Spirit have secured a spot in the 2-1 pool at PGL Masters Bucharest after edging past FURIA in a three-map series (13-7 Nuke, 8-13 Ancient, 13-11 Mirage).
Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato will lament having a miserable series, ending at the bottom of the board with a 0.76 rating as FURIA failed to close out an 11-9 lead on the Mirage decider to end up staring down an elimination match heading into day four.
Spirit continued their recovery run after losing their opener to BETBOOM, and now have two chances to make the playoffs with Danil "donk" Kryshkovets looking back in form. The Russian phenom ended the series atop the board with a 1.46 rating, and though he posted 11 kills more than his closest teammate on the Mirage decider, Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia and Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov also deserve credit for helping complete the comeback when the map reached its dying moments.
Spirit never looked troubled on Nuke between donk getting a few openers, sh1ro thwarting FURIA Outside, and KSCERATO having a noticeably quiet map. A Dualies quad-kill by sh1ro set the tone for the map as Spirit romped ahead, 7-3, with a 4k from Danil "molodoy" Golubenko to recover a 3v5 offering FURIA a small glimmer of hope near the end of the half.
A pistol and conversion then let FURIA tie the game at 7-7, but sh1ro and donk continued to steamroll and ran over the defenses for a six-round run to win the map.
Spirit couldn't keep up the same form on Ancient despite donk finding openers, with FURIA taking control on the defense. One of Spirit's few rounds came by way of a triple spray through a smoke by zont1x, but FURIA's prowess in the mid-round reigned supreme for a 9-3 lead at the break.
Spirit started to claw back from a pistol win, losing only the first gun round in a 5-1 run to bring the deficit to just two rounds. But entries from Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis on B stemmed the bleed and ensured FURIA locked in the victory, forcing a Mirage decider.
KSCERATO had another map to forget on the decider, with Spirit again assuming control with a 5-0 start. A pivot to attacking B paid dividends for FURIA with Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo finding a few impactful multi-kills, which was enough to close the gap to 7-5 at the break.
A pistol win and excellent teamplay on the defense saw FURIA take control after the swap. Spirit struggled in the mid-rounds as FURIA took the lead, 11-9, but zont1x and sh1ro executed a game plan to exploit B to perfection to lead Spirit to a four-round spree to close out the series.
Danil 'molodoy' GolubenkoPast 3 months
FURIA
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko
Sid 'sidde' Macedo
BETBOOM
Kirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov
Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko
Pavel 'S1ren' Ogloblin
Daniil 'd1Ledez' Kustov
Kirill 'Magnojez' Rodnov
Artem 'Fierce' Ivanov
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoPast 3 months
Myroslav 'zont1x' PlakhotiaPast 3 months
Dmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovPast 3 months
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisPast 3 months
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Danil 'donk' KryshkovetsPast 3 months
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoPast 3 months