hally: "There are no questions about sh1ro's performance in arena matches"

Spirit's coach was happy with his star sniper after he put Vitality to the sword.

Spirit are in their third grand final of 2024, and they reached it in convincing fashion.

Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev and Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov looked one step ahead of Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam for the vast majority of the best-of-three, not least in an 8-2 T-side streak to close out the best-of-three.

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chopper calls circles around Vitality to secure Spirit grand finals in London

With Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets targeted by Vitality's preparation, it was all the more important that Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov and Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia — two players scrutinized for their ability to perform under the lights — stepped up to fill the void. And they did.

"sh1ro wins crazy clutches every match and tournament," hally told us. "There are no questions about his performance in arena matches, he has a great understanding of the game and gives us a lot in mid-rounds."

The skipper also had praise for the team's second-youngest player. "zont1x is doing a great job this season," he said, "and he is improving in areas I want him to improve in."

The duo have convinced their coach, and we now wait to see if they can repeat their Vitality heroics against Natus Vincere in a grueling best-of-five final.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
16/06/2024	Spirit 16:00 Natus Vincere	Match

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Editor's note: This interview was conducted via an interpreter and translated by HLTV's Russian-speaking staff.

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How do you feel after getting revenge over Vitality?

I’m satisfied. We played Vitality the least this season, so we are a bit unfamiliar with their playstyle as we rarely meet. Now, after the second meeting, I can feel that we are more comfortable against them, it’s better than it was in Dallas.

I’m very happy that we stayed composed after the first half of Mirage and tried to come back. If not for a few small details, we could have maybe won Mirage, too.

We know you guys are a prep-heavy team, and in that last T side, especially the set piece to catch mezii out on the B platform... did you find it easy to read them?

No, not really. In that round, I thought it would be perfect to end B fast because, in my opinion, they should have expected us to go A due to the game’s dynamic.

How did you think chopper did? The commentators kept saying it, it did feel like he had apEX's number. What was it down to? A gameplan thing, his mid-rounding, a style thing?

I think it’s 50-50. It’s clear that Leonya [chopper] called a good T-side on Dust2. He made the right calls in many situations, but we also set up a good plan against Vitality’s defense. I think they had a hard time playing against us.

On Anubis, if we forget those two rounds where they went B, I think the things we prepared worked. It’s both [chopper’s calling and our preparation].

The first half really looked like one of those quiet sh1ro playoff games, but for the last two and a half maps it was a perfect display of defensive AWPing. What have you worked on with him to get this out of him?

Our plan for Mirage was set up in a way that sh1ro couldn’t do much if we didn’t get trades in mid-rounds and our entries didn’t win their duels. This was the problem; Dima couldn’t make his plays.

But overall, Dima wins crazy clutches in every match and tournament. He did it against Virtus.pro, and there were some in Dallas as well. There are no questions about his performance in arena matches. He has a great understanding of the game and gives us a lot in mid-rounds.

Is it the same for zont1x? He caught a lot of flak after his match on stage at the Major when he was ill, but he was good in Katowice and great here. How do you see him?

Myroslav [zont1x] has played for our lineup for half a year. He had a different vision of Counter-Strike when he joined us, though it was not necessarily a bad one.

Then we replaced Artem [ArtFr0st] with Dima [sh1ro], and that changed our core. In my opinion, the core consists of a captain, an AWPer, and a star player.

Myroslav is doing a great job this season, and he is improving in areas I want him to improve in. I have nothing to say about that match at the Major. It happens.

This season, you haven't been to too many events, but you've been great at the ones you have attended. If you win this trophy, do you think you're the best team in the world?

It’s hard to say if we will be the best team in the world. I think we improve from tournament to tournament, and it’s great that we make playoffs at every event, but little time has passed for us to speak about winning every tournament.

We want to improve from tournament to tournament and aim to win along the way. I think we're moving in the right direction.