Spirit labour past BIG into EWC playoffs

It was far from convincing, but Spirit have kept their EWC campaign alive.

Spirit have clinched their spot in the Esports World Cup playoffs, doing so via a hard-fought 2-1 win over BIG that featured a humbling defeat on Cache before two tight victories on Dust2 and Mirage.

"It was a difficult one, as you would have seen," Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev told Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers in a post-match interview on stream. "We have a couple of days in front of us to figure out how we are going to play the next games, and this time might be enough to change a lot of things going on in the game. I just hope we will manage to use that time to get better."

Whilst Spirit claimed the win, it was far from convincing. They were thoroughly bested on Cache and could very easily have lost Dust2, if not for a late resurgence on the CT side. Questions will linger around Spirit 's form, but at least they now have a playoff campaign to try and put some of them to bed.

The first half of Cache saw BIG give a masterclass in how to play the T side, leaving Spirit reeling round after round. Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets was the only person offering real resistance as BIG outclassed Spirit with ease, their utility utterly ruthless and their bombsite hits almost impossible to defend, Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz in particular shining.

zont1x triple single-handedly holds off the retake

Spirit provided at least a cosmetic comeback in the second half, Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia stepping up his game and providing impact, but BIG eventually sealed the deal to hand Spirit a humbling defeat.

After a hot start on Dust2 Spirit began to wane, their T side struggling to get going as BIG ran the score back for a 7-5 lead. Then Gleb "⁠gr1ks⁠" Gazin took over, providing incredible impact and a potential contender for highlight of the year to haul his team towards victory.

gr1ks hits two noscopes and a jumping shot in 1v3 highlight of the year contender

Spirit levelled up with their backs against the wall, however, Andrey "⁠tN1R⁠" Tatarinovich the driving force behind a CT-side recovery that dragged them into contention. BIG seemed to lose steam as their momentum was halted, and Spirit racked up eight rounds in a row to send the series to a decider.

BIG 's resistance continued into the first half of Mirage, grabbing a winning CT half thanks to consistent 4-1 leans towards the A site, but that was all they could muster. A combination of a lacklustre offense and a donk ascendency crushed BIG 's fight, granting Spirit a playoff berth.

More highlights:

• donk bags clinical triple, but no one else gets any frags
• Another donk 3K, again he gets no help
• donk and zont1x combine in 2v4
• tabseN 1v2 completes retake in rollercoaster round
• faveN 4K ends with crisp 1v2
• donk posts smooth 3K as Spirit start to take control