Virtus.pro overcome Spirit in BLAST Premier Fall Showdown-cs best case to open

The CIS matchup went all three maps, with Virtus.pro eliminating Spirit from the tournament after a 2-1 victory.

The two best teams from the CIS regions aside from Natus Vincere crossed paths in the first match of the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown single-elimination bracket, where Virtus.pro bounced back from a disappointing Mirage to take the win on Train and Inferno.

Looking at the first three halves of play, Spirit seemed in control, with Artem "⁠iDISBALANCE⁠" Egorov and Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov pushing their team forward, but Virtus.pro managed to win key rounds on the T side of Train, thanks to clutches from Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and Timur "⁠buster⁠" Tulepov, turn around the map, and seal the deal comfortably on Inferno.

Virtus.pro's next opponent will be a South American squad, the winner of FURIA - Isurus, with Liquid, MIBR, and FaZe also on their side of the bracket. Two more victories are needed for the CIS squad to earn a spot in the BLAST Premier Fall Finals, where the likes of G2 and Vitality await.

Clutches from buster turned the tides of Train

Mirage started as was expected from a derby, with rounds traded back and forth and neither team being able to pull ahead early. That changed as the score was 5-4, as iDISBALANCE's double-kill held back Virtus.pro's B push, with Spirit's AWPer going on the roll after that.

Spirit ended the half 9-6 up, and following Sanjar "⁠SANJI⁠" Kuliev denying Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's clutch attempt on the pistol, bounced back with a force buy, not looking back. Virtus.pro picked up sporadic rounds, but after being down 13-8, losing a 2v3 and 2v5 back-to-back spelled the end of Mirage, 16-9 in favor of Spirit.

Virtus.pro scooped up the pistol on Train and went up 3-0, but Spirit proceeded to run riot on the T side again to claw back on their map pick. The score was 5-3 when multikills from Alexey "⁠Qikert⁠" Golubev and Jame to hold B got Virtus.pro rolling again, with that duo leading the fragging at half time for a 9-6 lead.

After the switch, Spirit looked good to run it back, chaining four in a row to make it 10-9. However, two clutches from buster and one from Jame enabled Virtus.pro to go on a seven-round streak and take Train 16-10, forcing the decider - Inferno.

Dominance from Virtus.pro kicked off Inferno as Spirit seemingly lost all confidence after Train. SANJI came alive to push his team 8-0 up before Spirit chained four on the offense to keep things competitive at 10-5 for the half. Unfortunately for chopper and co., they never got going on the defense and Virtus.pro sealed the deal, 16-8, to advance to the quarter-finals.

BLAST Premier Fall 2020 ShowdownBest of 3 Spirit

Spirit

Matchpage 1 2 24th November 2020

Virtus.pro 16Mirage 9 10Train 16 8Inferno 16

Spirit	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Artem 'iDISBALANCE' EgoroviDISBALANCE	60 - 48	+12	84.7	1.24
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukovmir	56 - 52	+4	77.0	1.14
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper	51 - 52	-1	75.3	1.11
Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhevsdy	45 - 46	-1	72.2	0.98
Boris 'magixx' Vorobievmagixx	40 - 49	-9	55.2	0.85

Virtus.pro	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Dzhami 'Jame' AliJame	60 - 47	+13	73.5	1.13
Alexey 'Qikert' GolubevQikert	51 - 49	+2	79.8	1.11
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisYEKINDAR	51 - 54	-3	73.5	1.03
Timur 'buster' Tulepovbuster	48 - 52	-4	75.1	1.02
Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievSANJI	36 - 51	-15	56.3	0.77