Spirit are through to the grand final of the Esports World Cup after running over Legacy in a two-map series (13-7 Dust2, 13-9 Ancient).
The scoreline for the second map doesn't do justice to how confident Spirit were throughout, with Legacy winning both pistols and conversions and barely surviving a few rounds at the end of the half to make it look closer than it was.
In reality, Spirit never looked like they were in trouble, with excellent calls and information plays ensuring they had a read on Legacy's plays and stellar performances from Danil "donk" Kryshkovets and Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov ensuring the remaining Spirit trio didn't have to do much heavy-lifting.
Legacy will lament losing Dust2, where they were dominant in openers in the first half but often struggled to convert into round wins and fell apart against a few fortunate rounds by Spirit and a terrifying donk after the swap.
Spirit are heavy favorites heading into championship Sunday, where they will face off against FUT for the first time. The best-of-five grand final will kick off shortly after Legacy and FURIA finish their third-place decider.
Vinicius "n1ssim" Pereira, who starred for Legacy in their surprise win over Natus Vincere, won a 1v2 and added two more multis to kick off Dust2, which the team used as a springboard to run ahead 5-1 on defense.
But Spirit, despite struggling in openers (ending the half with a 2-10 record), came roaring back thanks to the efforts of donk and Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia, who both took advantage of the large gaps left by Legacy's opening stances.
Spirit's second opener even went to waste as Santino "try" Rigal clutched a 1v2 to end the half, but Legacy's fortunes didn't improve on the attack.
Spirit seemed to have plot armor as they got away with murder twice, recovering a 3v5 after a double Deagle opener by Bruno "latto" Rebelatto thanks to a lucky jumping M4 kill by zont1x on a perfect lurk from n1ssim, and again when sh1ro clutched a 1v3 with time too low for Legacy to pivot to A. Add five donk multi-kills to that, and you end up with Spirit dropping just one round en route to a quick finish.
That trend continued on Ancient, where things quickly went awry for Legacy as they walked into a pistol stack on A to lose to an eco after winning the pistol and conversion. Spirit had an excellent read on a meek Legacy offense, with the Brazilians taking sloppy individual duels and running into stacks repeatedly.
donk and sh1ro were nigh-unstoppable, finishing on 19 and 12 kills, respectively, at halftime — more than the other three Spirit players combined (10). Legacy prevented a blowout at the end of the half by scraping together a few hairy late-round situations, but continued to be outclassed in the second half.
Another pistol and conversion win served only to make the scoreline look more respectable as Boris "magixx" Vorobiev called circles around the Brazilians' defenses, who struggled immensely with n1ssim having a disastrous map and soon found themselves sent packing.
FURIA
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko
Sid 'sidde' Macedo
Spirit
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets
Sergey 'hally' Shavaev
Legacy
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer
Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto
Vinicius 'n1ssim' Pereira
Santino 'try' Rigal
Alan 'adrrr' Riveros
Bruno 'latto' RebelattoPast 3 months
Vinicius 'n1ssim' PereiraPast 3 months
Myroslav 'zont1x' PlakhotiaPast 3 months
Natus Vincere
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen
Mihai 'iM' Ivan
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri
Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy
Dmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovPast 3 months
Boris 'magixx' VorobievPast 3 months
Santino 'try' RigalPast 3 months
FUT
Yasin 'xfl0ud' Koç
Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko
Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija
Nikita 'cmtry' Samolotov
Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius
András 'coolio' Fercsák
Danil 'donk' KryshkovetsPast 3 months