Karrigan: Falcons played too much Dust2, must expand maps

Falcons in-game leader Finn “karrigan” Andersen addressed the team’s map choices after their group-stage run at BLAST Open Porto in Porto, Portugal. He said repeated Ancient picks did not produce the consistency the squad needed and called for wider map preparation.

Falcons reached the playoffs after a revenge win over Legacy but posted mixed results across the group stage. The team posted a dominant map win over MOUZ yet lost the series to them and struggled in their opening match against Lynn Vision. Ancient was selected multiple times during the event and often failed to deliver the expected results.

Karrigan explained the Ancient picks were part of a plan to expand the roster’s map pool rather than a blind preference for the map. “We have been working on it a lot,” he said, adding that practice on Ancient had gone well even if match outcomes did not match practice form.

He pointed to an overreliance on Dust2 as a reason to try different maps. Karrigan noted the team had played five Nuke matches in the previous 90 days and wanted additional reps on other maps to build balance and options in official matches.

The in-game leader described the group stage as useful for collecting match data and repetitions. “I think the reps we gained were the best feature of our group stage efforts,” he said, adding that the event showed “some things that work and some things that don’t, and those things we need to fix during officials.”

Karrigan gave specific appraisals of maps used in Porto. He called Inferno “a little bit rough” while expressing pride in the team’s Nuke performance: “I’m super proud of how we played the Nuke game.” He also flagged consistency as a concern, saying, “Sometimes our B game is not the best. If you want to be the best team in the world, you need to be able to beat other teams on your off day.”

On the wider timeline, karrigan described his time with Falcons as still in its early phase and cited a 60-day player break after he joined that disrupted rhythm. He said officials and arena matches are important for gaining competitive repetitions and that a short break before the arena stage would be useful.

Looking ahead to the playoffs, karrigan expressed confidence the team can improve on stage while noting group-stage wins have been rare for him personally. “I can’t remember last time I won a group stage,” he acknowledged. Falcons will aim to apply the lessons from Porto to broaden their map repertoire in upcoming tournaments.