FURIA is making their case to enter back into the elite tier of Counter-Strike, after a dominant win over Aurora in the IEM Krakow quarterfinals. Individually, the team looked on fire, and Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo’s calling carried them over the Turkish side with ease. Now the team will look to upset Spirit in the semifinals.
Related—IEM Krakow 2026: Teams, Prize Pool, Schedule, Results etc.
Teams Rosters – FURIA vs. Aurora
| FURIA | Aurora |
|---|---|
| Yuri “yuurih” Boian | İsmailсan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş |
| Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato | Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli |
| Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo | Ali “Wicadia” Haydar Yalçın |
| Danil “molodoy” Golubenko | Özgür “woxic” Eker |
| Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis | Caner “soulfly” Kesici |
| Sidnei “sidde” Macedo (C) | Sezgin “Fabre” Kalaycı (C) |
Match Recap – FURIA vs. Aurora – IEM Krakow Quarterfinals
Aurora’s historical advantage on Anubis was quickly negated in the veto thanks to FURIA choosing the newly-added map as their permaban. That sent MAJ3R and co. down the Dust2 route instead, hoping to capitalise on their streaky firepower.
- Aurora removed Overpass
- FURIA removed Anubis
- Aurora picked Dust2
- FURIA picked Mirage
- Aurora removed Nuke
- FURIA removed Ancient
- Inferno was left over
Dust2 – Aurora fall flat on the T-side – 13-7
FURIA brought two full sets of utility on their pistol round, setting up a perfect B execute to win the pistol round. That grenade usage remained a hallmark of Fallen’s T side in subsequent rounds, as the team prioritised smokes and molotovs over AK-47s to devastating effect. In their first full buy, Aurora’s stars hit the necessary shots to finally break FURIA’s flow.
With the B site defence given a reprieve thanks to Aurora’s aggressive CT stance in mid, the team tied the scoreline at three. After the early barrage of B attacks, MAJ3r on A became Fallen’s next attack vector. The Turkish IGL was struggling individually, and FURIA made good use of that, racking up T side rounds. Towards the end of the half, Aurora finally stacked three on B to bolster soulfly’s defence, but YEKINDAR and yuurih broke into the site regardless, closing the half with a small lead 7-5.
A pistol win should have conferred Aurora with an early advantage in the second half, but an overlooked KSCERATO with his force-bought MP9 spelled the Turkish squad’s doom, mowing down two from ramp. That took all the wind out of Aurora’s sails, and the map rapidly got away from Aurora from that point. A complete lack of AWPs for w0xic showed just how poorly Aurora’s T-side was going, and FURIA quickly shut the map down 13-7.
Mirage – Aurora capitulate under FURIA’s attack – 13-4
With KSCERATO hopping around connector like a kangaroo, YEKINDAR cracked three heads to win FURIA another T-pistol. The consistency from the Brazilian sides’ riflers was proving crucial for the squad, as Aurora continued to grapple with their economy, much like Dust2. Five rifles finally graced the defence in round five, and XANTARES put his to good use mowing down the bomb planter to win Aurora’s second round.
His team, though, was failing the fundamentals of Counter-Strike, falling to basic fakes from FURIA, as the Brazilians rolled through the defence. It took a massive 5v3 advantage in round 11, which got brought down to a 1v1, to finally give Aurora their third round. But FURIA still took a massive 9-3 advantage into halftime.
Aurora found a 4v2 advantage in the pistol round, but yuurih quickly pulled two kills from thin air, and pushed his team to double digits. While molodoy’s AWP buy didn’t find results itself, Fallen picked up the sniper, and put the final nail on Aurora’s coffin. Another 5v3 was found in round 15, and finally Aurora picked up a comfortable round.
That loss brought coach sidde to the microphone for FURIA, hoping to close the map out quickly. Aurora set up a solid execute onto A, but YEKINDAR and KSCERATO picked up two kills-a-piece, forcing XANTARES into a clutch. Fallen, who’d been stellar in the clutches so far, found the Turkish rifler on short, and locked in matchpoint for his side. With soulfly’s final death, the map closed out 13-4.
Series Statistics – FURIA vs. Aurora – IEM Krakow Quarterfinals
KSCERATO comfortably topped the charts with over a hundred Average Damage per Round (ADR) across the series.
| Player | Kills | Assists | Deaths | ADR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FUR KSCERATO | 46 | 7 | 18 | 104.3 |
| FUR FalleN | 29 | 17 | 17 | 75.1 |
| FUR YEKINDAR | 27 | 17 | 26 | 90.6 |
| AUR XANTARES | 26 | 12 | 29 | 80.2 |
| FUR molodoy | 24 | 6 | 17 | 63.1 |
| FUR yuurih | 22 | 16 | 13 | 77.3 |
| AUR woxic | 21 | 7 | 27 | 60.8 |
| AUR Wicadia | 16 | 10 | 33 | 59.9 |
| AUR MAJ3R | 14 | 13 | 29 | 62.3 |
| AUR soulfly | 13 | 6 | 30 | 43.1 |
Editor’s Notes: Aurora’s playoffs fumbles are getting out of hand at this point. Much like MOUZ’s rosters in 2023 and 2024, this team could smash through the group stage with nothing but 13-3 wins, and you’d still hesitate before picking them to win the event. And much of that blame has to come down to MAJ3R as the IGL. A single flashbang, and smoke, really should not make a tier 1 IGL call his CTs over to the site.
On the FURIA side, when you get the stars firing (like KSCERATO’s 46 kills) an easy win is on the card. But up against Spirit in the semifinals, they can’t rest on the firepower alone. molodoy’s lacklustre stats, and multiple missed opportunities on Mirage is something the team should focus on. If the Kazakh star is on form in his duel against Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov, FURIA will have a chance at stealing a win.
