Spirit are through to the semi-final stage of the Esports World Cup after beating Vitality across three maps, ending a losing run against the side that had stretched back to October 2024, HLTV reports.
Anubis and Nuke were both closely fought, with each team edging out the map it had picked. The series was decided on Mirage, where Spirit pulled clear and consigned Vitality to a third consecutive quarter-final loss on LAN.
Vitality fought back from an early deficit on Anubis with an eco win and strung rounds together off the back of it, but Spirit never let the map get away from them, with Danil "donk" Kryshkovets posting a 10.55 percent round swing. Spirit took over on the T side and moved within touching distance of the map after a 5-0 run. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut and William "mezii" Merriman kept Vitality close, before Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich closed it out with a triple kill in the final round of regulation.
Nuke went the other way. Vitality came out swinging on the T side and ran to a 7-1 lead before Spirit answered with four rounds in which they conceded only five kills, and ZywOo added to his team's lead with a clean 4K in the pistol round. Spirit put three rounds together once they had money to work with and came back from four map points down to force overtime, but Vitality carved out a narrow lead on the CT side and closed the map after a 1v3 clutch from Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and a grenade blunder from Boris "magixx" Vorobiev that cost a low-health donk his life in the last round.
donk carried that onto Mirage, going 20-5 in the first half as Spirit built a 9-3 lead. Vitality could not turn the decider around after the break: Spirit reached series point quickly and finished the match from a 3v5.
Spirit move into the top four. Vitality leave at the quarter-final stage for the third LAN event running.
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