9z were inches away from completing their fairytale run, but fell short against Spirit.
Spirit and 9z played for a flawless 3-0 spot in the Cologne Major playoffs. This is the second time they have played each other this Major, as Spirit dominated in Stage 2.
This matchup was anything but dominant, as each team fought for every inch. After beating Vitality, 9z was only a round away from beating Spirit the very next day.
Candid interview from magixx
After the match, Spirit’s captain, Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev, opened up about the match.
This was one of the hardest games of my life. They were capitalizing on [our mistakes].
He said he had low trust from his teammates.
There was a very low amount of faith in me. I felt like it was extremely poor from me.
He added that 9z were a force to be reckoned with.
[9z] are fucking insane, they are making the playoffs tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
9z win a hard-fought Overpass
Team Spirit came out swinging on the CT-side of Overpass, claiming a 9-3 half. It looked like a repeat of 9z’s earlier woes against Spirit, where they managed only four rounds in two whole maps.
However, 9z showed resilience. All of their players contributed to round wins, and looked like a well-oiled machine, even against Daniil ‘donk‘ Kryshkovets’s incredible T-side antics.
From 9-12 down, 9z managed to reach overtime, with Franco ‘dgt’ Garcia, of prior paiN Gaming fame, standing above the rest. Last year in the playoffs of the BLAST Austin Major, he put his team one win away from the same feat at Cologne.
Spirit came back from 4-10 on Mirage
9z got off to a flying start with Franco ‘dgt’ Garcia still firing. After losing the pistol round, the South Americans went on a seven-round streak, shutting down Spirit’s attack with dgt not even dying yet.
At that point, Spirit shifted gears to become more aggressive, and got into post-plant situations. In one of them 9z pulled off an unlikely 2vs3 retake thanks to a Dmitriy ‘sh1ro‘ Sokolov miss to go 8-2.
In the very next round, Ignacio ‘meyern’ Meyer found a 1vs2 clutch that got 9z a 9-2 lead, before losing the last round for a 9-3 half.
After 9z won the pistol, Spirit won the force buy with MP9s against a buy of Galils, keeping Spirit in it at a 4-10 scoreline.
After that, Spirit got rolling, and their economy with them. Dmitriy ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov was critical in winning Spirit a number of close rounds, and managed to save an AK-47 which donk would use to to great effect.
With that, Spirit managed to get to 11-12, but went down 2vs3 in a post-plant on the 24th round. A huge double kill from Andriy ‘tN1R’ Tatarinovich allowed sh1ro to close out and reach overtime.
In overtime, 9z had no solutions for Spirit’s defense. They cleanly swept their CT-side, and Spirit won 16-13.
9z ran away with Dust2
Both teams were fighting closely on Dust2. Spirit gained momentum and economy after shutting down 9z’s attack multiple times, but Round 8 turned the tides.
With a saved AWP, 9z won a 5v5 post-plant, with Ignacio ‘meyern’ meyer getting a 3k with the AWP on the A-site. Frustrations on Daniil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets’s side began to boil over as 9z took a 5-4 lead.
Still, Spirit’s defense was strong enough to keept 9z in the lead much longer. Daniil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets’s 12 kills were crucial, as 9z had an on-fire Luciano ‘luchov’ Herrera dropping 15.
In the second half, luchov’s rampage only continued. Playing aggressive on the defense, he helped 9z get up to 11-6 on the score after they won the pistol round. By that point, he had a 21-9 K-D.
At that point, Spirit started to get rolling. They won two rounds consecutively to get to 8-11, and then a key round occurred. 9z had a 4vs2 situation, which Spirit got into a 1vs2. Dmitriy ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov closed it out to allow Spirit a ninth round in the decider.
Spirit got to 10-11, but 9z found a clean round stifling Spirit’s A attack completely. Spirit then had to win two rounds in a row to reach overtime.
The first was hard-fought, winning through a B attack that could have gone the other way. The second was straight-forward, destroying the B-defense to get to 12-12.
The first round of overtime should have been Spirit’s, but Franco ‘dgt’ Garcia won a 1vs2 with 1 HP to spare. The second was cleaner for 9z, winning a 3vs2 retake.
The third round could have been theirs as well, but a flank from Maximiliano ‘max’ Gonzalez went too early and gave away the round. Spirit capitalized on the mistake, as they did not let up on their CT-side. They won all three rounds consecutively, and won the map 16-14.
Player of the match: donk
Despite not being the ultra-dominant force he has been so far, Daniil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets was the individual that made the ultimate difference in this series. He quietly picked up 30 kills on Dust2, and had critical multikills that decided the series.
Dmitriy ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov and Franco ‘dgt’ Garcia are honorable mentions for crucial clutching ability and consistent fragging, respectively.
Matchups for tomorrow
2-1 pool (winner qualifies for playoffs):
- BetBoom vs Team Vitality
- 9z vs Aurora
- Falcons vs NAVI
1-2 pool (loser is eliminated from the Major):
- MOUZ vs FUT
- G2 Esports vs Legacy
- The Mongolz vs Monte
