G2 had three match points to close the series, but donk was inevitable as always.
In the series of the tournament, with five overtimes included, magixx carved out a piece of history. Not only saving his team calling his way against three match points, he got one of the best highlights ever at a Major in the dying moments.
On a day where Spirit was absent except for their terrific duo, they hung on by a thread against a G2 that looked already focused on the semi-final and ready to do damage.
G2 take Overpass with stellar HeavyGod
G2’s map pick was arisky one, taking Overpass into one of the best AWP and rifle duos in the game now – donk and sh1ro. However, that proved to be true to a fault for Spirit.
Spirit came through with the pistol win, but immediately lost the following round to a Nikita ‘HeavyGod’ Martynenko double entry. He could do no wrong on this map as G2 got rolling.
G2 got up to 3-1, looking to take control. However, that is when Dmitriy ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov appeared. A beautiful 4k with the M4A1-S stifled G2’s attack, getting Spirit back into it.
HeavyGod’s 1vs2 clutch set the tone
Him and Daniil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets were having their way with the A-site. That is, until HeavyGod came through with a 1vs2 clutch in Round 6, possibly the most influential round of the map. Team Spirit double swung him, thinking they should overwhelm him, but instead, they gave him the chance to close it with two clean sprays before planting. From there, G2 was able to close a strong T half.
Even with donk and sh1ro’s excellent A holds, the B-side kept crumbling under pressure. Despite a 17-4 K/D from sh1ro just in the first half, it was only enough for seven rounds.
G2 would go onto take control of the CT-side. Spirit won a force buy round that allowed them to tie the game at 9-9. However, their T-side was too flat to do real damage.
HeavyGod sealed this map 13-9 being not only a closer, but a stellar entry as well.
Dust2 saw the madness start
Spirit fans trembled at the start of this map, as G2 took a 5-1 lead. However, that was while donk hadn’t had a say yet. Impact from Spirit’s stars allowed them to tie the game 5-5 on their T-side.
Alvaro ‘SunPayus’ Garcia, known as a big game player, started to show why here. A 4k with the AWP gave G2 the lead at the half, before losing it to a B-split from Spirit.
G2 came back with the pistol, but Spirit answered back with a force buy, with donk getting a 3k with an MP9 against rifles. Spirit began to gain momentum and looked to close out easily.
G2’s resilience and MATYS’s arrival
However, G2 had other plans. They immediately answered back, and another double entry from HeavyGod got them the equalizing round in round 18.
From there, it was incredibly back and forth, with clutches everywhere. The first almost came from Matúš ‘MATYS’ Šimko, who was a few bullets away from winning a 1vs2 that could have taken G2 to the semis right then. Then, in Round 23, donk won a critical 1vs2 by flanking long and shooting SunPayus in the back, getting Spirit to match point.
However, that was not the end of play on Dust2. Myroslav ‘zont1x’ Plakhotia found himself in a clutch against Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovač and Guy ‘NertZ’ Iluz, but they had to go find the bomb with 20 seconds left. After finding the first kill easily, zont1x missed a jump to let huNter- win the round.
Once in overtime, Spirit took control, but G2 didn’t want to let up. The clearest example is round 30, where huNter- was alone on B-site in a 3vs5. With a smoke, he somehow finds three kills, putting G2 with an advantage. However, that is when donk showed his pedigree. He clutched the 1vs2 post-plant with ease, sending us to a Mirage that will not soon be forgotten.
Spirit saves three match points on Mirage after MATYS masterclass
The opening half of Mirage was donk-esque from MATYS. Just on the T-side, he averaged a 1.79 rating, and had the most opening kills of anyone with eight, all pure entry kills.
The opening rounds were back-and-forth, but it was zont1x carrying Spirit instead of the usual suspects. However, that was not nearly enough when MATYS took over.
In the seventh round, MATYS found an entry. In the eighth, he had another entry that huNter- closed out. In rounds 11 and 12, he found entries again. His form was unstoppable and G2 had an 8-4 opening T-half on Mirage to play with.
In the second half, an unfortunate situation where HeavyGod had been trade banned meant there had to be a technical pause. From there, Spirit took control again and got to 8-8.
Then, the back-and-forth started. A NertZ 2k gave G2 the lead again, but Spirit replied once again. Then, disaster struck for Spirit. NertZ kept bothering them in middle, and they were down 9-12.
In a Major that is supposed to be between Spirit and Vitality, an elimination here would have been unacceptable. At that point, Andrey ‘tN1R’ Tatarinovich, completely absent the entire match, found a 4k with clean headshots that sent G2 spiraling.
Then, Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev finished the job. He called two composed T rounds that overwhelmed G2 and got to OT.
magixx’s magical 1v4 spray
In Round 34 of the map of the tournament, magixx found himself in the kitchen position having planted the bomb against four G2 players about to face him. He tucked himself in, with a hope and a prayer.
All the G2 players fell one by one as they tried to trade each other, but missed, hitting the metal shelf concealing magixx repeatedly until he sprayed all of them down for a 1vs4 clutch with 6 HP remaining.
After that, G2 replied with two CT rounds in a row, to send it to quadruple overtime.
That was the stature of this map, that had seven different players cross the 30-kill line. The first was neither donk nor MATYS, the best players on the server. It was SunPayus, who began to show his best as well.
Though G2 took a long time to crumble, resilient as ever, a weakened HeavyGod meant that Spirit could repeatedly abuse the A-site. Unlike his form on Overpass and Dust2, his drop-off may have cost G2 the game.
With a 25-22 scoreline, Spirit live to fight another day at the IEM Cologne Major.
Player of the match: donk
Even on a day where things got out of hand for Spirit, magixx had a life round and MATYS was unstoppable, donk still had his dinner in the end.
He had the most kills in the series (81) by a margin of ten. He was the only player to have over 40 kills on the closer of Mirage, the map that meant everything.
MATYS was the engine behind G2 there, and HeavyGod was stellar on the first two maps. But without donk, we would be talking about a 2-0 for G2 today.
