13-5, 13-6, and 13-11.
The scoreboard doesn’t lie.
Yesterday’s IEM Katowice grand final turned into a brutal one-sided affair, with Vitality demolishing last year’s champions from Spirit in a dominant 3-0 sweep.
Outplayed
After the collapse in Spodek, Spirit head coach Sergey “hally” Shavaev didn’t shy away from admitting that Dan “apEX” Madesclaire’s Vitality squad had simply outplayed him.
– I think they outplayed me, first and foremost, hally told HLTV in a post-match interview.
– They prepared well for us and it was tough playing against them. We need to make the right conclusions and use this experience when we approach our next game against them.
However, the Spirit players are not without blame as well, the coach points out.
– Things were going well this tournament and I knew how to set up our game plan in the majority of games, made good calls, tactical pauses, but today I couldn’t make up for how players did in micro situations.
“We need to figure out our mental side”
In the interview, hally also touched on the mental challenges of playing four consecutive finals, admitting that it’s something the Russian team must address.
– Yes, it was an easy victory for them, but I also want to point out it was our fourth consecutive grand final. It’s a high tempo, we won two finals and failed the other two, but the way we lost those finals was not good, both times 0-3 no chance. We need to figure out our mental side, first of all, hally said to HLTV.
Spirit’s last four grand finals:
- [Loss] 0-3 vs Vitality – IEM Katowice 2025
- [Win] 3-1 vs Eternal Fire – BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals
- [Win] 2-1 vs FaZe – Perfect World Shanghai Major
- [Loss] 0-3 vs G2 – BLAST Premier World Final 2024
Spirit and Vitality’s next event will be at ESL Pro League Season 21 next month, as both teams have decided to skip the upcoming PGL Cluj-Napoca.
