"Passion UA" Lift Urban Riga Title After Gritty Grand Final Over EYEBALLERS

Passion UA Lift Urban Riga Title After Gritty Grand Final Over EYEBALLERS

After narrowly missing out on glory at DraculaN just days earlier, Passion UA returned with vengeance at Urban Riga Open, walking away with the trophy and a $6,000 grand prize. 

In a dramatic best-of-three grand final, Passion UA, captained by Johnny “JT” Theodosiou, edged out EYEBALLERS in a tense series that capped off a marathon playoff day that began at 10 AM and stretched well beyond 2 AM local time. 

Going into the event from the upper bracket, Passion UA remained undefeated throughout the playoffs, but it was far from a dominant run: they were taken to the full distance in all four of their series—versus Fingers Crossed, BIG, and twice against EYEBALLERS. 

Final Match Breakdown & Key Performances

The grand final maps were Ancient, Dust2, and Nuke. 

On Ancient, Passion UA took the map 13–11 after a close first half (5–7) and a strong CT side (8–4).

On Dust2, EYEBALLERS struck back, winning 16–14 (after trailing in portions) to force a decider map.

In the decider Nuke, Passion UA clinched the match 13–10 to seal their title.

From Passion UA, Michael “Grim” Wince stood out with 69–48 (K–D), +21, and a team-best rating of 1.51. Nick “nicx” Lee also delivered solid numbers at 60–52, while Vladyslav “Kvem” Korol produced a +1 differential over the three maps. 
From EYEBALLERS, Max “maxster” Jansson posted 50–42 (+8), and Kalle “Ro1f” Johansson went 51–48 (+3). 

Broader Implications & Stakes

Besides the trophy, Passion UA grabbed a valuable chunk of VRS points, which could push them toward a Stage 2 invite to the StarLadder Budapest Major.  As of now, the team is projected to finish third in Americas VRS standings (as of October 6) and still have Fragadelphia Blocktober ahead before the cut-off. 

Meanwhile, EYEBALLERS didn’t leave empty-handed: their runner-up finish earned them around 125 VRS points, propelling them 30 places upward on the global VRS ladder. They also notched notable wins in the event over Alliance, MOUZ NXT, and BIG. 

Both teams are also slated to compete in Fragadelphia Blocktober, along with other major names like fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG, ENCE, and BIG. 

Urban Riga Open #1 itself was a C-tier, offline CS2 tournament organized by Urban Contenders in Riga, Latvia (Cyber Empire Esports Lounge), with 12 participating teams and a total prize pool of USD 8,000. 

Additional Context & Player Insights

A few days before the tournament, JT expressed optimism regarding the team’s trajectory:

“It feels like we have been improving really fast, at least in practice,” he said, noting that turning practice gains into official match results remained their next challenge. 

Though I couldn’t locate a direct quote from JT after the victory in the sources presently available, the final result and statistics speak volumes for the team’s performance under pressure.

In a related story from Urban Riga, lmbt — though not a member of either finalist — gave insight into his philosophy on nurturing talent in the professional scene:

“The main goal is developing the players and finding those talents, those gems — it’s pretty hard nowadays,” he said in an HLTV interview conducted during the event.