Team Spirit is in the Grand Finals of Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026 after a successful revenge on Falcons, beating them 2-0, having lost earlier in the tournament. Dominant performances in back-to-back maps will see the CIS roster reach its first Grand Finals of the year.
VETO
- Spirit removed Inferno
- Falcons removed Overpass
- Spirit picked Dust2
- Falcons picked Mirage
- Spirit removed Anubis
- Falcons removed Ancient
- Nuke was left over
Map 1: Dust2; Pick: Spirit; Winner: Spirit
With the Falcons failing to stop the short split, Spirit got off to a 4-0 start. As the Falcons started mounting rounds, Spirit failed to take their lead by the end of the first half, leading to a levelled scoreline before switching sides. Starting on their defence from a levelled scoreline, Spirit cruised ahead of the Falcons’ offence. Targeting the B site did not give the results they had hoped for. Spirit successfully anti-stratted them, closing out the game with a 13-7 scoreline. Freshly minted IGL magixx topped charts with 19 kills as donk enjoyed a relaxing day in the office.
Map 2: Mirage; Pick: Falcons ; Winner: Spirit
After Spirit lost to the force-buy, the Falcons lost their footing to Spirit, who stood tall on the defence, leading to a dominant start. Late into the half, the Falcons pulled in 4 rounds to make the half competitive. Following a disastrous first half, Spirit built on its lead to go ahead in the second half with a 5-0 run to close the match 13-4. 18 kills from zont1x proved instrumental for Spirit to close down Falcons.
Falcons’ run at Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026 comes to a disastrous close, after a brilliant start to the tournament. With rumours of a new IGL floating around, the Falcons are a team in disarray, and Cologne Major looks like a distant dream.