On 23 August 2025, Aurora secured a 2-0 victory over Falcons to reach the Esports World Cup grand final. The result marks Aurora’s first final since January and was powered by XANTARES, who led the team with a standout individual performance that swung both maps in their favour.
Aurora is headed to the grand finals of the Esports World Cup 2025, taking down crowd favourites Falcons in a straightforward 2-0 affair.
Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli’s men have struggled to find deep runs since taking up the Aurora banner, claiming a third-place finish at PGL Astana but finding little else to celebrate towards the end of the first half of the year. With this win, the Turkish side has secured its first grand-final outing since January, when the team finished runner-up at the BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals.
Aurora will be squaring off against a familiar opponent in the form of The MongolZ in the grand final. The two sides have tussled in four quarter-finals throughout 2025, and each struggled to find deep runs early in the year. Who saw that coming?
They’ll be trying to catch up to teams that have already pulled deeper finishes this year, like Vitality, who have a Major grand final appearance and back-to-back wins over top opposition.XANTARES was the lynchpin in Aurora’s win over Falcons.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| 24/08/2025 | The MongolZ vs Aurora — 12:00 | Match |
Falcons, conversely, will be taking on Vitality in the Saudi Arabian event’s third-place decider, facing off for the first time since Falcons added Maxim “kyousuke” Lukin to their ranks.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| 24/08/2025 | Vitality vs Falcons — 09:00 | Match |
The second semi-final began on Aurora’s pick of Inferno, where the Turks asserted themselves on the offence and led 9-3 at the break. Falcons often had man advantages but couldn’t cope with the hot duo of Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş and Özgür “woxic” Eker.
Aurora won the CT pistol and extended their lead to reach a 13-6 map victory.
On Falcons’ pick of Train, Aurora again started hot after a 1v4 clutch from Samet “jottAAA” Köklü. Falcons responded and narrowed the gap to a 7-5 half, but Aurora closed out the map 13-11.
Falcons briefly led on Train after a pistol win, but an impressive 1v3 from MAJ3R and some economic struggles left Falcons on the back foot, and Aurora sealed the series.
Final score: Aurora 2–0 Falcons. Maps: Inferno 13-6, Train 13-11. Full match page: Matchpage.
| Aurora | K – D | +/- | ADR | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XANTARES | 41 – 24 | +17 | 92.1 | 1.52 |
| Wicadia | 33 – 30 | +3 | 79.5 | 1.23 |
| woxic | 27 – 25 | +2 | 60.0 | 1.12 |
| MAJ3R | 26 – 27 | -1 | 72.8 | 1.06 |
| jottAAA | 24 – 31 | -7 | 69.7 | 0.91 |
| Falcons | K – D | +/- | ADR | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NiKo | 30 – 33 | -3 | 81.2 | 1.12 |
| m0NESY | 29 – 25 | +4 | 67.0 | 1.02 |
| kyousuke | 31 – 33 | -2 | 81.6 | 0.87 |
| kyxsan | 24 – 30 | -6 | 53.2 | 0.84 |
| TeSeS | 23 – 30 | -7 | 63.7 | 0.81 |
