Spirit defeat Imperial to make EPL quarters

chopper's troops will meet NAVI in the next round.

Spirit have defeated Imperial in a two-map series (Nuke 16-13, Dust2 13-3) to secure a spot in the ESL Pro League S20 quarter-finals.

Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets and company will now face off against Natus Vincere in the top-eight stage. Spirit are yet to be defeated by Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's troops in any of their four matches during 2024, with their last meeting coming in the best-of-five title clash at BLAST Premier Spring Final, which Spirit won 3-1.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 20
20/09/2024	Natus Vincere 16:15 Spirit	Match

On the other side of the server, the loss means the end of the road in Malta for Imperial. The Brazilian team can look back at encouraging wins against BIG and MOUZ, however, as well as a spirited performance on Nuke against Spirit, which ended in an overtime defeat.

The series began on Spirit's pick of Nuke, where the Russian squad went 4-2 up despite losing the pistol. Lucas "⁠decenty⁠" Bacelar's 1v3 clutch then flipped the momentum for a while, with Spirit eventually stopping the rot and going into the second half two rounds ahead.

Imperial turned up the style on the T side and went 10-7 but couldn't close out in regulation as Spirit ended the half with a two-round streak. donk's impact lessened towards the end of the map, but Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov picked up the slack and helped Spirit take Nuke 16-13 in an unconvincing display.

After a close map one, Dust2 was the exact opposite. Spirit won a second-round forcebuy that allowed them to put together a dominant 9-3 half, followed by a flawless four-round streak in the offense. That meant Spirit took Dust2 with a 13-3 scoreline, booked their spot in the quarters, and sent Imperial home from Malta.