Spirit edge out Complexity to earn Fall Final spot

Spirit lock in their place at the Copenhagen event after a heard-earned victory over Complexity.

Spirit are the first team to secure a spot at the BLAST Premier Fall Final, which will take place at Forum Copenhagen from September 25-29.

The Russian side topped Group A at the Fall Groups after a hard-earned victory over Complexity in the final, recovering from a double-overtime loss on Dust2 and a 6-10 deficit on the deciding Nuke.

Complexity still have one more chance to qualify in Sunday's Play-in stage match against the loser of Liquid vs. Natus Vincere.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024
04/08/2024	Complexity 16:35 Natus Vincere	Match

The Russian side came into the match as massive favorites given Complexity's dwindling form and the fact that they picked into three maps Spirit hadn't lost since March, but it turned out a much more competitive match than anticipated.

Despite Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets dropping highlight after highlight and combining with Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov for 67 kills on Dust2, Complexity came out victorious from the double-overtime affair. They showed strong mental fortitude after throwing away a chance to close the map in first overtime, to sh1ro's AWP in a 2v5 situation.

Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski was the man at the helm and played a big part in getting the game to overtime, but throughout the map everyone from Complexity stepped up in crucial moments in a big team effort.

An Anubis pick then backfired as Complexity came nowhere near to ending Spirit's eight-map winning streak. A loss to a full eco round smoke defuse served as an early signal of the North American team's demise, and Spirit ran away with the map 13-6.

Nuke was left to decide, where Spirit had also amassed a six-map streak since March. The favorites were in control at first on the Terorrist side thanks to sh1ro pulling off a last-second 1v2 clutch, but they ended up having their work cut out for them.

Clip: sh1ro pulls off a last-second 1v2 clutch

Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli came alive on the CT side with a 1v2 clutch in round nine and he continued to punish Spirit to allow Complexity to close the half with five in a row. With a pistol round to boot, the North American side edged closer to victory as they reached double digits first, and hoped to break Spirit's economy.

That's when Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov stepped up to the plate with a crucial quad-kill, turning around a 3v5 to save Spirit's bacon and set off a defensive streak.

sh1ro then broke Complexity's hearts as they narrowly missed out on a halfbuy victory, with the AWPer securing another clutch in the last fraction of a second possible to help Spirit close it with seven in a row.

Clip: sh1ro denies Complexity a halfbuy win with another 1v2

A self-critical Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia spoke to James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks after the match, saying Spirit have not been at their best game despite the win. The Ukrainian himself had an off-series, and admitted as much in the comment.

"On Dust2 we felt like we weren't in the game. It was a bad performance by me, especially," he said. "On Nuke there were a lot of strange rounds, we aren't in the best shape overall. There are a lot of stupid things happening on the server, and this is not the best CS you have seen from us."