FURIA sweep Spirit 3-0 to defend BLAST Rivals crown in Hong Kong

FURIA completed one of the great late-season runs in Counter-Strike 2 on Sunday, sweeping Team Spirit 3-0 to win the BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 2 grand final at the AsiaWorld-Arena in Hong Kong and become the first team ever to defend a BLAST Rivals title. The Brazilian side took Ancient 13-11, Dust2 13-5 and Mirage 13-8 in front of a raucous crowd, capping a week in which they beat the past two Major winners and the world's most feared young star.

The victory was FURIA's third trophy in 28 days, after the Thunderpick World Championship and PGL Masters Bucharest, and their third title from four events. Only a quarter-final exit at IEM Beijing has interrupted a run that makes them one of the favourites for the PGL Major Singapore, starting on 25 November — captain Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo's final event before retirement.

FURIA had already beaten Vitality in the quarter-finals and Falcons 2-0 in the semi-final, beating the past two Major winners to reach the decider. Spirit had reached their first Rivals final by beating MOUZ on Saturday, and had won the last three series between the teams, most recently in Bucharest in October. None of that history mattered once the final began.

Ancient was Spirit's pick and, on paper, their best chance: they had won 75 percent of their Ancient maps over the previous three months, against 42 percent for FURIA. Danil "donk" Kryshkovets won the opening duels in mid again and again, racing to 15-6 in the first half and finishing the map 27-15 with 125.1 ADR. Spirit led 11-9 in the second half, two rounds from going 1-0 up.

But FURIA kept winning the rounds they were not supposed to win. On the CT side they took several rounds on half-buys and MP9s, their rotations repeatedly reaching the right site in time, and a pop flash from FalleN cleared Boris "magixx" Vorobiev out of Cave for a two-kill round. The biggest swing came from Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato, who won three clutches on the map and finished 21-15 with 100.2 ADR. FURIA took the last four rounds to win 13-11.

Dust2 was FURIA's pick, yet it started badly: Spirit led 4-1, with Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich landing two Desert Eagle headshots in a force-buy round and magixx winning a three-kill round off a smoke play in mid. Then FURIA took six of the last seven rounds of the half to lead 7-5, Danil "molodoy" Golubenko's four-kill round with an AK and a molotov into tunnels among the highlights. The second half lasted only six rounds: Yuri "yuurih" Santos held the B site alone on the pistol round, turning a 2v4 into a win, and FURIA did not lose another round in a 13-5 win.

Molodoy finished Dust2 24-9 with 133.3 ADR. Yuurih finished 18-9 and KSCERATO 16-6, and none of Spirit's five players ended the map with a positive kill-death record, donk at 11-14. Spirit never recovered.

Mirage was Spirit's pick and their last chance, and FURIA won the pistol round anyway. Mareks "YEKINDAR" Galinskis, who had only 16 kills from the first two maps combined, took four on the A site in the opening round. Spirit kept pace through a scrappy first half, Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov winning a 1v3 clutch that began with a Glock kill to help them reach the break level at 6-6.

It did not carry over. FURIA won the second pistol round, their fifth win from six pistol rounds in the series, and Spirit won only two rounds after the switch. KSCERATO finished Mirage 20-10 with 113.6 ADR, and YEKINDAR, at last, went 18-15 with 97.3 ADR. FalleN's calls kept Spirit guessing, and twice in the closing rounds Spirit's CTs were set up for the wrong site. The 13-8 win sealed the sweep.

KSCERATO ended the series 57-31 with 101.3 ADR, the best numbers on the server, and HLTV named him the Most Valuable Player of the event. He finished the tournament on a 1.55 rating, after a 1.69 in the semi-final against Falcons and a 1.68 in the final. Molodoy finished 55-38 with a 1.30 rating and yuurih 47-38, while donk was the only Spirit player above even at 53-46. Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich finished 30-53 and Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia 27-45, neither finding the level that had taken Spirit past MOUZ a day earlier.

Spirit arrived in Hong Kong as winners of the Esports World Cup and BLAST Open Porto this year, playing their first Rivals final. FURIA defended the title they won here a year ago, beating Falcons 3-1 in the 2025 final, and dropped only a single map across the whole tournament. With all eight of the world's top teams in attendance, there was no soft draw to hide behind.

For FalleN, the win adds another piece of silverware to an iconic trophy cabinet and sends FURIA into Singapore as genuine contenders. Speaking on BLAST's broadcast after the second map, he played the moment down. "No, no, that's the trick. That's exactly what we don't think. We still have three more maps to play. We can close with one more. We have an excellent opponent playing against us."

Both finalists go straight into Stage 3 of the PGL Major Singapore on 2 December. Spirit must work out how to give donk the support he did not get on Ancient, where one more round from anyone around him would have changed the series. FURIA have one event left in 2026 and one final target: the perfect ending to FalleN's legendary career.