Spirit through to Shanghai Major semi-finals over Liquid

Liquid fell just short of mounting a comeback on Dust2 to force a decider map.

Spirit beat Liquid 2-0 on Anubis (13-9) and Dust2 (13-11) to reach the Perfect World Shanghai Major’s semi-finals, where they will face off against MOUZ for a spot in the championship match.

Two triples kicked off the series on Anubis, one by Myroslav “⁠zont1x⁠” Plakhotia in the pistol round and one by Roland “⁠ultimate⁠” Tomkowiak in the second-round forcebuy as the two teams set up an exciting start to the match.

In the end, though, Danil “⁠donk⁠” Kryshkovets was the difference maker for Spirit in the opening map, as he aced twice — once in the first half, which ended 6-6, and then in the second pistol round — and got 24 kills in 22 rounds to power his team to a 13-9 victory on Liquid’ s pick.

Spirit jumped ahead to a 6-2 lead on Dust2, setting the pace early on the attack against a Liquid side that clammed up and were often on the back foot and saving instead of trying to match the intensity set by Leonid “⁠chopper⁠” Vishnyakov. Finally, a three-round streak before the switch made sure the map was open in the second half.

Russel “⁠Twistzz⁠” Van Dulken then won a 1vs2 in the second pistol round to get Liquid ahead, but Spirit hit right back in the forcebuy to negate the early gain by shutting down a Mid to B hit.

Down 12-6 and with nothing to lose, Liquid put activated and put forth an effort that nearly took them the distance — including another 1vs2 by Twistzz in the 23rd round —, but then fell at the final hurdle as Spirit won the final round of regulation to punch their ticket to the semi-finals.

“I’m happy that we got to play in the arena, something this team was lacking is big arena matches,” Twistzz said during in his exit interview on the broadcast. “Honestly, I’m not as sad as people think. Before coming to the Major I said anything but playoffs would be disappointing and we made playoffs.”

The Canadian in-game leader also believes it’s a good ending for Liquid’s season. “This is a good high that we can ride going into the next season,” he added. “We left home on October 27 to travel to Singapore and we’ve had five birthdays spent in this time period in China, so I think people deserve to go home with their heads held high.”