Team Spirit advance to BLAST Slam VIII upper bracket final
"Technically, Spirit is the team that downgraded their roster the most," said Sneyking, LGD's captain, during an interview on the official broadcast just as the BLAST Slam VIII playoffs were about to begin.
Team Spirit arrived in Malta with Bohdan "Batyuk" Batiuk standing in for Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov, who is currently on a temporary break from competitive play. Yet, they look exactly like the team that claimed a third Aegis of Champions just a month ago in Shanghai. They topped their group at BLAST, defeated Team Yandex in the seeding series to lock in a direct path to the upper bracket semifinals, and on Friday, they dispatched Aurora Gaming 2-1 to secure a top-three finish at their first Tier 1 LAN of the new season.
Aurora joined them in the top four in Malta after sweeping PARIVISION 2-0 on Thursday. But despite showing perfect cohesion with their new carry, Oliver "skiter" Lepko, Aurora still couldn't pass the Spirit test.
A masterclass and an experiment
Game one was a full Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk show. The Spirit carry finished with a 20/0/16 KDA on Slark in a match where his team dominated from start to finish. Game two brought experimentation from Yatoro, who decided to play his first-ever Outworld Destroyer in competitive matches.
It didn’t go too well, and Aurora managed to force a game three, but they found themselves outplayed and outmanoeuvred once more in game three by Spirit. The triple TI champions ran a Winter Wyvern in the hands of Rue and controlled teamfights much better to secure a top-three finish and a rematch with Team Yandex in the upper bracket finals.
While Spirit will return to the arena on Saturday, two more teams will be eliminated today in the lower bracket rounds. Stay tuned to rdy.gg for continued coverage of BLAST Slam VIII.
