In a tense overtime-packed series against Falcons, a fortunate AWP kill from torzsi may have decided it.
FURIA makes playoffs over Astralis
In a tense three-map series, the experience of FURIA came out on top against Astralis’s new team.
Astralis picked up a necessary win on their map of Overpass, with a balanced team performance across the board.
On Mirage, FURIA had control for most of the game, until the final stages. Astralis clawed the map back from 8-12 down to be within one round of overtime. At that point FURIA found the clutch round needed, thanks to Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato’s star performance with a 1.80 rating on Mirage.
On the decider of Nuke, it was close, but no cigar for Astralis. Despite being one of their better maps, KSCERATO and Danil ‘molodoy’ Golubenko shut down Astralis on CT side, getting 29 kills between the both of them in the first half.
Astralis made it close, showing good signs in this tournament. They were only a few rounds from being in the top 6 squads, losing 9-13, just weeks after they announced the signing of a rookie talent in Gytis ‘ryu’ Glušauskas.
MOUZ’s new bravado gets them to Krakow playoffs
MOUZ and Team Falcons faced off in the deciding series of the lower bracket of Group B.
Both of them had easy routes to this match, as they took care of FaZe Clan and 3DMAX, respectively. Jimi ‘Jimpphat’ Salo even had the energy to flame Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants, who did not have a great series.
Both Inferno and Dust2 went to overtime in the clash between these two challengers to the top, MOUZ won both. This is somewhat uncharacteristic of MOUZ, known for crumbling under high pressure.
Adam ‘torzsi’ Torzsas said after the match that MOUZ has changed something in their preparation that makes them different. He said that this might be the key to them to reach more trophies.
At the very end of this series, torzsi picked up an AWP kill on a crossing player on mid-doors, swinging the match in a crucial 17-17 moment. Perhaps they picked up some of the “FaZe bullshit” on their way to the playoffs.
ZywOo drops 50 kills in a map against Aurora
On a map that Vitality never play, Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut once again did away with expectations and carried his team to a map victory.
It was anything but easy, as both teams prefer to avoid the map of Ancient. Across a map that ended 25-22, ZywOo picked up 53 kills, 35 of them AWP kills.
On the side of Aurora, it was a balanced team performance for their rifling trio, but not enough to secure the win after almost 50 rounds of play.
With this victory, Vitality go directly to the semi-finals of Krakow, while Aurora are left to face FURIA in the quarter-final.
G2-MOUZ Quarter-final locked in
With these results, here are the playoff matches that will decide the IEM Krakow 2026 champion:
Friday:
FURIA vs AURORA – 15:45 CET
G2 vs MOUZ – 19.00 CET
Saturday:
Team Spirit vs FURIA/Aurora – 15:45 CET
Team Vitality vs G2/MOUZ – 19.00 CET
Sunday:
Best-of-five Grand Final – 17.00 CET
The G2 vs MOUZ quarter-final poses an interesting threat to Vitality waiting in the quarter-final. They will either opt for revenge against the team that robbed them of BLAST Open London, or the team they haunted.
