KSCERATO won clutch after clutch as FURIA took both of Spirit’s map picks and gave FalleN one more trophy before Singapore.
Ancient is Spirit’s best map. Over the last three months they had won 75% of their Ancient maps, against 42% for FURIA, and they picked it to open the Grand Final in Hong Kong. FURIA took it 13-11 from 11-9 down, and Spirit never got back into the series. FURIA beat Team Spirit 3-0 (Ancient 13-11, Dust2 13-5, Mirage 13-8) on Sunday to win BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 2 and keep the title they won in Hong Kong a year ago. No team had defended a Rivals title before.
It is FURIA’s third trophy in 28 days, after the Thunderpick World Championship and PGL Masters Bucharest, and three titles from their last four events, with a quarter-final exit at IEM Beijing in between. Spirit had won the last three series between the teams, the latest in Bucharest in October. FURIA take $250,000 and Spirit $200,000.
FURIA3-0
SpiritStatsAncient 13-11, Dust2 13-5, Mirage 13-8
tN1RSpirit’s map, FURIA’s rounds
Spirit had beaten MOUZ on Ancient in Saturday’s semi-final and were comfortable starting there. FURIA, by contrast, used to ban it. They changed their veto during the season, now throw out Anubis instead, and have rebuilt the map around new roles: Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo plays Cave, and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis does the calling.
For most of the map, Spirit’s plan worked. Danil “donk” Kryshkovets won the opening duels in mid again and again, went 15-6 in the first half and finished 27-15 with 125.1 ADR and 87.5% KAST, a four-kill round included. Spirit led 11-9 in the second half, two rounds from going 1-0 up.
FURIA kept winning the rounds they were not supposed to win. On the CT side they took several on half-buys and MP9s, with rotations that kept reaching the right site in time, and after the switch a pop flash from FalleN cleared magixx out of Cave for a two-kill round. The biggest swing came from Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, who won three clutches on the map and finished 21-15 with 100.2 ADR. FURIA took the last four rounds to win 13-11. In the last of them FalleN got the bomb down and FURIA’s three survivors held off a retake Spirit had no utility for.
Spirit’s support cast did not follow donk. tN1R went 12-20 with 52.3 ADR on a map where one more round from anyone around donk would have changed the series.
Dust2 turns into a rout
Dust2 was FURIA’s pick, and it started badly for them: Spirit led 4-1, with tN1R picking up two Desert Eagle headshots in a force-buy round and magixx winning a three-kill round off a smoke play in mid. Then FURIA took six of the last seven rounds of the half to lead 7-5, molodoy’s four-kill round with an AK and a molotov into tunnels among them.
The second half lasted six rounds. yuurih held the B site alone on the pistol round, turning a 2v4 into a win, and FURIA did not lose another round. Danil “molodoy” Golubenko finished the map 24-9 with 133.3 ADR, with a CT round where he stopped Spirit’s push through B doors without missing a shot. yuurih finished 18-9, KSCERATO 16-6, and none of Spirit’s five players ended the map with a positive K-D, donk at 11-14.
FalleN played the moment down when he spoke on BLAST’s broadcast after the map.
No, no, that’s the trick. That’s the trick. That’s exactly what we don’t think. We still have three more maps to play. We can close with one more. We have an excellent opponent playing against us.
He had kinder words for his AWPer, who he said is “not a morning person” but is “always ready” for the games.
A sh1ro clutch, then nothing
Mirage was Spirit’s pick and their last chance, and FURIA won the pistol round anyway. YEKINDAR, who had 16 kills from the first two maps combined, took four on the A site in the opening round.
Spirit kept pace through a scrappy first half. magixx sold a fake through window and got the bomb down with milliseconds to spare, and with FURIA two rounds from an 8-4 half, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov won a 1v3 clutch that began with a Glock kill. Spirit took the next round as well to reach the break level at 6-6.
It did not carry over. FURIA won the second pistol round with YEKINDAR pressuring catwalk while the rest of the team split A against three CTs stacked on B, their fifth win from six pistol rounds in the series. Spirit won only two rounds after the switch. KSCERATO finished Mirage 20-10 with 113.6 ADR and 90.5% KAST, and YEKINDAR, at last, went 18-15 with 97.3 ADR. FalleN’s calls kept Spirit guessing, and twice in the closing rounds Spirit’s CTs were set up for the wrong site.
KSCERATO ends the series 57-31 with 101.3 ADR, the best numbers on the server across all three maps, and HLTV named him MVP of the event. donk was the only Spirit player above even at 53-46, while tN1R (30-53) and zont1x (27-45) never found the level that took Spirit past MOUZ a day earlier.
One event left for FalleN
FURIA have one event left in 2026, the PGL Major Singapore, and it is FalleN’s last before he retires. Both finalists go straight into Stage 3 on 2 December. FURIA get there having beaten Vitality, Falcons and Spirit in Hong Kong, ten days after Thorin said FURIA “ain’t winning the Major”.
Spirit, winners of the Esports World Cup and BLAST Open Porto this year, finish second in their first Rivals final. They have under three weeks to work out how to give donk the support he did not get on Ancient.
