Double sweeps in Hong Kong as Spirit and FURIA move to the final - BLAST Rivals Hong Kong
The semi-finals have ended quite quickly at BLAST Rivals Hong Kong, a lot quicker than we expected anyway.
Both series today resulted in sweeps, with the winners having a surprisingly easy time. We’ve gotten used to a lot of 2:1 close-scoreline matches in CS2, thanks to the streaky nature of MR12, but this serves as a reminder that it doesn’t always have to be that way.
Though we did have some close scorelines, because, again, this is still CS2. For instance, look at today’s opener:
Spirit vs MOUZ
We said yesterday MOUZ was getting in form ahead of the Major, and if that’s true, it doesn’t bode well for their ability to compete, because Spirit was far better than them today.
Starting off on MOUZ’s pick of Mirage, Spirit got off on the right foot by winning the pistol and converting on round 4 after MOUZ took one back. As soon as they had rifles and money, Spirit became an unstoppable force. MOUZ’s T-side only managed to plant the bomb once in the entire half. The worst part? donk was having a bad map; he was 8-8 on CT-side, putting up a negative rating.
And it didn’t even matter, because the entire MOUZ side, except PR, had an absolute nightmare. None of them, again except PR, got close to a positive K/D, and xelex got absolutely battered in his opening duels, winning two out of the eight he took on Mirage.
It’s easy to say this was an overperformance from the Spirit support cast, and that it’s unsustainable. On a long timescale, we agree. But map two was the exact same in this series.
On Ancient, tN1R was bodybagging MOUZ, while no one on the MOUZ end managed to put up a green HLTV rating. But we’re going to ignore those stats for a second to point out that MOUZ won the opening duel fifteen times on that map; Spirit won nine. On average, pro teams win ~72% of rounds where they get the opening kill. MOUZ only won nine of fifteen, way below what they should be doing, and way below what it should be when you consider Spirit only won one clutch. MOUZ was throwing it away in the mid-round, and the only ways to explain that are:
- No composure, nerves, etc
- Bad team structure and leadership
It’s yet another example of this team showing they can’t reliably do what it takes on the big stage, despite the successes they’ve had.
That shouldn’t take away from Spirit, though, because their performance here was very impressive. If this team has everyone firing like this regularly, they’re going to have an era. But we know what this team is, and we know how tN1R operates; we saw a similar uptick in the previous half of the year.
We’ll need to see this from Spirit at the Major, and if we do, then we can get really excited. For now, this will be filed into the “MOUZ can’t handle crowds” folder, unfortunately, and it seems magixx agrees.
FURIA vs Falcons
Map one was cinema, from round one, where NiKo instantly knifed someone to start the series. Then, both teams took turns going on runs. Falcons early on, followed by a strong FURIA closer to the first half. Then, in the second half, they carried that momentum, only for Falcons to have their own CT-side success. Throughout it all, molodoy and m0NESY put on a clinic, showcasing what AWPers can still do in this game. And as if we weren’t entertained enough, it went to overtime, too.
In the end, FURIA did enough, taking the map 16-14 and setting us up for a great map two.
Or, so we thought. What we got instead was FURIA letting it all hang out in Falcons’ face. Because despite taking an early 4-0 lead, Falcons had to retake three of those rounds; that’s not sustainable, and it showed. The next bomb plant didn’t get defused, and the next, and the one after that. Before you knew it, FURIA had built up a 7-4 lead, with the team in green grabbing a consolation round to make the half look closer than it really was.
The second half didn’t even carry that pretense.
From the moment FURIA won the pistol round, it was game over. With kyousuke struggling massively, this team was never going to find the openings needed to make the CT-side uncomfortable on D2, especially not with KSCERATO, YEKINDAR and molodoy firing on all cylinders. Before you could even say “karrigan is washed,” the map was over, and FURIA had themselves a date in the final.
We’ve been very critical of FURIA in the past, but even the most ardent FURIA critic must admit they’ve been damn good recently.
The only question now is whether they’re peaking just too early, but that’s a problem for later; they’ve got a final to win first.
