What to expect from Elevate v. Spirit

With the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown starting for NA tomorrow, this is likely going to be the most one-sided series of the day. On one hand you have the generational talents found on Spirit, and on the other hand is an inexperienced group of players playing their first international event... with a stand-in. While Elevate has impressed us this year, this match is going to be incredibly difficult for Elevate to even find a way into contention.

Spirit of Death

Spirit features some of the best players in the world at the moment and are currently ranked third in the world on HLTV. There's not a lot else that needs to be said here. If you've seen Spirit demolish the likes of FaZe, HEROIC, or Complexity before, just think back to that.

• donk...

• and sh1ro...

• and magixx oh my

Elevated Blood Pressure

Elevate don't just have to contend with being in Europe for the first time, they also have a stand-in in place of star Deni "dea" Ediev. Consider that this strand-in, Marc "MRC9" Philipp Jarke, also hasn't played a match this year, meaning he's going to be coming in supremely rusty. Good luck I suppose.

• snav and chopper are in completely different classes

• MRC9 will have little time to shake off the rust

• If dare wants to be a star, now's a great time to show it

Previous Matchups

These two teams have never played each other.

Likely Vetoes

Spirit's veto is fairly impugnable at this point at the tier-one level, while Elevate has three maps with an under 50% winrate in the NA scene. As such, this veto will be incredibly difficult for Elevate to navigate and will add on to their myriad troubles heading into this match. As always, these vetoes come with the caveat that they are highly speculative as they depend on whether Spirit, as the higher-ranked team, chooses to pick first or ban last.

• Elevate ban Nuke (Permaban)

• Spirit ban Inferno (Permaban)

• Elevate pick Ancient (75% Winrate, Most played map)

• Spirit pick Mirage (90% Winrate)

• Decider could be Overpass (Elevate unlikely to float Anubis, Spirit should lean Overpass)

Analysis: This will be a remarkably difficult series for Elevate, and the vetoes won't do too much to help them. They are quite good on Ancient, but the skill gap between these two teams is still immense.

Elevate will stare down Spirit on March 8th at 09:30AM.