Falcons lead Fantasy picks at IEM Chengdu Playoffs

Falcons lead Fantasy picks at IEM Chengdu Playoffs

The Falcons roster has emerged as the runaway favorite among Fantasy players in the IEM Chengdu Playoffs, with their players being selected more than 10,000 times across roughly 7,800 created Fantasy teams. This figure places them significantly ahead of rivals Vitality and FURIA, while teams like MOUZ lag behind with only around 4,700 picks. 

Why Falcons are dominating the Fantasy board

Several factors have propelled the Falcons into this spotlight:

1. Roster star power: The Falcons’ lineup boasts marquee names in the Counter-Strike 2 scene. For example, players such as m0NESY and NiKo bring elite performance history and high expectations. (See background on their careers).

2. Favourable bracket position & momentum: The Falcons clinched their playoff berth by 2-0 defeating Spirit in their group upper-bracket semi-final, showing form and positioning themselves as a strong contender.

3. Fantasy scoring mechanics: Because the Fantasy game rewards teams skipping earlier rounds (for example, some teams like MOUZ or Falcons get 6 bonus points for skipping the quarter-finals). Thus users align picks toward teams expected to advance direct.

4. User psychology: The data show that when a team acquires star-name signings and shows strong online and LAN performances, Fantasy users gravitate toward them. It becomes a self-reinforcing effect: more picks → more visibility → more picks.

The Fantasy game context at IEM Chengdu

The event format helps explain the high activity around Fantasy selections:

• IEM Chengdu 2025 features a $1,000,000 prize pool, 16 teams, and a playoff structure where group winners skip the quarter-finals and go directly to the semi-finals.

• The Fantasy game allows participants to build teams from the playoff-eligible squads, and metrics such as “team skipped quarter-finals” double as scoring incentives.

• With the double elimination group stage followed by a single elimination playoff, every match carry weight—so Fantasy users try to anticipate which teams will go deep.

• Historically, the Falcons have been highly popular in Fantasy tournaments: back in the FISSURE Playground 2 playoffs, they were already “by far” the most picked team thanks to both favourable bracket positioning and roster strength.

What the pick stats say

According to HLTV’s pick statistics:

• The Falcons’ players collectively have over 10,000 picks in the fantasy game among 7,800 teams.

• Vitality follow with slightly fewer picks, while FURIA sit behind them.

• Contrastingly, MOUZ are chosen only ~4,700 times despite being a strong competitive team, showing the gap between “favoured for Fantasy” and “favoured for pure performance”.

• The heavy imbalance suggests that many users leverage popular perception, star power, and outcome expectations more than granular statistical modelling.

Translation to tournament performance

The popularity translates to both pressure and expectations. For the Falcons:

• They already advanced to the playoffs with a dominant win over Spirit (2-0) in their group bracket. 

• With more rest from skipping extra rounds, the team is positioned physically and psychologically ahead of opponents who must fight through extra matches.

• On the flip side, being the “most popular” also means public expectation is high — any early stumble may cause a backlash from both fans and Fantasy players.

Broader implications in the CS2 ecosystem

These pick patterns reflect how fantasy metrics and e-sports fandom intersect:

• Roster building matters not just for winning tournaments but for attracting fantasy ­– this affects player valuations, sponsorships and team branding.

• The difference in picks between teams like Falcons and MOUZ suggests that perception, recency, and marketing may override raw win-loss data when users make pick choices.

• The Fantasy game’s design (bonus points for skipping rounds, etc.) incentivises choosing teams with a path to fewer matches and deeper runs, hence top seeds get inflated pick rates.

Key takeaways for teams and users

• For teams, being “Fantasy-friendly” is an additional axis of competitiveness: it grows visibility, audience engagement and perhaps indirect value.

• For users/fans, this serves as a reminder: heavy pick volume does not guarantee performance. A large portion of picks often reflect hope rather than guarantee.

• Analysts and bettors may use Fantasy pick data as a barometer of public sentiment but should combine it with performance analytics (map pool, previous LAN results, recent form) for deeper insights.

Final thoughts

In short, the Falcons have become the defining “go-to” team in the fantasy world of IEM Chengdu Playoffs: star-studded roster, favourable bracket, strong visibility, and built-in Fantasy scoring incentives have combined to make them the most selected team by a wide margin. The question now is whether performance will match popularity. If the Falcons live up to the hype, their popularity will be justified and the pick-volume will have been rewarded. If not, they’ll become a cautionary tale about the gap between fantasy appeal and tournament reality.

Either way, their dominance in pick stats has already signalled that they are not only competing in real time—the fandom and fantasy economy are placing votes of confidence in them today.