zorte, BetBoom’s lowest-rated player in the group stage and “feeling sick” on the day, went 25-7 on Ancient before BetBoom held off five straight FURIA rounds and a 14-13 deficit on Nuke to win the quarter-final 16-14 in overtime.
BetBoom Team beat FURIA 2-1 (Ancient 13-5, Dust2 10-13, Nuke 16-14) in the second quarter-final of IEM Beijing 2026 on Friday, their first series win over the HLTV No. 1 after five defeats in a row, among them the Thunderpick World Championship final and a Bucharest quarter-final eight days earlier. BetBoom play MOUZ in the semi-final at . FURIA leave in fifth to sixth place, two days after The MongolZ took Group A off them.
BetBoom2-1
FURIAStatsAncient 13-5, Dust2 10-13, Nuke 16-14
zorte
The AWPer nobody expected
Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko arrived at the quarter-final as BetBoom’s weakest player in Beijing by rating, 23-35 in the 0-2 against MOUZ, and told the stage interviewer afterwards that he was “feeling sick today a bit”. He finished the series 62-36 with 90.2 ADR, seven kills clear of anyone else, most of it on Ancient, BetBoom’s own pick.
BetBoom won both pistols on the map and led 7-5 after their T side, a half in which Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo kept FURIA in it almost on his own, winning a 1v2 clutch with the finger wag out.
The second half lasted six rounds. Boombl4’s double from a hiding spot won the pistol, zorte aced FURIA’s Tec-9 force in the round after, and he ended the map 25-7 with 140.6 ADR, having died once on the CT side. FURIA did not win a round as terrorists.
zorte put the turnaround down to shutting everything else out.
After group stage I’m trying to get this consistent, like previous tournament, but I don’t know, I didn’t get well in group stage. Today I just try to focus up and trying to be calm as possible, just play, focusing on my own stuff, what I have to do and my individuals.
FalleN’s ace, KSCERATO’s 3v5
Dust2, FURIA’s pick, followed the same script for a half. FURIA won the pistol with FalleN holding the bomb on catwalk, then won only four of the 11 rounds after it, and Danil “molodoy” Golubenko had an AWP in his hands once before the break. zorte was 13-3 at the half, Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov 14-7, and BetBoom led 7-5 for the second map running.
The second pistol changed the series. FalleN heard BetBoom drop into the B site and took all five of them with the USP, the arena erupting and BetBoom coach Fierce laughing on the bench.
FURIA won eight of the 11 rounds on their CT side, Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis started winning his duels, and at 12-10 Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, quiet for most of the day, was the last man standing in a retake on the A site that sent the series to Nuke.
FalleN finished Dust2 10-9 with 91.2 ADR, on a map where the desk otherwise counted FURIA’s missed smokes and a team nade.
Five in a row, then one smoke
BetBoom opened Nuke on the CT side with the pistol and five straight rounds, zorte 8-1 before FURIA had scored and coach sidde calling his first timeout at 0-5. FURIA won four in a row back and got to 5-6, but zorte’s double in the yard in the last round of the half kept it 7-5.
FURIA won the second pistol and, later, a full eco on P250s, and nothing else before BetBoom reached 12-7 and match point. From there FURIA won five rounds in a row: a molodoy flick on a player in window, a KSCERATO double that left zorte in a 1v5, molodoy denying Magnojez on an eco, FalleN buying a second AWP for 11-12 and the finger coming out one more time, then molodoy again for 12-12. The Kazakh went 30-14 with 96.6 ADR on the map, while FalleN, playing his last IEM map before he retires at the end of the year, was 7-22.
FURIA won the first overtime round through another molodoy ramp push and led 14-13 after Yuri “yuurih” Santos opened a 5v4. Then the CT half turned over. FURIA set up a B fake that pulled every BetBoom rotation the wrong way, yuurih missed the main smoke, S1ren was left with a clear sightline and BetBoom took three kills for 14-14. zorte’s AWP in the ramp room made it 15-14, and in the final 2v2 Boombl4 came through the back line to catch molodoy and YEKINDAR for 16-14.
Pavel “S1ren” Ogloblin, rarely the man BetBoom look to, topped their board on Nuke with 26-18, most of it in doubles on the A site.
“A little bit too sleepy”
YEKINDAR did not hide the reason on ESL’s broadcast. “I just feel sad a little bit that I feel like we came to the game a little bit too sleepy, making too many mistakes,” he said. “And we all know why. Probably because we’re […] tired.” FURIA have played the Thunderpick World Championship, PGL Masters Bucharest and Beijing back to back, winning the first two, and five of their last six Bo3s went to a decider.
He signed off with a smile. “Good game, BetBoom. Nobody beats BetBoom five times in a row, I guess.” He was a win short in his count: FURIA had beaten them five times in a row, and it was the sixth that got away. FURIA stay in Beijing until Monday, YEKINDAR said, before an event in Hong Kong and then the PGL Major Singapore.
BetBoom, who lost 6-13 on Ancient and 14-16 on Mirage to MOUZ in Group B on Tuesday, get a second go at them on Saturday morning for a place in Sunday’s final against NAVI or The MongolZ. NAVI beat PARIVISION 2-1 in the first quarter-final earlier on Friday. Before the series, HLTV’s VRS calculator had the win worth around 21 points to BetBoom and the defeat 21 to FURIA. We follow both semi-finals on our IEM Beijing 2026 page.
