FURIA show vitality against Spirit to win MDL Global Challenge Season 31
FURIA have won MDL Global Challenge Season 31 following a 2-0 victory over Spirit in the grand final.
Before taking on the CIS side, FURIA had to push past Vitality in a semifinal matchup. It was quickly established that Vitality were approaching the match in a lighthearted manner, not wanting to put in their full effort following a busy tournament schedule and IEM Chicago on the horizon. A back-and-forth first half on Train that saw many Zeus attempts resulted in Vitality narrowly pulling ahead 8-7 at the half, but FURIA were quick to reply following the side swap to close out the series 16-9.
The second map saw even less contention from the Frenchmen as FURIA mustered an 11-4 T-side lead, maintaining momentum into the second half to flawlessly close out the series 16-4.
VitalityFURIA| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
36 - 35 | +1 | 80.2 | 69.6% | 1.04 |
| Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy |
35 - 39 | -4 | 80.8 | 71.7% | 0.95 |
| Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
24 - 39 | -15 | 73.1 | 56.5% | 0.84 |
 Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin |
24 - 39 | -15 | 48.6 | 52.2% | 0.64 |
| Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt |
18 - 39 | -21 | 52.7 | 50.0% | 0.52 |
| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
53 - 27 | +26 | 124.3 | 80.4% | 1.70 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
49 - 27 | +22 | 88.9 | 80.4% | 1.47 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
32 - 34 | -2 | 86.3 | 65.2% | 1.16 |
| Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira |
28 - 22 | +6 | 67.7 | 73.9% | 1.09 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
29 - 28 | +1 | 68.6 | 73.9% | 1.05 |
The grand finals began on FURIA's pick of Nuke as Spirit opened up the series with a 3-0 lead. FURIA were quick to reply as they won five of their own, with Spirit taking a single round in reply to break the streak before the Brazilians worked their way up to a 8-4 scoreline. The teams traded blows as the half drew to a close, with FURIA remaining ahead 9-6 following a stellar T-side.
An almost identical scenario unfolded in the second half as Spirit evened the score with three rounds at the start, while FURIA capitalized once they returned to rifles to regain control. Just one additional round went the way of the CIS squad as FURIA quickly cruised to the finish line, netting themselves a 16-10 map victory.
Spirit's map pick of Vertigo was next up, but it looked anything but that as FURIA crushed their opponents on the CT-side with a 12-0 lead. An ace by Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira and a stellar performance by Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato helped the team on their way, with Spirit only managing two rounds towards the end of the half for a 13-2 scoreline in FURIA's favor.
Spirit just barely tacked on another three rounds following the side swap, with two 1vs1s situations only narrowly going their way before FURIA let them suffer no longer by closing out the map 16-5.
FURIASpirit| FURIA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato |
46 - 24 | +22 | 96.4 | 78.7% | 1.47 |
| Yuri 'yuurih' Santos |
41 - 25 | +16 | 85.6 | 76.6% | 1.31 |
| Nicholas 'guerri' Nogueira |
33 - 27 | +6 | 74.4 | 76.6% | 1.19 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
34 - 32 | +2 | 81.6 | 66.0% | 1.16 |
| Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo |
27 - 31 | -4 | 72.7 | 74.5% | 1.06 |
| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
31 - 36 | -5 | 78.9 | 68.1% | 0.97 |
 Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev |
32 - 36 | -4 | 69.3 | 61.7% | 0.95 |
| Artem 'iDISBALANCE' Egorov |
25 - 33 | -8 | 57.8 | 68.1% | 0.88 |
| Pavel 'COLDYY1' Veklenko |
27 - 38 | -11 | 62.9 | 61.7% | 0.83 |
| Dmitry 'S0tF1k' Forostyanko |
24 - 38 | -14 | 58.3 | 70.2% | 0.77 |
FURIA have won MDL Global Challenge Season 31, leaving the overall event standings looking as follows:
1. FURIA - $25,000
2. Spirit - $15,000
3-4. Vitality - $10,000
3-4. 
Sprout - $10,000
5-6. 
Singularity - $3,750
5-6. 
Chiefs - $3,750
7-8. Party Astronauts - $3,750
7-8. 
ATK - $3,750
FURIA and Singularity will now both make their way to Berlin for the StarLadder Major Americas Minor, with the event kicking off on July 17th.
