It’s all coming together at FISSURE Playground 2. Once 16 teams, now whittled down to the final two of The MongolZ and FURIA, who had to beat Liquid and Falcons respectively to earn their place. These Semi-Finals were ones to remember – let’s take a look at how they went.
The MongolZ survive Liquid’s dead team buff
I mentioned in my FISSURE Playground 2 Quarter-Finals preview that Liquid‘s danger now came from the fact that they were a dead team, giving them nothing to lose. And they absolutely managed to give The MongolZ a scare in this Semi-Final, taking a map away before the quality prevailed.
It’s difficult to judge Liquid too harshly here. They gave a good account of themselves, but no one really expected them to beat The MongolZ, who you now would expect to go on and win FISSURE Playground 2. A moment to praise mzinho, too. He was the star of the show for The MongolZ, managing pistol aces on both Mirage and Ancient. With a player setting you up for this kind of success, how can you lose?
FURIA shock Falcons in close 2:0
The year is 2025, and FalleN is heading to a Tier 1 Grand Final. It’s hard to believe it, but FURIA were able to impressively outlast Falcons in a 2:0 series, but it wasn’t without struggle. Overtime was required on map one, in which crowd cheating in Falcons’ favor meant x-ray had to be removed from spectators. Then, a 13:11 score on map two saw FURIA pip Falcons to that FISSURE Playground 2 Grand Final spot.
This is all despite KSCERATO, YEKINDAR, and FalleN having off days individually. Instead, it was the impressive molodoy and yuurih who stepped up to the plate, making the difference and continuing to mark FURIA’s increasingly impressive resurgence. And what more can you say about Falcons, whose two Russian superstars in kyousuke and m0NESY struggled massively? FISSURE Playground 2 is the type of event a team of this caliber (on paper) should be walking with ease, and it’s a damning indictment of the project that they can’t even manage that at the moment.
