Team Falcons won the IEM Cologne Major 2026, defeating the Brazilian FURIA in the final with a score of 3:0. The score on all three maps was the same — 13:8: on Mirage, Anubis, and Inferno, Falcons gave their opponents no chance to get into the match.
For Nikola "NiKo" Kovač, this victory was a historic moment in his career. The Bosnian rifler participated in Majors 17 times and never won a title — and all this time remained one of the best individual players in Counter-Strike. In the final, NiKo along with Finn "karrigan" Andersen scored 33 kills on Inferno, closing the series.
Special attention is deserved for the performance of Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, who showed a rating of 1.80 on the first two maps. Falcons' path to the final went through all the top-5 teams — along the way, they successively defeated Vitality and Team Spirit.
The final gathered 2,751,121 viewers at its peak — an absolute record in the history of Counter-Strike, surpassing the PGL Stockholm Major 2021 figure (2,748,434).
NiKoThere was a lot of pain, I lost a lot in my career — but today it feels like it was all worth it. Never give up. You will achieve your goals.
