Team Falcons keep momentum going at FISSURE Playground 2 group stage

The defending International champions Team Falcons are running roughshod over the competition right now at FISSURE Playground 2, showing everyone in the building and those watching at home that they are still hungry after winning the world championship tournament.

They are now 2-0 in the Swiss stage, and are looking poised to dominate yet another premier LAN like they’ve become accustomed to lately. Following in their footsteps are Team Spirit, BetBoom Team, and quite surprisingly Aurora Gaming — with the rest of the field still jostling for position.

The sharpest talons

I fully expected Team Falcons to be at their very best at this tournament, and so far my predictions have been spot on. Not that that was a particularly bold prediction, but we have seen Falcons be uncharacteristically sloppy before. Fortunately for them, they are in tiptop shape right now and are playing their brand of Dota 2 without encountering much trouble.

They started the tournament by beating the up-and-coming MOUZ two games to one, and they didn’t even have to go particularly late against their opponents. MOUZ did manage to take the second game of the series off the back of Artem “lorenof” Melnyk’s insane 15-0 performance as Ember Spirit, but Falcons would nip that in the bud in the third and deciding map by simply crushing MOUZ in the laning phase.

WE TAKE THE LEAD! 🦅 pic.twitter.com/GjhX9GEh83

— Falcons Esports (@FalconsEsport) October 24, 2025

Then they faced the downtrodden Team Liquid earlier today in their second match of the Swiss stage, which was just easy pickings for Falcons. Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf even got to play offlane Ursa in the second game of the Liquid series, which is quickly becoming one of his signature picks from a position that the hero isn’t normally placed in.

Liquid, on the other hand, are still very much struggling to find their identity after signing both Marcus “Ace” Christensen and Erik “tOfu” Engel. I’m not even fully confident that they can beat Vici Gaming tomorrow. They will be desperate to save themselves from the bottom half of the standings, but at this rate, I’m not sure they have what it takes.

Shining Aurora

Now this is something I didn’t see coming: Aurora Gaming are in the top 4 so far. And given the way the Swiss system works, this definitely wasn’t by accident. They played quite well against International 2025 (TI14) bronze medalists PARIVISION in the 1-0 round today, beating them two games to one despite being pretty heavy underdogs on paper.

They actually took control of the series early, making sure to punish PARIVISION for their tendency to draft really wacky picks seemingly when they don’t feel like playing seriously. Kez and Techies, really? Granted, it did take a while for Aurora to put PARIVISION away in the first game, but Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko clearly wanted no part of a possible comeback from their rivals. His Gyrocopter was just unstoppable in the late game, to say the least.

AND WHO DIDN'T BELIEVE? pic.twitter.com/D9wCJt6vlu

— Aurora Dota2 (@AuroraDota2_GG) October 24, 2025

PARIVISION did bounce back in the second game with a complete stomp, taking Aurora out of the equation entirely with a great laning phase. But Aurora would have the last laugh in the series, building their draft well around Nightfall’s Sven — who would then go on to post 14 kills in just under 50 minutes.

Now, whether they can actually keep the ball rolling is still a question that they need to answer. They’re up against Team Spirit tomorrow, and everyone knows that Aurora are also beat in terms of sheer talent in that matchup. They have shown that they know how to adapt to tougher opponents, though — because they wouldn’t have gotten past PARIVISION otherwise.

I hope they don’t let this big opportunity to go 3-0 in the group stage and advance to the playoffs early slip past them. If they can capitalize on their momentum, we might just witness them have the breakout performance they’ve been looking for since forming last year. Well, that goes for the remaining members, at least.

Still plenty to play for

The new look MOUZ have not gotten off to a particularly good start at FISSURE Playground 2. I expected them to lose versus Falcons, certainly, but not to Team Cobra as they did today. They are now 0-2 in this Swiss stage, which means they have to win tomorrow in order to survive. Thankfully for them, their next opponents are Yakult Brothers, and that’s a match that they should win pretty handily.

Then again, that’s exactly what I would have said about their set against Team Cobra, and look how that turned out. They’ll have to be at their A-game tomorrow if they don’t want to embarrass themselves.

As for the others, there’s always the hopium train that is every Nigma Galaxy tournament run. They’re sitting at 1-1 right now, but they’re going up against Tundra tomorrow. They’re playing with three stand-ins, which doesn’t really bode well for their chances against one of the best teams in the world. Still, we’ve seen Nigma pull off upsets before (only to crash and burn right as they reach the top 8), so maybe there’s still a chance for them to make a splash here. Maybe.