When René "TeSeS" Madsen spoke to HLTV before the IEM Cologne playoffs, he relished the challenge ahead: facing only elite teams. That motivation carried Falcons through one of the most brutal playoff gauntlets in Counter-Strike history.
Finn "karrigan" Andersen's arrival transformed Falcons from perpetual underdogs into Major champions, while Nikola "NiKo" Kovač finally secured the trophy he'd devoted his career to chasing. Their path required defeating opponents averaging a rank of three: Vitality at number one, Spirit at three, and FURIA at five.
This stands in stark contrast to the easiest Major run since rankings began in 2015—Vitality's Paris Major victory, where their opponents averaged a ranking of 27.3. But how does Falcons' achievement measure against other legendary championship runs?
Only a handful of Major winners faced such elite competition. Cloud9's 2018 ELEAGUE Major run holds the record for lowest average opponent rank at 2.67, defeating G2, SK Gaming, and FaZe. However, Cloud9 entered that event ranked sixth themselves.
Natus Vincere's Stockholm 2021 campaign saw them sweep through Vitality, Gambit, and G2 with an average opponent rank of 4.3, losing only 65 rounds total. Vitality's recent Austin Major featured similar difficulty at 4.7, while Astralis dominated London 2018 with clinical precision against the second, third, and fifth-ranked teams.
What makes Falcons' run exceptional is achieving this as the fourth-ranked team themselves, entering as underdogs against defending champions Vitality. They upset the favorites, then conquered the scorching Spirit squad before handling FURIA in the finals. Even Natus Vincere fell to them during the Swiss stage.
The discussion around hardest Major runs involves multiple factors, but Falcons' bracket undeniably ranks among the most demanding playoff paths ever navigated to championship glory.
