Spirit overpower MOUZ to claim BLAST Open Porto trophy

donk will give you two maps headstart where he doesn't really show up, but after that, good luck.

Until that point in this grand final, it was up to sh1ro to hold the fort, and donk's partner in crime did so with aplomb. He had a ridiculous CT half on Dust 2, where at least three of their seven CT rounds came from a sequence of his that won the round on its own. He ended it with 12 kills in just nine rounds, but it was the impact of those kills that hit hardest.

Dust 2 can be a tricky one on the defence, but sh1ro made it look effortless. donk was quieter on Dust 2, but still found time to pull off a mind-blowing round that would be extraordinary for basically anyone else.

Genuinely, what on Earth is that?

After a 6-6 first half, MOUZ' T side fell completely flat, and we saw none of the Spinx shenanigans from the Vitality game - largely as the rounds were often over before he activated.

Spirit were in the driver's seat, and sh1ro was feeling it. He racked up 15 as Spirit collected nine rounds on the defence of Mirage, including a pair of clutches that put Spirit in a pretty unassailable position. You would think.

After a pistol round win and a conversion, Spirit sat one from map point and they were absolutely cruising, set to go 2-0 up against a MOUZ team who had never really shown any aptitude for huge comebacks in pressured playoffs games, and who had often crumbled, but this time was different. MOUZ won nine straight on their CT side when the guns came out, with the new boys PR and xelex going absolutely bonkers.

They were regularly tasked with digging MOUZ out of a hole on that CT side, but they stuck their sites back together with duct tape and balled out. Spirit, as has been a criticism of them far too often, seemed to run out of ideas. They didn't have any to begin with - they lost every gun round. It didn't even appear to be individual failings - purely a collective - and MOUZ were back in it.

A rejuvenated MOUZ were going to make this final interesting.

But then donk happened.

He was always going to have a map or two.

It wasn't all donk - MOUZ let a 5v2 slip to sh1ro and magixx, for example - but he turned it on big time and was the propellor that drove Spirit to eleven on their T side, as he picked up 16 kills, a quarter of which were opening kills. He had a multikill in a third of the T rounds, and an opening kill in a third of the T rounds. He was electric.

As much as we'd like to run a narrative about MOUZ in grand finals, the young lads not changing their fortunes, you know the drill; that was an unwinnable map. You cannot beat donk when he plays like that. You simply can't. He is a force of nature and he will win maps on his own and you can't stop him.

Spirit blew MOUZ out 13-3 on Ancient, and took to Nuke with the series in the palm of their hands.

Whatever life had been breathed into MOUZ in map two had been winded out of them with a sucker punch on Ancient, and they were never truly in the game on Nuke. If the first two maps were all sh1ro, and the third was all donk, this was finally tN1R's time to shine.

donk was right up there with him, but it must have been very encouraging to see the third star show up and take over a CT side. tN1R was a wall on the defence, and MOUZ just ran out of ways to stop him and donk from tearing through them. xertioN and torzsi, the longest-standing members of the team, collapsed under the wall of firepower that Spirit put up, and MOUZ, once more crumbled.

Understandably, of course, they were never meant to win. But the last two maps saw them never in with a shout, and their only win was a huge, huge comeback from a pretty lost position.

tN1R helped Spirit to eight at the half, and the game was all but done. There was just time for one last, final, humilation ritual for MOUZ though.

Their run at this event deserved a less anti-climactic finish than this.

Spirit are the best team in the world right now, and deserved winners of BLAST Open Porto, and we don't see anyone coming close right now.