Spirit advance to BLAST Bounty semis over Liquid

The new-look Liquid were no match for Spirit, but Jorko showed signs of great potential in his LAN debut with the team.

Spirit are through to the BLAST Bounty semi-finals after beating Liquid 2-0 in the first round of the single-elimination bracket, as Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets topped the board with a 1.76 rating, 107.4 ADR, and +7.03% swing in the series.

The quarter-final bout kicked off on Dust2, Spirit 's pick, although it was Liquid who took a 2-0 lead after pistols and an anti-forcebuy that Georgi "⁠Jorko⁠" Mitev resolved in a 1v1 situation on B against Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov .

The Bulgarian AWPer, who is 28th in the Prospects ranking , was a bright spot for Liquid , leading them on the scoreboard with a +9.61% swing and a 1.62 rating. The 17-year-old newcomer's heroics weren't enough as Spirit 's eight rounds on the attack were more than enough to close out the map after the switch, 13-7.

The series moved to Anubis, where Liquid struggled on the CT side of their map pick, posting only three round victories. Jorko did have another big moment in a hard half, turning a 1v2 on an A defense.

donk set the stage after the switch as he defended B with dualies, and two rounds later Spirit put up match point, 12-3, before an A hit by Liquid kept the game going.

As Liquid tried to keep the map going, having reduced their deficit to 12-5, Jorko planted on A in a 1v1 against donk . The Bulgarian AWPer's shot rang out first as donk walked out of Main and into his crosshair, hitting him in the leg, but Spirit 's star had enough health to survive and trade bullets with a quick headshot to secure the final kill before sticking a last-minute defuse to win the game.