Must-watch television - Falcons vs Spirit preview

Our bodies are ready.

For 2-5 hours this evening we will not be available. For any plans our friends may have, it’s their fault for scheduling it on the day of Falcons v Spirit. Mom and Dad are calling? Straight to voicemail. Baby is crying? Rock yourself to sleep, little man.

Spirit v Falcons is absolute must-watch media. The stakes are incredibly high, the level of talent somehow even higher.

Both teams won crazy quarter-final games to be here. Spirit snuck past G2 in a five hour epic, before Falcons won two out of three 24-rounders to outlast Vitality, which is one hell of a result for them.

And that brings us to today.

The match-up

The names in the server need no introduction, of course. The most exciting match-up is donk vs his protege, which is depressing to think about. How can there already be a new donk?

kyousuke was red hot yesterday and seems to have found his groove on stage of late, which makes him twice as dangerous. He’s one of the most exciting young players in the world, but donk is THE most exciting.

Unfortunately for kyousuke, he isn’t as good as donk and nobody is, and it’s possible that donk can settle the game before anyone else has a shot. The thing that will give Falcons hope is that they have a leader who knows how to deal with superstars - karrigan will have a plan, and that’s when he’s most dangerous.

Falcons also have more depth than Spirit, by quite a large margin. Only a blind man would take either tN1R or zont1x over NiKo, and quite frankly in a big game we’d take TeSeS over either. tN1R has a lot of ability but has largely been neutered on Spirit, whereas TeSeS has been unshackled since his fellow Dane took over the reins at Falcons.

Unlike the other semi-final, this one has two elite tier AWPers. m0NESY probably just shades it in general play, but sh1ro is one of the best late round snipers ever and can abuse donk’s ability to open up rounds to get himself into position to close it down. m0NESY on the other hand can do anything and everything, with the rifle and the AWP. He’s just superb at everything.

Perhaps the least interesting, but possibly the deciding duel, is magixx vs karrigan. Despite it not mattering yesterday, karrigan’s fragging has been an issue at times as he is simply the worst fragger in tier one, whereas magixx is a much more accomplished player in the server. On the other hand, you don’t call like karrigan within a couple years of becoming an IGL, and he will have the advantage in that regard.

It’s a classic brains vs brawn duel in the IGL slot, which is a little unusual. Spirit have the top end and bottom end firepower advantage, while Falcons have the depth and brains.

But there is one factor left unsaid; donk always struggles against NiKo.

Expectations

An absolutely nuclear giga-banger worthy of the Madison Square Garden.

We’d just shade Falcons by virtue of the karrigan factor, and NiKo often being able to beat donk. It’s been a problem for Spirit in the past, and even this new-look Spirit without a coach (which for some reason isn’t a massive disadvantage) probably don’t have the tools to deal with that problem.

But donk can, and often does, just win games on his own. He has the ability to win every single game by virtue of his incredible duelling power, and not just that, that the duels he wins are often ones that open up rounds and have masses of impact. Quite simply, he’s the best player in the world and maybe the best to ever touch the game, and betting against him is not easy.

We’ve got no idea what might happen in this game, but we know it will be an absolutely glorious watch.

We will be locked in.