karrigan Rates Falcons’ PGL Astana Run “8 or 9 Out of 10” After Grand Final Finish

Finn “karrigan” Andersen believes Falcons exceeded expectations at PGL Astana 2026, rating the team’s tournament performance an “8 or 9 out of 10” after reaching the grand final in his debut event as the squad’s new in-game leader.

Although Falcons were swept 3-0 by Spirit in the championship match, the Danish veteran said the event proved the roster already has strong potential despite limited preparation time.

According to karrigan, simply reaching the final after only around a week of practice was already a major achievement for the newly rebuilt Falcons lineup.

Falcons Reach First Grand Final With karrigan

The Astana event marked the first official tournament for karrigan after joining Falcons from FaZe earlier this year. His arrival reunited him with former teammates and longtime collaborators Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen.

The move immediately raised expectations around Falcons’ CS2 project, especially after the organization also secured superstar AWPer Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov earlier in the season.

Despite the roster changes happening shortly before the event, Falcons managed to make a deep playoff run and reached the grand final with wins over several top-tier opponents.

Falcons vs FURIA Became One of the Best Matches of the Tournament

The defining moment of Falcons’ Astana campaign came in the playoff series against FURIA.

The quarter-final turned into a marathon three-map battle filled with multiple overtime periods and several match points. Falcons eventually survived the series after an intense comeback performance.

m0NESY later described the match as one of the toughest series he had played in recent months and praised the team’s composure under pressure.

karrigan also highlighted the FURIA victory as the best example of the squad’s mentality and resilience, explaining that Falcons managed to stay calm even while facing elimination multiple times.

Spirit End Falcons’ Run in the Grand Final

Falcons’ tournament eventually ended in the grand final against Spirit, who secured a convincing 3-0 victory to claim the PGL Astana trophy.

Spirit won:

• Dust2 — 16-12
• Mirage — 13-7
• Ancient — 13-10

The victory marked Spirit’s second consecutive Astana title and ended the team’s lengthy trophy drought.

While disappointed with the result, karrigan admitted that Falcons were still not fully prepared for a best-of-five grand final due to their short practice period and unfinished tactical system.

TeSeS and NiKo Praise karrigan’s Leadership

Several Falcons players also spoke positively about karrigan’s immediate impact on the roster.

René “TeSeS” Madsen said the veteran leader completely changed the atmosphere inside the team and called playing close matches under his leadership “a joy.”

NiKo echoed similar sentiments earlier in the tournament, noting that changing an in-game leader means rebuilding the team’s entire structure and system. However, he added that Falcons were already seeing promising progress only days after karrigan joined the lineup.

Falcons Shift Focus to CS Asia Championships 2026

Following their runner-up finish in Kazakhstan, Falcons now turn their attention to the CS Asia Championships 2026 in Shanghai.

The team enters the event as one of the tournament favorites and is set to face BC.Game in the opening round, creating a highly anticipated matchup between karrigan and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev.

karrigan stated that winning the tournament is not a necessity at this stage of the project, but admitted that another deep run would help Falcons build momentum before the upcoming Major season.

With Astana already showing signs of rapid improvement, Falcons appear to be developing into one of the most dangerous teams in Counter-Strike 2 heading into the second half of 2026.