Spirit outlast G2 in Cathedral classic

Team Spirit, by the grace of God and the skin of their teeth, scraped past G2 in a five hour epic that was an absolute joy to witness from start to finish.

G2 kicked off Overpass by abusing Spirit’s weak B site hold - not least because sh1ro and donk both play A - and racked up five T rounds despite a dominant showing from sh1ro. When G2 did go A, they were largely shut out, but won a bunch of rounds off of the lower site, including breaking after the pistol with Tec-9s.

This was a map that was the perfect choice for G2 - they love it, and Spirit are notoriously a bit shaky on it, and it was enough for G2 to sneak into a 1-0 lead.

They weren’t far off the 2-0, either - once more, G2 abused the B site on Dust 2, finding magixx and donk in rotation to cut the deficit down the stretch and force overtime. zont1x could have won the map in regulation with a 1v2, but failed to connect a bullet on a low health target.

Spirit survived the scare, and took the map 16-14, with donk leading the charge - though he was not quite as dominant as we’ve seen before in Cologne.

Then onto Mirage, which was a bona fide Cathedral Classic. No ifs, no buts. This was kino.

G2 eventually succumbed to the Spirit pressure 25-22, but of course had their own chances to win - not least, three series points in regulation. They’ll be gutted, but they were one half of one of the best games we’ve ever seen. This was a game packed full of highlights - every single player, no matter how well they played, had a montage-worthy highlight in this game.

MATYS won a last-second clutch, swinging round triple to execute zont1x. huNter- won one on magixx. donk, take your pick. tN1R got four in a 4v5 to keep Spirit alive at one point.

But the best of the best came from not donk, not sh1ro, not HeavyGod, not even MATYS - but magixx.

magixx put Spirit on match point at 18-16 with an absolutely ridiculous - ridiculous! - 1v4. We're going to have to leave a clip here because without it you probably wouldn't believe us. magixx planted the bomb on B with the whole team faking on A; a strat straight out of matchmaking, but one that works well when the A hit really works.

Hilariously, the A hit didn't even work that well, leaving poor magixx in a 1v4 with the whole G2 team rotating towards him. magixx set up shop in kitchen, though, and turned into a gatling gun, mowing down the charge of the light brigade.

Incredibly, the game did not end here. G2 stood tall to deny two match points again, and push us into another OT - but magixx had now fully woken up. He had been struggling on the B site which had been a favourite for G2, but now with a new lease of life he became much more solid.

On the flip side, MATYS had cooled off after a sensational regulation performance. He was still firing, just not quite as well as before, and this mattered a lot as NertZ had an off-game. Not to call him out - nobody deserves that in a game like this, but life is unfair sometimes.

We went another round of back-and-forth highlights, but when the scoreboard hit 22-22, Spirit finally won out with three in a row down the stretch.

While donk wasn't quite as absurd as he'd been in the group stages, he was still the best player in the server. 81 kills, 18 of which were opening kills, 22 multikills and two clutches is one hell of a haul, and was the difference between tournament life and death for Spirit.

For G2, this is proof of concept and a reminder that this team can and should be one of the best teams in the world. They have all the raw materials, and came closer to stopping donk than anyone else; let's hope this is not another false dawn.