Spirit pull off another comeback against Heroic, Vitality collapse versus Outsiders

Vitality find themselves in the 0-2 pool of the Legends Stage once again.

The second round of the Swiss stage started off in an exciting fashion as Spirit orchestrated their second comeback of the day against HEROIC on the CT side of Nuke. The Russian squad now finds itself one best-of-three away from securing a spot in the playoffs, a remarkable achievement for the youngest team at the Major.

The secondary stream hosted Outsiders' victory over Vitality, which promoted the Eastern European squad to the 1-1 pool. Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's men now face a monumental challenge, looking to come back all the way from the 0-2 pool like they did at the previous Major in Stockholm. The French-Danish mix will need three BO3 victories in a row if they are to reach the playoffs.

HEROIC had a good start to their CT side on Nuke against Spirit, taking the opening pistol thanks to an ace from Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller. The Danish captain continued his great form well into the half, staying alive all the way until round 12 when he was taken down for the first time by Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov. The Russians struggled to find momentum on the T side, only taking a few sporadic rounds during the 5-10 half.

In a similar fashion to the previous match against FURIA, Spirit turned things around dramatically after switching to the defensive side of Nuke and used their pistol round victory to kickstart their comeback. Led by a hyper-impactful Robert "⁠Patsi⁠" Isyanov, Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's squad would only drop two more rounds all the way to a 16-12 comeback.

Meanwhile on the B stream, Vitality and Outsiders faced off on Mirage with both teams trying their best to avoid going into the 0-2 pool. The French-Danish mix had a great start to the game after coming out on top of a force-buy exchange in the early stages of the map, claiming a 6-1 lead. Despite a very hot start from Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, as the French superstar cooled off, the Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali-led squad started to come back as both Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis came to life in the server. Outsiders strung six consecutive rounds on their way to edging the half 8-7.

Things would only get worse for Vitality in the second half as they conceded the second pistol and five more rounds before they were able to leave their mark on the offensive side. Jame's squad quickly crushed any hopes of a comeback, however, taking the last two necessary rounds to take the game 16-8.