Spirit eliminate Sprout from IEM Rio Major

Winning two maps is all that stands between Spirit and the playoffs of the IEM Rio Major after a commanding 2-0 win over Sprout. The Russians now sit on a 2-2 record in the Legends Stage and await their opponent in the final round, which will be played on Tuesday.

The Danish-majority side around Ismail “⁠refrezh⁠” Ali were unable to find an answer for Spirit‘s T-side aggression led by Boris “⁠magixx⁠” Vorobiev‘s eleven opening kills and have now been eliminated from the Major with a 1-3 record.

The story of Spirit‘s domination of Nuke started with a triple kill on the pistol round from Pavel “⁠s1ren⁠” Ogloblin, the first of many individual plays that would win them the map. The Russian-majority side didn’t capitalize on the momentum straight away, but behind magixx‘s 14 kills they took the lead 7-4. This would only be a temporary setback for Sprout as they provided a stoic defense in the first half. It was the dependability of Laurențiu “⁠lauNX⁠” Țârlea and refrezh that meant Sprout could even out the score, 7-7, before Robert “⁠Patsi⁠” Isyanov‘s four kills in the final round gave Spirit the edge.

The second half started off the same as the first, with a pistol round win for Spirit. Determined to stop Spirit from hitting their stride, Rasmus “⁠Zyphon⁠” Nordfoss won a 1v2 clutch, but it was not enough. Spirit dominated the rest of the half, and in the last round, three kills from Patsi took the remaining wind out of Sprout‘s sails.

After the landslide second half on Nuke, Spirit continued to showcase their Terrorist-side prowess on Vertigo. Igor “⁠w0nderful⁠” Zhdanov ensured that Sprout would not extend the series to a third map, leading his side to an 8-2 lead. Zyphon tried to keep Sprout in the game with 19 kills, but once again his heroics were not enough, as they were down 10-5 at the half.

Spirit‘s lead only grew at the beginning of the second half. They blew past Sprout in the first three rounds and a 1v2 clutch from Patsi gave them the fourth. At 13-5, Sprout looked to find a way into the game, but it was only a flash in the pan. Leonid “⁠chopper⁠” Vishnyakov‘s side was firing on all cylinders whilst Zyphon stood high above the rest of his team, and despite his 32 kills Spirit won the map 16-8.