Spirit Defeat Falcons and Advance to the StarLadder Budapest Major Semifinals

Team Spirit secured a confident victory over Falcons in the first quarterfinal of the StarLadder Budapest Major, advancing to the tournament’s semifinals. The series ended 2:0 in favor of the “dragons”.

On Falcons’ map pick, Nuke, Spirit completely dominated the game and closed it out with a convincing 13:4 scoreline. Dust2 turned into a much closer battle. Falcons built an 11:5 lead, but Spirit managed a comeback at a critical moment. The turning point was the second ace of the series from Ivan “zweih” Gogin, which pushed the map into overtime. There, Spirit kept their composure and secured a 16:12 win.

The standout player on Nuke was zweih, who finished the map with a 21:9 K/D and a 2.17 rating. On Dust2, Danil “donk” Kryshkovets led the server with 30 kills, 16 deaths, and a 1.62 rating.

This loss marked the first time Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač have ever lost to Spirit. Prior to this match, their teams, G2 and Falcons, had beaten Spirit ten times in a row.

Falcons finished the Major in 5th–8th place and earned $45,000 in prize money. In 2025, the organization has won only one title so far — PGL Bucharest, where the roster featured Abdul “degster” Gasanov and Emil “Magisk” Reif. The best-performing player for Falcons at this Major was Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin, for whom the StarLadder Budapest Major became the first Major of his career.

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Falcons played the tournament with Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, René “TeSeS” Madsen, and Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski, with Danny “zonic” Sørensen as head coach.

Team Spirit’s lineup consisted of Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, Ivan “zweih” Gogin, Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich, and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, coached by Sergey “hally” Shavaev.