Historic upset: 100 Thieves eliminate Falcons in the opening round of BLAST Bounty
The BLAST Bounty format exists precisely for this. After two days in which the favorites had come through without alarms, day two of BLAST Bounty Season 2 delivered the biggest shock in the tournament's history: 100 Thieves eliminated Falcons 2-1 in the round of 32, sending the reigning Cologne Major champions home in their first match of the fall season.
How it all unraveled
The opening gave no hint of what was coming. Falcons rolled over 100 Thieves on Nuke (13-4), with NiKo especially lethal on the defensive side and no trace of post-break rust. With Dust2 next — their own pick, and one of their most reliable maps since the Major — a 2-0 looked like a formality.
Then came the turnaround. A masterclass from poiii, backed by several multi-kills from rain and three clutches from device, flipped Falcons' map entirely. karrigan's side took six rounds off the back of both pistols, but managed to add just a single full-buy round on top. One apiece, and everything riding on the decider.
Anubis produced a movie ending. 100 Thieves fell 3-9 behind and, rather than folding, strung together the comeback until the scoreline sat on a knife's edge. sirah delivered the final blow with a 1v3 to close out 13-11 and deny overtime: the play of the tournament so far.
A dream debut for the Gizmy project
The context makes it even more impressive. This was 100 Thieves' debut at the top level with Gizmy as their new in-game leader, after a summer of moves that included the Brit's arrival from Monte and Ag1l's benching. It's hard to imagine a better calling card than taking down the world's number one.
There was a reunion subplot too: the duel between karrigan and rain, teammates for years at FaZe, now on opposite sides, with device rounding out the American side's veteran core.
By claiming the bounty attached to Falcons — the mechanism that gives the tournament its name, whereby lower-seeded teams collect the prize of the favorite they beat — 100 Thieves also bank a considerable VRS boost. It is, by some distance, the best win of this project. Their reward: staying alive, and playing again on Saturday, July 25.
They weren't the day's only successful bounty hunters. HOTU had already knocked out GamerLegion in the German club's debut with FL4MUS, while G2 and FaZe did deliver against Nemiga and EYEBALLERS.
Cause for concern at Falcons?
For the Major champions, the blow stings especially because of the format: Stage 1 is single elimination, so there's no second chance. Their tournament ended in their first match, with a loss of 31 VRS points that, at least, doesn't shift them from second place in Valve's ranking.
There's no need to sound the alarm either. This is a team that lifted the trophy in Cologne barely a month ago, and whose occasional inconsistency is hardly new. But the timing is unfortunate: Falcons wanted to start the season with momentum heading into the Esports World Cup, which is just around the corner, and instead they go home labeled as the victims of the biggest upset in BLAST Bounty's year-and-a-half history.
Source: HLTV, Hotspawn, Dust2.