With this victory Virtus.pro move on to the Legends Stage, whilst Spirit move to a 2-2 record and will have one more chance to fight in a best-of-three to progress.
The series began with Virtus.pro‘s pick of Inferno, and it was a pick that bore fruit for Dzhami “Jame” Ali and co. They kicked things off on the T side, and it looked good as they picked up the pistol and converted for a 3-0 lead. At this point Spirit began to pick up the aggression, particularly in banana with Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov, and it lead to success as they picked up seven of the next 10 rounds.
Virtus.pro recovered at the end of the half, largely off some great entry work by Alexey “Qikert” Golubev, picking up three rounds to one to go in at half-time with an 8-7 lead.
Qikert stood out as the highest rated player on the server
After a competitive first half it seemed we may be in for a classic back-and-forth Inferno, but it was not to be as Spirit moved onto the offensive side. They simply couldn’t get anything going as they repeatedly ran into the brick wall that was Virtus.pro, a two man hold on the A site from newcomer Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev and Jame on A the highlight, and the game ended 16-7, Spirit picking up zero T side rounds.
Next up was Spirit‘s pick of Ancient, and they started the map off on the unfavoured T side. Things look particularly bleak early for Spirit, who watched Virtus.pro storm to an 8-1 lead without much resistance. There was a mini recovery towards the end of the half that was enough to see Spirit go into the second half at a 5-10 deficit.
If Spirit struggled on their offensive half, that was nothing compared to the woes of Virtus.pro. After winning the pistol they immediately collapsed, losing to a Spirit force buy and managing a solitary round for the rest of the half, losing the map 12-16. The one round VP did manage to get into a 3v1 situation, Boris “magixx” Vorobiev came up with three snappy kills in quick succession to perform a miracle clutch. A shallow playbook was evident for both sides on this map, but the issue was more severe for Virtus.pro.
That took us to the decider of Overpass, and we were in for a barnstormer to finish the series. The map started with Virtus.pro on the T side, and they got off to a great start, winning the pistol and converting. Spirit wrested control of the half back and won seven of the next eight rounds, Virtus.pro‘s very slow style costing them on several occassions. Timur “buster” Tulepov came to Virtus.pro‘s rescue with some key entries on long to grab them a few more rounds, bringing the half to a close at 8-7 in Spirit‘s favour.
The second half kicked off with a six round streak from Spirit on the offense, and at 14-7 it seemed the series was finished. Virtus.pro were not to go down without a fight and they rallied, Spirit seemingly running out of ideas as they resorted to repeated B hits that Virtus.pro repelled convincingly. It was not without some heart stopping moments, a superb chopper clutch with only two bullets in the mag taking Spirit to match point, but Virtus.pro got themselves to overtime.
Once it came to OT, there was only one team who were going to win it, Virtus.pro coming in with all the momentum having won eight of the nine final regulation rounds, and they swept 4-0 to secure their spot in the Legends stage.
Only a few matches are left to be played in the Legends Stage
Group Challengers Stage
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