Spirit win BetBoom Dacha with epic reverse sweep of VP

Never before had a team reverse swept a best-of-five international LAN final, but Spirit did so today.

Spirit have made history by completing a gruelling reverse sweep of Virtus.pro in the BetBoom Dacha grand final, accomplishing a feat that was never managed in the entire history of CS:GO.

On the first two maps of Overpass (8-13) and Ancient (9-13) Spirit were a level below Virtus.pro, but they reversed their fortunes on Vertigo (13-3) and Mirage (13-5) to tie the series, before finishing the job in a hard-fought Anubis (16-13) decider that was plagued by tech issues.

Virtus.pro seemed to fall asleep beyond the first two maps, after powerful showings by David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan and Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev had put them in a comfortable position.

Artem "⁠ArtFr0st⁠" Kharitonov, Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia and Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets all contributed to ensure Spirit completed their epic reverse sweep, whilst n0rb3r7 in particular struggled later on for Virtus.pro.

The series began on Overpass, and it was fairly smooth sailing for Virtus.pro. They grabbed a pistol and conversion to kick off their T side before struggling to crack Spirit's defense in gun rounds. A late spree of offensive rounds, powered by n0rb3r7, combined with a powerful CT side, eventually secured a comfortable 13-8 victory.

Again it was smooth sailing for Virtus.pro on Ancient, which was one of Spirit's map picks. The fundamentals were too strong from Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and co., which prevented donk finding his usual aggressive manoeuvres. Outside of the pistol rounds, Spirit found precious little success, and the firepower of n0rb3r7 and Nikolay "⁠mir⁠" Bityukov ensured a 13-9 win for their team.

The script was completely flipped on Vertigo and Mirage, as Virtus.pro fell asleep at the wheel while Spirit came roaring back into the series.

Suddenly, Spirit were assertive and confident, particularly their young trio of academy products, and they won the majority of their duels. On the other side of the server, n0rb3r7 in particular disappeared completely, and without him Virtus.pro struggled, particularly on their T sides.

Anubis was a far more hotly contested affair than any of previous maps, and unfortunately, the tech issues that plagued it will leave a sour taste in everyone's mouths.

Virtus.pro seemed to be back in business as they kicked off their T side effectively, running out to a 5-1 lead, but Spirit eventually warmed up into it and their crossfires helped them to a reasonable 5-7 half.

On the favored T side, Spirit were set for victory, particularly as they won the pistol, but Virtus.pro answered back when they got their economy in order and began marching towards victory. Then a disastrous tech issue struck n0rb3r7 mid-round, with the score at 11-9 in Virtus.pro's favor, allowing Spirit back into contention and sending the map to OT.

Whether Virtus.pro were affected by the tech issues more than Spirit, remains a mystery, but either way, Spirit dominated OT. zont1x stepped up with a key clutch to help push his team over the line, securing the BetBoom Dacha trophy.