Spirit beat NAVI to win BLAST Premier Spring Final

The Russian side heads into the player break with another trophy in the bag and bursting with confidence.

Spirit won the BLAST Premier Spring Final in London on Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Natus Vincere. Playing in front of a Wembley Arena crowd that was heavily backing their opponents, Spirit kept their composure at all times and turned in a strong performance throughout the series, holding off comeback attempts from NAVI on Ancient and Dust2 and then finishing the job on Nuke after being demolished on Mirage.

"We outperformed our opponent today," Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev said after the series, adding that he wasn't bothered by the fact that fans kept booing his team. "Every crowd I've faced was against me. I'm used to it. It's not an issue."

With this victory, Spirit end the season as they began it, with an elite trophy after a best-of-five final. This time around, it was more of a collective effort, though Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets was still head and shoulders the best player on his team, which earned him the fourth MVP award of his career at the age of 17.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
12/06/2024	Spirit Finished 2:1 G2	Match
13/06/2024	Virtus.pro Finished 0:2 Spirit	Match
15/06/2024	Spirit Finished 2:1 Vitality	Match
16/06/2024	Spirit Finished 3:1 Natus Vincere	Match

After the match, a disappointed Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen, who had lost his sixth best-of-five final in a row admitted that Spirit were "the better team" but still had a positive outlook on his team's campaign.

"Here, we showed that we are capable again," he said. "Even though we lost the final, we managed to win one map, and they were simply the better team. We're not the No. 1 team, but we're among the best teams. And that's a really good sign."

The best-of-five title decider kicked off on Spirit's map pick of Ancient, where the Russian team continuously found gaps in NAVI's defense during the first half for a commanding 10-2 lead.

Aleksib kept NAVI in the game with a 1v2 clutch in the ensuing pistol, to the delight of the Wembley Arena crowd, which gave the international team unwavering support throughout the series. That was the start of a dominant period from NAVI, who went on a 7-1 run, but a comeback would not come to fruition as Spirit put the game to bed.

Spirit carried that momentum into Dust2, cruising to a 5-0 lead on the CT side. Aleksib then stopped the bleeding with a spectacular ace, breathing new life into NAVI's team.

With the Finnish captain leading the charge (18-9 K-D and a 130 ADR), the crowd favorites ended the half down by just two, and they could have equalized the score if they hadn't lost the final round to a shoddy buy.

Spirit increased their lead after the side switch, with NAVI responding in their first gun round with a trio of frags by Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius inside B. The Major champions imposed their game and restored parity at 9-9, but just like on Ancient, the game slipped away from them in an instant as Spirit won four rounds in quick succession to lock down the map and get within touching distance of the trophy.

NAVI came out looking a different side on Mirage and raced to a 10-2 lead on the CT side, with Spirit's round wins coming courtesy of a magixx 1v1 and a quad-kill from donk.

After switching to the defense, Spirit picked up a couple of rounds, but by the time they got going, the deficit was too big to overcome, with Natus Vincere quickly securing three rounds to take the series to a fourth map.

The early stages of Nuke were a tight affair, with neither team able to assert themselves. Spirit then tightened up and won six rounds in a row before NAVI secured the final two rounds of the half to keep themselves in the game.

donk added to Spirit's lead with a quad-kill in the pistol round, with the Russian team quickly getting into double-digit territory. Pinned against the ropes, NAVI attempted a response, but one round was all they could muster as Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia twice unlocked the defense with quick double entries to get his team across the line.