Spirit spare their blushes despite 0-13 loss - BLAST Rivals Hong Kong

Spirit took down FUT but not without losing a lot of face; as they dropped map two 0-13 to a team with a stand-in.

Spirit fired back with a 13-5 win of their own to save themselves from true ignominy, but the damage to their aura has been done. Even a classic donk performance (an insane thing to say about a teenager, by the way) couldn't distract us from the second map.

He wasn't going to let them lose on Ancient, and his back-to-back triple nearing the end of the first half epitomised him, really. He is a battering ram, a hurricane and a cold, calculated killer all in one, and it's a travesty that Spirit still let this happen.

If that wasn't bad enough, Nuke - the 0-13 map - was Spirit's pick. SunPayus has always been a Nuke specialist even back on Movistar Riders, and he had a ridiculously good map. He and dem0n shut down every little trick Spirit had, and meant that coolio was essentially not needed - even though he did outfrag everyone but donk on the Spirit side.

While this tells us virtually nothing about FUT, and realistically matters naught, it must be a little troubling to those of a Spirit persuasion to let this happen with a coach standing in.

Vitality's return to the top of Counter-Strike continues to look ominous heading into Singapore, as they put away Falcons in two.

Falcons ran them quite close on both maps, but Anubis was off the back of a world-class performance from m0NESY as his team faltered around him, and Dust 2 saw Falcons lose a half-time lead going into their T side, as they failed to get past the Vitality wall.

They found just 17 kills in 11 rounds on that T side, including just one in the final three rounds of play with the game at 10-10. That's not a great sign.

m0NESY was doing jaw-dropping stuff to the best team in the world consistently on Anubis, and it's a great shame that he somehow was on the losing side. He got the opening pick for his team three rounds in a row on their T side, which helped break and early Vitality streak, multiple triple kills, a handful of double kills and just generally was the best player in the server despite the loss.

kyousuke never really got going, which has been something of a theme these last few months, and it's just more proof that Falcons aren't ready to defend their throne - which is exactly where karrigan wants them, in fairness...

The schedule took its effect on MOUZ as they were reverse swept by G2.

That does sound a bit like we're making excuses for them, but they were lights out in Beijing and did not look quite at their best here today. For example, they let r1nkle drop 31 on them on Ancient.

The AWPer had a fantastic game, to be fair, and showed why G2 want to stick with him if they can as he does have the ability to be a real threat at this level. even if right now it's in fits and starts.

This was a slow start from MOUZ, but one that doesn't really concern us too much right now.

FURIA won the South American derby 2-0 as Legacy continue to underwhelm after their purple patch.

KSCERATO is by far the best player in the region, still, and just carries FURIA to wins time and time and time again. He was superb in this game, as he always is, and was a joy to watch. Certainly more so than arT, who ended the series with nine kills. In 43 rounds.

Woof.