Spirit ease into IEM Dallas playoffs over NAVI

Crucial clutches and Spirit's mid-game adaptations left Natus Vincere in the dust.

Spirit are back at their frontrunning best and have stormed into IEM Dallas playoffs in convincing 2-0 fashion (13-4 Ancient, 13-8 Nuke) over the Major Champions.

Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's men have only played at one event since PGL Major Copenhagen, BetBoom Dacha in Belgrade, and placed second there while admitting that it was a warmup event for the true goal of attaining another IEM title in Dallas.

"We had a holiday for two weeks, then two-weeks of bootcamp, then 10 more days of practice from home," Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets told James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks on stream post-match when asked about how Spirit spent the break.

Their ideal preparation showed in the server, too, as they demolished FlyQuest 13-1 in their opener before dispatching with Natus Vincere in less than two hours.

Spirit now await the result of FaZe-Virtus.pro, with the possibility of revenge over FaZe for the Major quarter-final spicing up Group B's seeding match.

NAVI, meanwhile, drop to a lower bracket bout with HEROIC and are once again two wins away from playoffs.

Date	Matches
IEM Dallas 2024
29/05/2024	Natus Vincere 19:00 HEROIC	Match
29/05/2024	FaZe 22:00 Spirit	Match

NAVI's fragging quartet goes quiet

Major champions Natus Vincere have different expectations after their win in Copenhagen, but even that win did not answer all of the questions over the roster.

Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius was the MVP there, but struggled for any impact at all against Spirit with 16 frags and a 0.53 rating across two maps.

Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan's future is the most in doubt, having struggled even during the Major, and while he showed flashes of quality, it is still not enough when you take into account the star nature of his CT positions.

A loss to a well-playing Spirit does not make the Major a fluke or a flash in the pan, but it adds more pressure onto Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy's squad the longer the post-Copenhagen hangover continues.

At current it seems they have regressed to their mean: A top side with good gameplans, but without the firepower to consistently challenge for trophies.

Spirit's support cast steps up

In a reverse of fortunes, Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev and Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia, so often back-up dancers for donk and Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov, were the star men on Ancient and Nuke, respectively.

donk had his moments, as he always does, but Spirit's win came largely without the need for his usual heroics.

When BanKs asked donk about why it was so much more dominant for Spirit than their last two meetings with NAVI, he said "we got lucky today. We won important clutches on Ancient and Nuke."

The second part is undoubtedly true: 1v2s for donk and sh1ro came in crucial swing rounds, before magixx cleverly re-positioned for a 1v1 against Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen. The jury is out on whether any of it was down to luck; Spirit are a team designed for these scenarios.

chopper and Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev also deserve credit for Spirit's adaptation late on Nuke, where donk showed visible signs of frustration in his Outside duel with Aleksib.

Even with their star man on a human level, Spirit proved they have the quality to dominate the Major champions. Few teams can say that.