Spirit secure last spot in the Spodek over M80

Two back-breaking clutches on Cache ensured Spirit swept the series in two.

Spirit have secured the final playoff berth at ESL Pro League Season 24 after beating M80 in a two-map series (13-6 Dust2, 13-10 Cache).

It was Spirit 's third attempt at qualifying for the Spodek after faltering against MOUZ and 1win , and they finally got the job done despite facing some trouble on M80 's Cache pick. A return to form for Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets ensured things wouldn't get out of control, though, and two big clutches from Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev and Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov ended up making the difference for Spirit to close things out in the end.

Clip: magixx pulls off crazy 1v4 ace clutch

Spirit steamrolled through Dust2, donk getting loud early and calling M80 "fucking bots" a few rounds in as he led the charge in a blowout first half. M80 won the pistol off the back of a quad-kill from Josh "⁠JBa⁠" Barutt , but couldn't string together rounds until they converted their second pistol win.

Even that did little to stem the bleed as poor decision-making left them destitute in the late round, and Spirit wasted no time in closing out the map with donk , Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia , and sh1ro all performing well.

Cache could have been where M80 struck back, looking a cut above Spirit for much of the first half with some great preparation to counter some early moves. They drummed up an 8-4 lead by the break, but the scoreline could have been far more of a blowout had the American-majority side not given away a 1v4 ace clutch to magixx and a 1v3 to sh1ro just two rounds later.

Clip: sh1ro lightning fast with the AWP for a 1v3 clutch

M80 continued to find success in opening duels after the swap, making it onto bombsites early even with worse weapons, but excellent retakes and fragging output from donk , magixx , and sh1ro saw Spirit repeatedly claw back in the late rounds. That led to a 7-1 run as Spirit romped into the lead, and after M80 finally closed out one of those late-round situations, Spirit struck right back to clinch victory — leaving Fritz "⁠slaxz-⁠" Dietrich to state, "there are too many cooks in the kitchen."