FaZe take down Spirit in decisive series
In a rematch of the IEM Katowice 2024 grand finals, Finn "karrigan" Andersen's FaZe Clan have claimed revenge against Spirit, besting the Russians 2-1 to send them packing in the quarterfinals. As Spirit were one of the favorites to win the first CS2 Major outright, the win is a massive scalp for FaZe as they now head into the semifinals as the team to beat.
Spirit chose Mirage to be the opening map in their bout against FaZe, with the veto going well for them as Mirage is one of their best maps. However, this decision ended up costing Spirit dearly as despite winning their opening T-side pistol and the following round, FaZe were in complete control in the first half with David "frozen" Čerňanský acting as a merchant of death as FaZe won their CT-side 8-4.
After switching sides, Spirit would claim their second pistol round of the series, however this was seemingly the only area in which they truly excelled as one against FaZe controlled the progression of map via their T-side to take Mirage 13-7 in an extremely confident fashion.
Moving onto Nuke, despite being thoroughly trounced on Mirage, Spirit quickly shook off the defeat and a pistol round loss by launching a stellar CT-side to go up 8-4 at the half. Switching sides, FaZe would win their second pistol round of the map and use that momentum to close the gap with Spirit. In round 21 Spirit were the first to find map point, however Håvard "rain" Nygaard proved his continued necessity on FaZe by powering his squad into overtime.
The first overtime was relatively indecisive, with both squads unable to claim a single CT-side, forcing the map into a second overtime. In this second overtime, Spirit once again came alive, with IGL Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov coming in clutch in round 35 with a 4k to nullify a frozen 3k and close out the map 19-16, thus forcing the action onto Vertigo.
With the series tied up, the action moved onto Vertigo, a map FaZe haven't played once in the past three months. Despite it being their permaban, karrigan was clearly cooking something up as FaZe charged into a 7-0 lead after winning their opening CT pistol round. After being pushed around for so many rounds, Spirit finally found a round in round eight and built off of that to find three more, trailing FaZe 4-8 heading into the second half.
With the map and the series reaching its conclusion, FaZe won another pistol round to go 4/6 in the series, allowing them to find double digits first. This early T-side victory allowed FaZe to keep up a massive amount of pressure to find map point first at 12-5. However, an absolutely massive effort from Spirit came through to force the second overtime of the series, a shocking outcome for FaZe after such a strong start.
After being down in the dirt for much of regulation, overtime started with Spirit in fantastic spirits as they won the first round of overtime. This joy quickly went away though as the stress got to the youngsters, especially Myroslav "zont1x" Plakhotia, as a number of clutches fell by the wayside, allowing FaZe to climb up to fifteen rounds before it all came down to a 1v1 must-win duel between Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov and rain, with rain coming out on top at the last second to win the map 16-14.
SpiritFaZe| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets |
77 - 67 | +10 | 89.1 | 75.3% | 1.24 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
50 - 63 | -13 | 65.3 | 64.7% | 0.88 |
| Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
46 - 67 | -21 | 67.8 | 63.5% | 0.88 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
49 - 57 | -8 | 62.1 | 68.2% | 0.88 |
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
48 - 57 | -9 | 64.6 | 68.2% | 0.87 |
| FaZe |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Helvijs 'broky' Saukants |
71 - 48 | +23 | 82.4 | 77.6% | 1.28 |
 David 'frozen' Čerňanský |
60 - 55 | +5 | 87.9 | 71.8% | 1.16 |
 Finn 'karrigan' Andersen |
64 - 58 | +6 | 74.1 | 72.9% | 1.08 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
54 - 50 | +4 | 69.4 | 69.4% | 0.98 |
 Håvard 'rain' Nygaard |
52 - 61 | -9 | 74.7 | 68.2% | 0.95 |
