Spirit, after a shaky group stage, showed up in the Spodek in dominant form, earning a spot in the semi-finals after stellar maps from Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich and Danil "donk" Kryshkovets led them to a 2-0 victory over Falcons (13-8 Mirage, 13-10 Anubis).
The result sets Spirit up in a rematch against MOUZ, who beat them in the 2-0 pool at Pro League before Spirit lost another match to 1win in the 2-1 pool. The Russian team will be looking for revenge after looking much more like themselves in the arena, with an excellent game plan on Mirage paired with a 2.06-rated map from tN1R helping them romp to victory before donk took over on Anubis with highlight moments aplenty.
Spirit came into Mirage with a clear game plan to exploit Falcons' tendency to leave Window and Jungle vacant in the mid-round, and it paid dividends. tN1R was in terrifying form as he made full use of those gaps to get behind Falcons' players, tallying an early 1v2 to get his team on the board before adding an ace just three rounds later to continue ravaging the defenses.
Falcons looked miserable, unable to counter Spirit's preparation, and it took a miracle hero AWP ace by Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov for them to tally their only other round in the first half despite winning the pistol and conversion.
tN1R and Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov added insult to injury by ending the half with a 2v4, and Spirit didn't let up after the swap by using a pistol win to cruise to map point. Falcons finally started finding their footing and strung together their first rounds since the opening pistol, but overcoming a 3-12 deficit proved too tall a task with Spirit eventually closing out.
Another pistol win helped Spirit carry that momentum into Anubis, where they were up 3-0 before a 1v2 from Maksim "kyousuke" Lukin saved Falcons from squandering a 4v2 in their first gun round. Multis from him and m0NESY, paired with a triple by Finn "karrigan" Andersen to turn a 3v5 against pistols, saw Falcons claw back to a tie game.
All that effort came undone, however, with donk truly arriving on the server. The Russian phenom had taken a backseat on Mirage with tN1R performing, but he completely took over after decimating Falcons with an absurd hero AK-47 ace. He added another triple at the end of the half to give Spirit a slim lead, and then added a back-breaking MP7 triple to turn a force-buy after the swap.
Boris "magixx" Vorobiev, too, was putting up numbers, but donk just kept stealing the show with highlight after highlight, including another clinical 3k as Spirit stormed up to match point. Falcons fought to stay alive with clutches from Nikola "NiKo" Kovač and karrigan briefly stalling their execution, but much like on Mirage, were left with too large a mountain to climb as Spirit made use of their lead to clinch victory.
Andrey 'tN1R' TatarinovichPast 3 months
Maksim 'kyousuke' LukinPast 3 months
Falcons
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač
René 'TeSeS' Madsen
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
MOUZ
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi
Dorian 'xertioN' Berman
Oldřich 'PR' Nový
Adrian 'xelex' Vincze
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Dmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovPast 3 months
1win
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev
Artem 'ArtFr0st' Kharitonov
Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačPast 3 months
Boris 'magixx' VorobievPast 3 months
Finn 'karrigan' AndersenPast 3 months
Ilya 'm0NESY' OsipovPast 3 months
Danil 'donk' KryshkovetsPast 3 months