The crown is heavy - how Falcons, NAVI and other major champions failed at the next tournament

A little over a month has passed since Team Falcons lifted the cup at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 in CS2. It would seem that we have received the completed arc of Nikola NiKo Kovacs, who finally took his coveted trophy, Finn karrigan Andersen outwitted fate itself by jumping into the last carriage, and Ilya m0NESY Osipov dispelled all fears that he would repeat the fate of s1mple. But yesterday we saw how the same team was eliminated from the qualifiers for BLAST Bounty Summer 2026 without making it to the main stage.

But they are far from the first to fail immediately after their triumph at the main tournament. After all, it’s not enough to win a major – you also need to secure your status. And today in the material we will remember all the teams that did not immediately justify their champion status, and we will try to find out the reasons for the post-victory failures.

Team Falcons, good old and unstable Team Falcons

Osipov's team began a confrontation with 100 Thieves, as they say, for health. 13:4 on the first map - it seemed that the meeting would go without a hitch for the champions. But since I remembered the first part of the old proverb, there must be a second. Because I graduated from Team Falcons for the rest of my life. On the second map the team apparently sat down, and on the decisive map they sat down completely without the ability to return to a standing position, not stopping the comeback from a score of 9:3. And for all bo3 Falcons gave seven clutches to Howard's roster rain Nygard, which obviously hit her.

But what could break the Falcons? It is impossible to name a specific reason with complete certainty. At the same time, nothing prevents us from digging around all this to find possible solutions to the problem. And the first reason is you... Okay, I was joking. Many in the community noted that Kovacs’ team had gone on a well-deserved vacation and hardly anyone would remember CS2. And looking at the profiles of the team members on FACEIT, you can see that NiKo and karrigan played two and three matches after the victory, respectively. M0NESY - 12, kyousuke - 25, and Rene TeSeS Madsen grinded the most in CS2 - 33 games. So coming back from vacation could feel like a bit of a hangover for the Falcons.

Well, it’s worth considering that the team was eliminated from the qualifications for BLAST Bounty Summer 2026 after only one match - and that was in the online stage. And we all remember the times of COVID-19 and the online era: it was truly chaotic and unpredictable. So it's too early to judge the team. There is no shame in slipping up in this format.

Fnatic hit the online tournament

2013 Fnatic is one of the strongest teams on the professional scene at the time. At DreamHack Winter 2013, Jesper JW Veksel's team lost in all matches on only two maps. The team became the best in individual performance, and three of the five players entered the top 6 at the championship. And just two days later the roster took part in Fragbite Masters 2013, where it didn’t even make it to the playoffs, losing to Astana Dragon and VeryGames in the second group stage.

Of course, delving into the past is more difficult than delving into the events of recent days, but let's try. Moreover, the truth, one way or another, lies nearby. Despite the poor performance after the Major, the next three tournaments became much more successful for Fnatic, as the team was able to reach second and third places. But what could possibly go wrong at Fragbite Masters 2013? The tournament was held online, and JW's statistics dropped significantly. Having become the MVP of DreamHack Winter 2013, at the next tournament Veksel produced 0.66. So a pattern is already beginning to emerge.

Natus Vincere was forced to doubt the legitimacy of the victory at PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024

In 2024, a similar story happened with Natus Vincere. Only in their case everything was much more interesting. The team won the first major in CS2, Justinas jL Lekavicius received MVP, Aleksi Aleksib Virolainen finally proved that he is a strong captain capable of leading the team to victory. In turn, Ivan iM Mihai temporarily made everyone forget that he did not spend most of the season very well, and received a place in the lineup only for a one-time performance.

But already at ESL Pro League Season 19 everything turned out much worse. NAVI started off vigorously: they confidently beat FlyQuest, then passed BIG, but then problems began. First, a defeat from Complexity, due to which the team did not qualify directly for the quarterfinals, and then elimination from FaZe Clan in the playoffs. Moreover, in that match the lineup looked like a pitiful shadow of its former self. First on Nuke, where Lekavicius’ roster took only five rounds, then on Mirage, where there seemed to be a struggle and even overtime, but in the end it was still a defeat with a score of 0:2.

