Spirit win BLAST Porto and get revenge dominantly over MOUZ, asserting themselves as the team to beat for the tournaments to come.
Spirit and MOUZ faced off for the second time in a BLAST final this year. The first took place in a studio in Malta, where MOUZ won with ease. Now, they ran into a Spirit with an Esports World Cup title under their belt, who stopped an equally young and hungry FUT squad from taking that title.
Both teams boasted a clear MVP candidate. On Spirit it was the usual, with Daniil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets leading the pack with an average 1.48 rating and precisely 0.9 kills per round across Porto.
On MOUZ, it was the surprise factor of Adrian ‘xelex’ Vincze, the 18-year-old rookie, leading the way for the reinvigorated MOUZ, defeating Falcons and Vitality. He averaged a 1.38 rating in Porto.
With the same veto as Malta, both teams had to have come prepared for this rematch with a lot on the line. The teams won their map picks, but the series tilted completely in the third map.
Spirit find success on Dust2 by abusing the B bombsite
Spirit did not need to play their best to win Dust2; it was enough to focus the B-side of the map to get a succesful opening T-side. The evidence was donk getting just six kills over the first 12 rounds.
MOUZ started strong, with rookie and MVP candidate Adrian ‘xelex’ Vincze finding the first kill of the series, and closing out against a threatening Andrey ‘tN1R’ Tatarinovich.
Initially, MOUZ’s B-site held on under pressure. 18-year-old Oldřich ‘PR’ Nový bought plently of time in round 3, also finding two kills, for torzsi to close the round with the AWP, going up 4-0.
The first domino to fall for MOUZ came thanks to Myroslav ‘zont1x’ Plakhotia, who had a succesful lurk on A-short to win the round with no time to spare, but eveything to gain. Spirit subsequently went on a three-round run by abusing PR and Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi’s frail partnership on the B-site.
PR tried to react to the pressure by pushing into B tunnels and killing zont1x. However, Spirit accelerated their long push, with donk grabbing the highlight of the half by tapping down a retaking MOUZ.
MOUZ find succesful formula with xertioN the spearhead
Despite being pummeled in nearly all the gun rounds, in-game leader, Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman was firing, getting 14 kills and four deaths in the first half.
After losing the lead, MOUZ grabbed a couple back as Spirit forgot to check Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi’s position behind the car on B-site. The game tied up at 6-6, with Spirit relinquishing control.
Spirit won the pistol round with donk and Dmitriy ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov creeping into B tunnels as MOUZ tried to hit B. Spirit were in a position to clean up the map, but xertioN was playing his best CS.
The IGL found two entries onto Spirit’s defense on mid round 15. Despite sh1ro’s best efforts to recover it, MOUZ closed out the round with a composed 2v2 thanks to torzsi.
sh1ro leaves his mark on A short right next to donk’s
MOUZ wrested back some control, but Spirit’s defense was just too strong. While holding A-site, sh1ro hit an absurd rightward flick onto a pressing terrorist, destroying MOUZ’s attack.
Spirit took the opening map of the series 13-8.
Spirit’s stars light up Mirage but MOUZ recovers
Spirit took early control of Mirage, with sh1ro helping recover a 2v4 situation in the pistol round, and were in firm control of the map.
In round 4, Spirit got into a 3v1 while knowing the location of the last player, xertioN.
xertioN’s clinical 1v3 gives MOUZ a fighting chance
The IGL then brought the goods again, winning a mechanically demanding clutch against three Spirit players. that reinvigorated MOUZ, getting them a round getting into B with little issue.
But Spirit regained control just as quickly as they lost it. After donk found a lurker in connector in Round 6, the entire attack fell apart in seconds.
To make matters worse, zont1x was playing his best CS on short, getting a 3k to lock down the map.
Spirit continue to snowball with donk and sh1ro lighting up the server
PR claws back a 2v4 into a 2v2 but Spinx fails to effectively trade and sh1ro wins the 1v1 situation.
MOUZ wins a necessary fourth round in a 4-8 half, giving them a fighting chance to still win the map.
By the time it got to the second half of Mirage, it was already plenty of time for Spirit’s stars to come online. To open up the second half, sh1ro got another multikill in the pistol round with a P250.
Then, donk ended MOUZ’s hopes of a retake in a 3v3, finding two crucial headshots, making the score 10-4 on a must-win map for MOUZ.
MOUZ’s last-ditch effort denies Spirit golden opportunity
MOUZ streaks three together, thanks to a critical 3v1 win that they almost lose to sh1ro, who was a thorn in MOUZ’s side. He was miliseconds away from taking the map and making the series 2-0.
Then, PR went for a push into the B apartments, leading to Spirit’s round completely falling apart. After winning a number of close rounds, MOUZ entered their final form in Round 23, taking the lead in the dying embers of the map.
The MVP candidate showed up late, making the winning play in Round 24 to win the map 13-11. As the A anchor, xelex pushed into ramp and found a kill, then pushed into palace to backstab Spirit’s execute for a 3k overall.
The series was tied 1-1, as Spirit gave up a 10-4 lead on Mirage. It was a golden opportunity,with donk and sh1ro combining for 44 kills between them, but with a losing score in the end.
MOUZ broken repeatedly on Ancient
Spirit win their fourth pistol of the series, to the sole pistol round that MOUZ won on Dust2. Afterwards, MOUZ would have multiple chances to get back in the map, but seized none.
In round 4, MOUZ holds back Spirit’s slow A attack to get on the board, with a chance to put up a fight. But Spirit answers back right away with a force buy, getting through the A defenders for a 3v3 post-plant. There, MOUZ fumbled the retake and Spirit closed out the round going up 4-1.
In round 6, MOUZ had a golden chance to break Spirit’s economy completely, but fumbled a 5v2 situation to a bludgeoning Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev who got a 3k alongside sh1ro to break MOUZ’s mental.
Spirit display dominance on Ancient
For Spirit, donk was fully online, subjugating MOUZ’s T-side to a single round in the first half, logging 15 kills, repeatedly punishing the B-site.
Even when MOUZ had advantages, Spirit found a way to punish them. In a 1v3 situation, zont1x somehow found timing to win the round by killing the defuser 9 seconds into his defuse.
In the second half, MOUZ raised their spirit by winning their second pistol of the series. Their spirits were quickly sapped by Spirit’s demon, donk, who got a quick 4-man spraydown in Donut.
With this win on Ancient, Spirit extended their win-streak on the map to 15 in a row.
Spirit secures the title on Nuke
The final map of Nuke, Spirit remained in their dominant form while MOUZ were not able to connect on the same level. Spirit won the first half 8-4, enough leeway to secure the map 13-6 after a donk Desert Eagle kill opened up a round win on the force buy.
The superstar donk finished his masterpiece of a tournament with a strong final, all but bagging an MVP, only behind sh1ro in rating but had the most kills in the series (73).
Spirit are the first team to win two titles this season
With this win, Team Spirit are the first team since the player break in July to have won two tier-one LAN titles, both of them in arenas.
