Monte hold off Spirit to secure Thunderpick semi-final spot

kRaSnaL's impressive performance carried Monte to victory.

Monte have booked their place in the Thunderpick World Championship semi-finals, taking down Spirit 2-0 on Nuke (13-8) and Vertigo (16-12).

There is a reason Monte are ranked inside the top 10, and they proved it in this series by excelling in the majority of gun rounds against Spirit. The Ukrainian squad took advantage of a weak CT side to steal away Nuke, before firepower and clutches brought Vertigo home.

A big performance from Szymon "⁠kRaSnaL⁠" Mrozek was also vital for Monte, his high fragging output and ability to find multi-kills ensured a 2-0 series.

Monte now have a semi-final match to look forward to, where they will play the winners of the series between HEROIC and Virtus.pro. Should they play Virtus.pro, it would be a rematch of the recent Roobet Cup Final, which Monte lost 1-2.

Date	Matches
Thunderpick World Championship 2023
04/11/2023	Monte 19:30 Virtus.pro	Match

Spirit got off to a slow start on their own map pick of Nuke, opening up on the offensive side and going 0-4 down off the back of losing the pistol. Once they got their economy in order, they put pressure on Monte’s defense, multi-kills from Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets and Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev helping to rack up a string of rounds and tie the score up at 5-5. Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev and kRaSnaL answered back with multi-kills of their own, ensuring Monte took a 7-5 lead into the second period.

A pistol win and conversion for Spirit brought the game back to parity early in the second half, but a Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro 3k got Monte’s offense on the board in the first gun round and the majority-Ukrainian side never looked back. Their trademark brand of explosive CS was too much for Spirit to handle, with the Russians struggling to get their rotations in order, and Monte romped to a convincing 13-8 victory: Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk’s aggressive 4k to close the game encapsulated his squad’s offensive efforts.

Moving over to Monte’s pick of Vertigo, Spirit started strongly, going 4-2 up on the defense after winning the pistol and recovering from a loss in the first gun round. A fumble against a Deagle purchase squandered the strong position, however, and Monte took the game by the scruff of the neck, with kRaSnaL in particular hitting a heater to put Spirit on the back foot. The Russians couldn’t recover, and Monte took a commanding 8-4 score into the second half.

A pistol victory seemed to set Monte on their way to a simple win, but Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia answered back with a 3k on a Deagle purchase to keep his team alive on the map. Spirit began to grind their way back toward even footing, surviving a near-miss 1v3 attempt by br0 and a loss to another half-buy to get to 11-10. They couldn’t hang on to the lead, however, and a few hectic rounds were traded back and forth before the score settled at 12-12, sending the map to overtime.

The frenetic ending to regulation continued into overtime, with things being decided in the late-round scenarios. Monte ultimately managed to reign supreme, recovering from losing opening kills in each round to secure a 16-12 win.