Spinx comes back to haunt Vitality as Spirit sink Falcons - BLAST Open Porto

Spirit flew out of the blocks against Falcons who never quite recovered in time.

Spirit's Cerberus of donk, sh1ro and tN1R - who hasn't always been the third head - blitzed Falcons' T side with eleven on the bounce to kick off Nuke, and from there it was always an uphill battle.

It could and maybe should have been 12, too, as it took a 1v2 from karrigan for Falcons to post their first round. All three of Spirit's stars had at least a kill per round, and when you can count on three kills per round at least you know you're in the money.

Falcons did make it a bit closer on their CT side as their own stars started putting up numbers - kyousuke in particular was finding kills left, right and centre- with TeSeS once again holding it down on the site. By then, though, it was too little, too late, and the 13-8 scoreline flattered Falcons quite aggressively.

Ancient was a much better map for the neutral (though how many neutrals there are in games involving Falcons is unclear) as Falcons and Spirit were neck-and-neck right to the end.

It was a rare game for Spirit where zont1x truly shined even in the absence of donk's usual brilliance, as he posted over 100 ADR and six opening kills in a map that went all 24 rounds. That's one hell of a time to step up.

We found ourselves locked at 6-6 at the break, after Spirit won three to close the half, and they then racked up five of the next six, taking the score from 3-6 to 11-7 in super quick fashion. While Falcons pulled one back, Spirit found series point not long after, and Falcons found themselves with their backs to the wall needing a miracle.

They almost found it; a massive clutch from TeSeS with the game on the line took them to 11 to keep things going, but it was all in vain as Spirit survived a scare on round 24 to seal their spot in the grand final.

m0NESY almost, almost made the impossible happen.

Spinx reminded Vitality what they're missing as he slaughtered them on Mirage to seal an impressive 2-0.

MOUZ have had their struggles on stage in the past, but looked at home today against an albeit not full strength Vitality and will now have the chance to swing at Spirit for the trophy.

Spinx found multiple perfect timings to turn rounds on the T side of Dust 2 just as Vitality looked to get back into it. MOUZ racked up eight on their CT side with xelex putting in some serious work over on the B side of the map, but Vitality looked to be finding the magic they needed on the CT side. ZywOo and apEX both had crazy multikills down the stretch as Vitality started to pull the game back, and it was xelex who was once again the hero as he denied a flameZ clutch that would have put the map very nearly to bed, and instead tied at 11-11.

But it was Spinx who was responsible for much of everything else MOUZ did well on the T side - his sense of timing and unique ability to be in the most awkward spots was such a thorn in Vitality's side, and as always he had the ability to execute on his ideas.

MOUZ were able to use him to see out the game despite what felt like plot armour for Vitality, and moved onto their own pick of Mirage.

Spinx was once again at the forefront of everything - he had a kill per round on the T side, including an outrageous quad coming out of Palace on an A exec, and was even more prolific on the defence. xelex stayed up with as the second prong, and deserves plenty of credit for how he handled himself in probably the biggest game of his career. The young Hungarian proved to be an immovable object on the CT side, and helped MOUZ to a famous win over Vitality and a place in the grand final.

Vitality ran out of ideas quickly on their T side, and went out with a bit of a whimper in the end, as MOUZ cleaned up 13-7 to move on.