Spirit beat Falcons 2-0 in the BLAST Open Porto semi-final on September 5, winning 13-8 on Nuke and 13-11 on Ancient to take a place in the grand final, HLTV reported. It was the Russian team's third consecutive final since they returned from the summer break.
The series opened on Falcons' pick of Nuke, where Spirit held control of the CT side. Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov took a triple in the third round after his team won the pistol, and Spirit turned a 2v3 in the seventh round to stay unbeaten through the opening stretch. Falcons did not get on the board until the final round of the half, when Finn “karrigan” Andersen won a 1v2 clutch.
Falcons mounted a comeback after the switch, taking seven rounds in a row to cut the deficit to 11-8, but Spirit answered with back-to-back rounds to close out the map.
Ancient goes to the 24th round
Ancient, Spirit's own stronghold, was the second map, and Falcons led early. sh1ro opened his team's account with a double molotov kill in mid, and a few rounds later Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov used a molotov and an HE grenade to win a 2v2 that kept Falcons in front 6-3. Spirit took the last three rounds of the half, and a USP triple from Danil “donk” Kryshkovets on a B hold put them ahead on the map for the first time.
Falcons kept the map alive to the 24th round through a low-buy hit on B, a quick MAC-10 double from karrigan against a force buy and a 1v2 from René “TeSeS” Madsen. The closing round came down to m0NESY, who was left in a 1v4 after a Falcons A pinch broke down. He entered the site through CT, killed one defender with the AWP and a second with the Desert Eagle, and after planting picked up his AWP again to take out a third player rushing him from Donut. In the 1v1 he peeked into Donut and found Boris “magixx” Vorobiev, but could not get the shot off in time as Spirit's in-game leader gunned him down to end the series.
The victory extended Spirit's winning run on Ancient to 14 and sent them to the grand final. The team finished second at the BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 Finals in Malta, where they lost to MOUZ, and won the Esports World Cup in Paris.