MOUZ came back from an early setback to defeat Falcons 2-1 in the BLAST Open Porto 2026 Group B upper-bracket final, earning a place in the tournament’s semifinal. Falcons will instead begin their playoff run in the quarterfinals. The match was part of the event’s $1.1 million LAN competition.
The veto removed Anubis, Cache, Dust2, and Mirage. MOUZ picked Nuke, Falcons selected Ancient, and Inferno remained as the decider.
Falcons start fast on Nuke
The opening map was MOUZ’s pick, but Falcons made the choice look painful right away. A 10-2 lead on the opening side gave Falcons control before they closed Nuke 13-6, ending MOUZ’s seven-map winning streak there. TeSeS powered the attack with a 19-10 scoreline and a massive 2.00 rating, while m0NESY added 17 kills and a 1.55 rating. xelex was MOUZ’s best player at 15-14, but Spinx struggled at 5-16 with a 0.40 rating.
Ancient and Inferno put MOUZ in control
Falcons’ Ancient pick was a much rougher story. The map had already caused problems for them against Lynn Vision and Legacy at the same tournament, and MOUZ found the same weak spots by repeatedly challenging Falcons’ Mid takes. Nine CT rounds and four on the other side carried MOUZ to a 13-6 win. PR led the map at 13-9 with a 1.38 rating, while torzsi, xertioN, and xelex all finished above 1.30. m0NESY, meanwhile, ended the map at 6-15 with a 0.46 rating.
On Inferno, MOUZ again began on the CT side and kept Falcons from building momentum. MOUZ took nine rounds on defense and allowed only three in total, then finished the job without giving Falcons a single T-side round. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač was repeatedly pressured around Banana by precise utility and well-timed Car retakes, while Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás stopped attempts to gain ground through Mid and Brackets.
Oldřich “PR” Nový then denied Falcons’ last attempt to push through Middle during the second-half pistol round. He delivered the decider’s standout performance at 15-4 with a 1.96 rating, while xelex added 18 kills and a 1.62 rating and torzsi went 18-6. m0NESY still posted 11 kills, but NiKo managed only three kills in a 3-14 performance and finished with a 0.38 rating. MOUZ converted that control into a commanding 13-3 finish on Inferno.
xelex leads the series numbers
Across all three maps, xelex led MOUZ with 49 kills, 36 deaths, and a 1.36 rating. PR followed with a 39-28 record and a 1.31 rating, while torzsi posted 44-27 and a 1.21 rating. MOUZ finished with a 1.17 team rating compared with Falcons’ 0.89.
Projected VRS movement favors MOUZ
The projected VRS impact from the match put MOUZ moving from No. 3 to No. 2 with a gain of 34 points, reaching 1,912 points. Falcons was projected to move from No. 2 to No. 3 after losing 15 points, leaving the team at 1,897.
Those figures are only a prediction rather than an immediate official ranking change. VRS updates once per month, and the final calculation can include factors beyond this single series.
The playoff stage will move from BLAST’s Copenhagen studios to Porto’s Super Bock Arena on Friday, September 4, 2026. MOUZ will enter directly in the semifinals, while Falcons will have to survive a quarterfinal matchup first.
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