FURIA eliminate Spirit; to face Liquid in IEM Cologne decider
FURIA have eliminated Spirit from IEM Cologne after a grueling 2-1 series versus Russian side, Spirit. This result sets up an All-Americas matchup versus Liquid later today where only one side will be able to book their place in the playoffs.
The series kicked off on the Russians' pick of Nuke with Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov running riot to spearhead an early 5-0 lead in favor of the hosts. FURIA did manage to find a single round thereafter to get on the board, but this would end up being one of just a handful of rounds the Brazilians were able to snag as Spirit soon cruised ahead to post a dominant 12-3 CT-side half.
FURIA grabbed the bull by the horns at the start of the second half, though, winning six rounds in a row to slowly but surely eat away at the deficit and keep things interesting. Despite this, the Russian squad didn't falter, posting a three-round spree to reach match point before surviving another Brazilian scare to find the lone round they needed to close out the map 16-12.
Mirage played host to the second map of the series with an exchange of rounds by both sides allowing FURIA to put up a narrow 5-3 lead to get things going. Regardless, this early success for the Brazilians was soon eroded away by a resurgent Spirit who managed to brush aside their foes on the way to a solid 9-6 half.
Spirit tightened their hold on the game once on the offense, finding four of the opening five rounds to put even more distance between themselves and the Brazilians. But, much like Nuke, FURIA started to piece together a comeback attempt to bring the two teams level pegging at 13-13. Building on this, arT's boys were able to double down and clinch three rounds from four to snatch away Mirage 16-14 and force a decider on Overpass.
Full of momentum from the previous map, FURIA jumped out to an overpowering 7-3 advantage thanks to a stellar 15-4 performance by Yuri "yuurih" Santos. Spirit did slow the FURIA train slightly with a brief two-round statement to show signs of life, but this was ultimately futile in preventing the Brazilians from claiming a 10-5 lead by the swap.
FURIA then got back into the driver's seat at the start of the second half, overturning an opening three-round streak by Spirit with five of their own to reach match point. From here on out, it was a simple task of closing out what was left of the game, which FURIA did with few issues to take Overpass 16-10 and set up an All-Americas game versus Liquid in a few hours' time.
FURIASpirit| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
59 - 45 | +14 | 84.5 | 76.2% | 1.25 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
60 - 52 | +8 | 82.8 | 69.0% | 1.11 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
56 - 57 | -1 | 67.9 | 64.3% | 1.00 |
| André 'drop' Abreu |
46 - 54 | -8 | 61.8 | 72.6% | 0.98 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
51 - 49 | +2 | 64.5 | 69.0% | 0.97 |
| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
54 - 57 | -3 | 78.2 | 61.9% | 1.01 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
48 - 47 | +1 | 62.6 | 73.8% | 1.00 |
 Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
49 - 49 | +0 | 66.5 | 73.8% | 0.98 |
| Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov |
56 - 63 | -7 | 72.7 | 59.5% | 0.96 |
| Pavel 's1ren' Ogloblin |
47 - 57 | -10 | 59.4 | 67.9% | 0.85 |
FURIA have just over four hours to prepare for their do-or-die matchup versus Liquid later today, with this game scheduled to get going at 01:30PM.
