The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Austin Stage 1 and 2

From 32 teams down to 16, the BLAST Austin Major is now well on his way. Stage 3 is about to begin showcasing the final Swiss system and setting up the scene for the playoffs to come. Before we get excited and impatient about the future, we thought taking a quick look back would be worth it. Lots of results, lot of Counter-Strike, and various stories have unfolded in front of our eyes. Let's have a look at the good, the bad and the ugly!

The good - The Incredible Legacy Run

On the 4th of June, Legacy, regarded by many as one of the "smaller teams" in Austin, were facing down the barrel of elimination with a 1:2 score in the swiss system. Losses to Lynn Vision and BetBoom had put their backs against the wall with no more misstep allowed. How could we have anticipated that a mere week later, Legacy would top the charts of Stage 2, with a clean 3:0 record (including a BO3 victory versus FaZe) to grab their tickets for the last group stage of the Major.

Dumau and latto deliver on old promises

Once upon a time, dumau and latto were considered the next "power duo" of Brazil. Once it became painfully clear that KSCERATO and yuurih would struggle to find wins with their then teammates, we looked to the younger generation to find that extra push. It would be wrong to say that the payoff was immediate, as dumau and latto's career profoundly lack titles and playoff runs. Yet, in Austin, they spearheaded their team to this incredible Stage 3 appearance. Dumau, in particular, had a stellar performance in the qualifying game versus FaZe with a 1.33 rating. It is worth mentionning that, not only Legacy have been able to rely on a strong quartet (as shown by the numbers) even their weakest link turned into a difference maker against FaZe and topped the scoreboard then. It truly has been a team effort. Notably, they also benefitted from clever vetos which allowed them to focus on Mirage, Nuke and Inferno, all boasting a 100% win rate in Austin. It is yet to be seen whether preparation (on the side of their opponent) will become a problem, as Legacy's map pool isn't that wide and thus, they might be prone to effective anti-strats. In any case, their run so far has been fantastic.

The bad - We needed more from Heroic

A disruptor, that's how a lot of people envisionned Heroic when the Major started. Surely, it would have been unlikely to see them lift the trophy, but they were - supposedly - more than capable of ruining some other elite team's party and take down huge names. For reference, they took down FaZe in IEM Dallas 2-1, in a match that started a hiliarous trend of banters between both camps. Unfortunately, their story has already met its end far too early at the Major. If Stage 1 was relatively comfortable with victories over Chinggis Warriors, NRG and FlyQuest, Stage 2 took a dark turn. Losses to B8 and FaZe put Heroic on the ejection seat having to fend off for their lives in BO3s. They might have survived TyLoo (although they dropped the first map of the series) but the real drama is the 2:0 defeat to Nemiga.

The fragile CT sides

Weak defensive sides were the demise of Heroic. With only 3 rounds won on Mirage and 4 on Dust2, they unfortunately never were able to contain the entry fraggers of Nemiga. Even if Xant3r clearly had a rough first map, his bounce back on Dust2 was tremendous with a slew of impactful entries that acted as a can opener. If xfl0ud indeed put his best foot forward in this series and in Austin, criticism can fairly be aimed at tN1R and SunPayus. The later more than the former. Surely, tn1R's output did not match the high expectations we had for the prospect. It was a tame performance, but we can give him a degree of consideration for his rookie status. That excuse does not apply to SunPayus who was, by all accounts, supposed to be a leading figure for Heroic. He's the player with the most experience by an extremely long margin. Considering the difficulties met on the CT side, one has to think that a deficient AWP output was a real hindrance for Heroic.

The Ugly - Falcons place 20-22th

What in the actual hell happened in the Falcons camp? The so-called legitimate biggest threat to Vitality's dominion, a team that took part in some of the greatest Grand Finals of all 2025, Falcons exit the event after only 8 maps played in Austin. Absolutely mindblowing.

A nightmarish first day

You either love it or you hate it, the first day of a Major's swiss system is filled with BO1's. It can be incredibly tricky to handle for a team that's freshly arrived on site (such as Falcons) going up against warmed up squads who have been on the battlefield already. That's pretty much what happened to NiKo and his squad. Two accidents against teams they were supposed to completely overrun sent Falcons to the dangerous 0:2 bracket. From there, losing wasn't an option anymore. They might have survived the OG test but MIBR gave us all a mesmerizing final map of Inferno to create the biggest upset of the tournament. Falcons' fans won't possibly forget the 5 vs 3 situation, at 18-17 scoreline, in favor of their team. We witnessed one of the greatest blunder in Major history, as brnz4n put together four kills, to help retake the B bombsite of inferno with two men disadvantage and keep his team alive. It was too much for Falcons who bowed out in the next overtime.

m0NESY a shadow of himself

Counter-Strike is a team game. When failure strikes, it is never onlye a single player's fault. That perspective is overly narrow minded and misses the bigger picture. However, in the case of m0NESY in Austin, we have to point out that his performance was a far cry from his newlyfound status. The second best player in the world of 2024, ahead of ZywOo mind you, had a pedestrian Major by his numbers. Worse, he missed a sitter of a shot in that incredible retake situation we just described. Future interviews might give us a little more context on the why's of this downfall but by all accounts, m0NESY failed his team.