MIBR booted Falcons out of the Austin Major after an insane triple overtime decider at Inferno.

The Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 has produced its most surprising result yet, as Brazilian squad MIBR knocked out star-studded powerhouse Team Falcons from Stage 2 of the Major after a massive 2-1 upset in a thrilling round four elimination match on Tuesday (10 June).

Falcons were hands-down the biggest favourites to advance to Stage 3 of the Austin Major by cruising through Stage 2 in just three rounds. After all, the team fielded Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, arguably the best star pairing right now outside of Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Robin “ropz” Kool over in Team Vitality. And having played them the closest so far this year, Falcons were pegged as Vitality's biggest challenger for the Austin Major championship.

But instead of easily breezing through Stage 2 like everyone expected, Falcons fell flat on their faces to start their Austin Major campaign. Falcons suffered back-to-back upset losses to B8 and Lynn Vision Gaming in the first two rounds of Stage 2, putting them at risk of an early elimination and in an uphill battle to even make it to Stage 3.

Many chalked up Falcons' opening losses as mere best-of-one flukes, thinking that the team should return to form in the ensuing best-of-three series. Hopes for a Falcons resurgence were then rekindled as they overcame OG in three games to advance to round four, though the fact the series went to all three maps also raised alarms of an impending collapse.

Facing Falcons in round four were an MIBR squad not many expected to be in contention for a spot in Stage 3. Instead, the plucky Brazilian squad ended up producing arguably the biggest upset of the year and sending one of the tournament favourites to an early flight home.

MIBR pull off upset of the year to knock Falcons out of the Austin Major

The elimination series started out like many expected, as Falcons controlled Ancient by leading the first half 7-5 as the T side before claiming a comfortable 13-6 win in the match opener. 

Things got interesting in game two at Nuke, where MIBR absolutely dominated Falcons in the first half 10-2. The Brazilian squad then fended off a 7-2 second half run from Falcons, denying them a comeback to claim the map 13-9 and force the series to a deciding game three.

This do-or-die match would be decided in Inferno, which once again proved itself as the best map in CS2 by producing one of the best games of the entire year. While Falcons started strong by winning three of the first four rounds as the CT side, MIBR responded with a 7-1 round to end the first half with a commanding 8-4 lead. 

MIBR continued rolling in the second half by winning the pistol round and the conversion, but their flawed CT play in Inferno started to show, as Falcons responded with six straight rounds to tie up the score at 10-10 off some clutch plays from m0NESY and Emil “Magisk” Reif. Both sides then traded the next four rounds, forcing the decider to go into overtime.

While MIBR won the first round of overtime, their weakness on the CT side reared its head once again as Falcons responded with back-to-back round wins. While Falcons would lead 15-14 after the side switch, MIBR clutched out round 30 to force a second overtime period. The T side then continued to be the stronger side as both sides scored two rounds apiece in their respective stints, but Falcons were the ones in position to secure the series victory with a 18-17 lead.

Round 36 would end up becoming one of the wildest rounds in all of CS2, as Falcons found themselves in an unthrowable position with a 3v5 man advantage and with the bomb plant on B secured. But Breno “brnz4n” Poletto somehow took down m0NESY and René “TeSeS” Madsen to crack open the Falcons defense, then closed out the round with a 4K as MIBR got the defuse to force Inferno to triple overtime.

While Falcons managed to shake off that disastrous throw by winning the next round, MIBR finally got a good CT stint by winning the next two rounds. The Brazilians then won their first T round of triple overtime to get within series point at 21-19 before Falcons clutched out round 41 to stay alive. However, MIBR simply could not be denied as they won round 42 to secure the 22-20 victory in Inferno, and knock Falcons out of the Austin Major in dramatic fashion.

Felipe “insani” Yuji led the way for MIBR in the series decider with 31 frags and 15 assists on 26 deaths. Brnz4n and Rafael “saffee” Costa added 26 kills apiece and combined for 15 assists against 26 and 22 deaths, respectively, while Lucas “Lucaozy” Neves had 25 frags and nine assists on 30 deaths. Raphael “exit” Lacerda also pitched in with 19 frags and 14 assists on 20 deaths.

Meanwhile, m0NESY showed out for Falcons despite the loss by notching 30 frags and seven assists on 26 deaths, a marked improvement from his abysmal performance in the team's first two losses of Stage 2. Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski kyxsan also had showed great impact plays with 28 frags and 10 assists on 27 deaths. Magisk and René “TeSeS” Madsen played a solid map as well, with Magisk having 25 frags and 13 assists on 27 deaths, while TeSeS recorded 23 frags and seven assists on 24 deaths.

However, it was NiKo that massively underperformed when Falcons needed him most, only managing 18 frags and eight assists against 24 deaths. 

With their loss, Falcons fail to make it out of Stage 2 despite being pegged as one of the biggest favourites to claim the championship of the Austin Major. With this disastrous 20th-22nd finish in Austin, this marks the worst result in a Major for all of Falcons' players, all of whom have never finished below 15th-16th place in all their previous Major appearances.

It's an unthinkable result for a team that includes two of the biggest stars in the scene, and was infamously assembled through multiple player buyouts costing millions of dollars. 

Meanwhile, MIBR keep their Major campaign alive and will play in the fifth and final round of Stage 2 for the right to advance to Stage 3.

The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is the first CS2 Major Championship of the year. From 3 to 6 June, 32 of the best CS2 teams in the world will gather in Austin, Texas to fight across four grueling stages of competition to claim the third CS2 Major title and the lion's share of the tournament's US$1.25 million prize pool.

For everything you need to know about the BLAST.tv Austin Major, check here.