And it seems that NAVI did not fall apart and did not look like a team that could lose to teams from tier-2. However, after the major, something completely different was expected of them. When you have just lifted the cup, 9th-12th place in the next tournament is no longer perceived as “unlucky”, but as a reason to think: “Is Aleksib really such a great captain?”, “Is it true that iM ended up in the team not on the ball?”, “Was jL’s peak in form too abrupt?”, “Will this lineup be enough for the distance?” But history gave answers to all questions almost immediately. Then the team reached the final of BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024, won the Esports World Cup 2024 and took ESL Pro League Season 20 in the fall. It’s just that in the case of NAVI, the month-long gap between the championship and the defeat most likely played a role.

Luminosity Gaming messed up at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016

The Brazilians won the first major in the history of the region, coldzera, FalleN, fer, fnx and TACO finally turned from contenders into a real threat to other teams, and the scene received a new competitive team. But the next tournament actually annulled all the excitement. At DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016, the team was placed in a group with MOUZ, TYLOO and Team Liquid. On paper it seemed that there were no insurmountable obstacles. And at first, Luminosity Gaming beat TYLOO with a score of 16:7, but then the Brazilians lost to MOUZ on Cache and met TYLOO again in the match for reaching the playoffs. “The easiest one for FalleN’s greatest dad,” everyone thought. But no. The Chinese took the series with a score of 2:1, and Luminosity finished the tournament in 9th-12th place.

And the situation is very reminiscent of what happened with Natus Vincere, which we talked about earlier, with the exception of a huge number of questions for the players. Great expectations that turned into a sudden slap in the face from a team that many before the tournament hardly considered at all as a real threat. But defeat was not a death sentence: Luminosity quickly came to its senses and won DreamHack Austin 2016, then ESL Pro League Season 3, and in the summer the same roster under the SK Gaming tag took ESL One Cologne 2016. So Malmö turned out to be not the end of the story, but a temporary respite for a full-fledged breakthrough.

Virtus.pro finished BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 in last place

But the story of Virtus.pro was different. Many people accepted their victory at IEM Rio Major 2022 without much enthusiasm. Jami Jame Ali's team played their most pragmatic and cumbersome Counter-Strike: economy, timing, discipline, slowly strangling the opponent, and so on. Considering the reaction of the community, after Rio at BLAST Premier: World Final 2022, the team had to prove that winning the major was not just a coincidence, but a pattern. But this turned out to be difficult. First, Virtus.pro lost to Liquid, then in the elimination match they ended up at G2 Esports, where they took only one round on Mirage. One. For a team that had won a major a month earlier, it felt like a total humiliation.

And here the reason was not long breaks, inconvenient formats and other external factors. Virtus.pro won the Major thanks to the system, but after the Major the system becomes the most visible target. When you win with structure, your opponents simply sit down and examine under a microscope where this structure can be broken. This is what happened at the BLAST World Final: the team no longer looked like an invulnerable mechanism that cleverly beats its opponent. And we saw this story repeat itself with PARIVISION in early 2026. Everyone simply forgot about how to play against the Jame system, but they quickly remembered, and the team immediately went extinct.

So what stops teams from winning after winning a major?

The major itself has that same magic that squeezes some squads physically, emotionally and strategically, while giving others unrealistic buffs. The latter usually celebrate the victory, and the rest go to learn from their mistakes. But one way or another, one failed tournament after a major does not make a well-deserved champion title an accident.

So the main question for the Falcons right now isn't why they lost to 100 Thieves. Such matches happen. The main question is what will happen next. If the team returns to the LAN and again begins to choke the opponents, then the market will be zero. But if such defeats become permanent, then the beautiful story about NiKo, karrigan, m0NESY and kyousuke will have to be re-read in a completely different way.