BLAST Porto quarter-finals as they happened

• Arena roars for NiKo's ridiculous 4K

The opening map was far from ideal, but Vitality have looked better with each map and secured a dominant 13-4 victory on the Dust2 decider.

the second, catching off two aggressive plays to extend lead to three rounds.

Another back-and-forth start to the map, where FURIA just returned to the lead after Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos 's solo B hold.

A close map, but Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut (1.72 map rating) got his team over the line with some individual impact, with Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam saying that Vitality were better even if not at their best.

Next up is Dust2, where Vitality are on a five-match win streak — three of them with Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius .

His smoke block made Vitality unsure about CT, while his three kills meant they never got close to the site.

The scores are even late on.

A 5vs2 nearly spiraled out of control for FURIA , but Danil "⁠molodoy⁠" Golubenko did well to recover a whiff with a quick 2k.

It came down to the wire, but Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius ' 1vs2 clutch means Vitality win out the half 8-4 despite FURIA 's pistol-round victory.

It seems like Vitality have finally found their footing in the match, winning six in a row on their Cache defense.

Proactive plays are the name of the game for Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire 's men, who now have three members with over $10,000 in the bank.

the Kazakh AWPer means FURIA start the map where they left off on Nuke.

Link copied Last comment 2h ago By Sumljiv FURIA waltz to Nuke victory vs.

A dominant victory for FURIA , who didn't give Vitality any room to breathe throughout the map.

"15% gameplan, 85% feeling and momentum," Sid "⁠sidde⁠" Macedo described the map.

A rough game for the Lithuanian so far, but his MP9 double keeps Vitality in the map for a while longer.

A disjointed offense netted Vitality just two rounds at the switch, while FURIA 's members can't put a foot wrong.

Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo even got a moment to read through his notes as Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan scrambled to find him with time running out.

Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool and Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius and the following 4vs3 conversion are enough to finally secure a round. They still have a lot of work to do, though.

The crowd favorite is enjoying himself.

The first gun round does nothing for Vitality , who are yet to get going on their Nuke offense.

"I feel like I'm not playing without mistakes, but I'm getting beter day by day, and that's what matters," Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius said in a pre-match interview.

"Having a couple of days break was very crucial. We spoke about CS and maps everyday, and it's better to have a few days break."

Link copied Last comment 3h ago By Sumljiv sAw: "We have some tough moments in these playoff matches" vs.

"We started to lose patience at the end of the first half on Inferno. That punished us a lot more, and then the whole half is gone. Those are the issues we need to fix," Eetu "⁠sAw⁠" Saha told James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks in an exit interview.

"We have some tough moments in these playoff matches, and we need to figure it out," he continued. "It has been quite recently that we started making playoffs, but you get tired of losing to the better teams. Today we didn't really get a chance."

Link copied Last comment 4h ago By Striker Scoreboard: huNter stars in the loss vs.

Link copied Last comment 4h ago By Striker kyousuke 1v2 ends it vs.

And that's Falcons through to the semi-finals after a 13-9 scoreline that feels generous to G2, as they were on the back foot all the way through.

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A few Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov openers and closers later Falcons are back in business, running it down to match point after three consecutive rounds to take the last bits of hope away from G2.

After Matúš "⁠MATYS⁠" Šimko was the only one putting up a fight on Inferno, now it's Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač 's turn with 17 kills, more than double of his next best teammate.

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After sending Falcons on an eco, G2 are once again on a back foot after giving up a couple of crucial kills to Maksim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin 's hero AK.

Now losing two consecutive rounds, they've given away the momentum back to Falcons.

G2 have kept Falcons on low economy in the previous two rounds, so this could be the start of something.

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Link copied Last comment 5h ago By Striker NiKo 1v2 brings Falcons to map point vs.

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G2 are still holding on with the Slovakian defending Falcons' attempts for Car control.

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Pack it up. Go next.

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This is not the same sleepy Falcons we saw in the groups.

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G2's early focus on B looked well-placed at first, but now Maksim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin has shut them down and time is running out for them to make up some ground on the T side.

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It's a successful last-moment retake with the AWPer making it look flashy, as usual.

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Danil "⁠molodoy⁠" Golubenko answered some questions about the series against Vitality in the first round of the playoffs at the Super Bock Arena.

You have Vitality coming up, how are you feeling about that game?

They are playing with jL but they are still playing good. They beat good teams, they beat FUT who are very hard for us to play against. But yeah, they are playing very good still, it's good.

Do you think them having jL as a stand-in helps you, because maybe they are not as good as with mezii, or is it harder because they are going to play a little bit differently?

I cannot say if it's easier or harder, but jL has a Major. He's a good player and they have good teamplay, you see how they are screaming, the emotions they have when they are winning rounds. I think this helps them a lot. I'll say jL is a good player, and they have good communication, good emotions with the team. Who knows who is going to win; we will see.

Playing in the arena in Porto, we would expect a lot of the fans are going to be behind FURIA. You seem to be a player that steps up and plays really well in these arenas with the crowd. Do you feel like that?

Yeah, I think for me, I really like to play with crowd because I can do some emotions, I can do some things and with the crowd… I'm very happy when I play with the crowd. When you play with a crowd every time, it's hard to play without a crowd, I think it's always like this. Some players understand me.

G2 's former AWPer, Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García , struggled particularly against Falcons , posting only a 0.76 rating in the last three series between the two teams. Now, G2 will hope that their new sniper, Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz , can tilt the scales the other way with his aggression.

"The things huNter- and sAw expect from me are clear," r1nkle told at EWC 2026. "They want a more aggressive player, a more active player. And I am this player when I have the right mentality, and I have it right now. In a way, nothing can stop me right now. That's my feeling."

The Ukrainian AWPer has a 1.08 rating since joining G2 , and has been well above that so far at BLAST Open Porto, with a 1.18 rating during the group stage in matches against Spirit , Aurora , and Natus Vincere .

G2 and Falcons have played each other three times with the current cores, twice in 2025 at the Esports World Cup and StarLadder Budapest Major, and once this year at IEM Cologne, where Falcons were crowned Major champions.

Falcons came out on top on all three occasions, with two former G2 players, Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov , consistently shining atop the scoreboard with 1.43 and 1.42 average ratings, respectively, over the eight maps and 177 rounds played between the two teams.

The only other two players in these three head-to-head match-ups between G2 and Falcons with positive ratings are Maksim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin (1.21) and Nikita "⁠HeavyGod⁠" Martynenko (1.14).

Despite Falcons ' two stars shining above the rest, G2 's last defeat to them at IEM Cologne was not a one-sided affair, as the series went all three maps and into overtime on the decider.

The Super Bock Arena is set to host the BLAST Open Porto playoffs, with two high-octane matches in the first round of the bracket.

First, the number two team in the world, Falcons , takes on G2 , before two top five sides, FURIA and Vitality , go head-to-head.

The winner of the Falcons vs. G2 match will meet the red-hot Spirit in the semi-finals, while the winner of FURIA and Vitality will go up against MOUZ on the other side of the bracket.