUZ
Vitality versus MOUZ is shaping up to be one of the biggest rivalries in 2025, and this latest edition was just as thrilling as their previous matchup.
MOUZ opened the series with a 13-9 win on Mirage, largely thanks to a swing round from torzsi that saw him dominate with his trusty Scout.
However, Vitality bounced back hard on Inferno, clawing their way back into the series with a 13-9 win of their own.
The deciding map would be a replay of BLAST Open Lisbon's decider, Train. Once again won by Vitality, they completed their comeback with a 13-8 victory after taking a 7-5 advantage into the break thanks to a strong T side.
The win saw Vitality advance through to the semis, with ropz and ZywOo being the main difference-makers as they combined for 98 kills across the BO3.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenFaZe clinch close game to eliminate FlyQuest
Game three saw FkyQuest take on FaZe, with Liazz saying on stream before the match that he felt like FlyQuest could "shit on them."
It didn't quite work out that way, but FlyQuest did push FaZe far further than many would've expected, the scores on the two maps were 13-11, 22-18.
Up first was Inferno, the pick of FlyQuest. FaZe were dominant on their CT side, taking nine rounds from the first half as rain and frozen combined for 26 kills.
That doesn't mean the half wasn't without highlights for FlyQuest, regali hit an insane flick on broky to compound the Latvian's 2025 misery.
FaZe opened Nuke with another 9-3 lead, this time coming from their T side. Massively favoured to go on and wrap up the series with ease, karrigan's team fumbled, with huge frags from nettik, regali, and INS pushing FlyQuest to make the comeback and force OT.
The Aussies even looked like taking OT, too, but FaZe managed to cling on to take the game in the third overtime. EliGE and broky were the stars of the show, their combined 65 kills saw FaZe advance to tomorrow quarter-finals.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenFalcons clutch up banger game against Spirit
The day ended on an absolute banger of a series as Falcons claimed their biggest scalp yet with a win over Spirit.
Something no one would have expected to say after map one, Spirit trounced Falcons on Mirage, stealing away their opponent's map pick with a 13-4 scoreline.
Despite a great 1v3 from sh1ro, things got real ugly, real quick for Spirit on Ancient.
NiKo was having one of the best games of his career, the rifle GOAT went 26-9 to help his team to a 13-6 win.
Nothing could go wrong for him in the map, just look at how clueless zont1x was of his whereabouts in this 1v1.
Dust2 started off with a bang, or rather, a Scout headshot. Already down a round thanks to losing pistol, birthday boy m0NESY crept his way through the B doors to delete zont1x and secure the retake for Falcons.
Spirit kept themselves in front, though, magixx pulled off a duo of nuts headshots to secure his team a fifth.
Eventually finding themselves down 10-6, Falcons needed a miracle to comeback, and map two hero, NiKo, did what he does best to offer his team a route back into the game.
And he wasn't the only Falcons player clutching, either. Magisk continued an impressive map three performance by outsmarting donk in the 1v1.
A round that would take the wind out of Spirit's sails, Falcons swept OT after that one, closing out the map and series with a 16-12 scoreline. m0NESY was the star on map three, his 27-17 statline saw Falcons book their place in the semis with a hard-fought victory.
