FURIA defeat Falcons in front of sold-out AsiaWorld-Arena as esports take over Hong Kong
The Brazilian squad won back-to-back tournaments in Asia in front of 12,000 Counter-Strike fans
Brazilian Counter-Strike squad FURIA continued their march through Asia and secured their third tournament on the spin by winning BLAST Premier Hong Kong Rivals in front of a sold-out AsiaWorld-Arena on Sunday.
Hong Kong’s first S-Tier esports event attracted a raucous crowd of around 12,000 as two of the world’s best teams fought out the grand final of the US$1 million (HK$7.7 million) tournament.
The past two times the teams have met, FURIA beat Falcons without dropping a map, but Falcons were in no mood to have that happen again and took the opening map of Inferno, FURIA’s first map pick, in dominant 13-3 fashion.
The second map of Nuke was a much closer affair, with the teams deadlocked at 6-6 entering half-time. The second half was one-way traffic, however, with FURIA’s Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis putting up the performance of the tournament on the attacking side to almost single-handedly win the map for them 13-9.
Map three of Train, the second pick of FURIA, proved to be a swing map in the momentum of the series. The teams could not be split after the full 24 rounds and were still locked together at 15-15 after the first overtime.
That is when things changed, however, as FURIA ran riot in the second overtime, posting four rounds straight to close out Train 19-15.
The fourth map of Mirage was another incredible spectacle, with both sides giving it absolutely everything and all the players having their moments to shine in front of a crowd that was never silent.
