Spirit consign Astralis to last place exit in cadiaN's debut event

Spirit have secured a quarter-final berth, but not without labouring at points throughout the series.

Spirit will continue their journey at BLAST Premier Fall Final after defeating Astralis 2-1, getting the job done on Dust2 (13-5) and Mirage (13-11) after losing Ancient (3-13).

With their win Spirit earned a quarter-final berth, where they will face G2, whilst Astralis have been eliminated.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024
27/09/2024	G2 16:00 Spirit	Match

Spirit's stock has been steadily sliding ever since the player break, with their performances at Esports World Cup, IEM Cologne and ESL Pro League Season 20 leaving much to be desired.

Astralis meanwhile came into this series much-maligned due to the controversy surrounding their use of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller as an emergency substitute, which only added to the noise already surrounding them as a result of his shock reunion with Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund.

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Neither team impressed in their opening matches at Fall Final, and neither particularly impressed in this series. Both teams took their own maps comfortably, but in the face of fairly weak resistance, before an utterly ridiculous and chaotic Mirage was just eeked over the line by Spirit.

Spirit looked mentally out of it after Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr had dominated them on Ancient, with Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets sitting for a solid two minutes with his head in his hands towards the end of the map. Astralis looked largely lost on Dust2, struggling to deal with Spirit's Long takes and seeming disjointed in mid-round situations.

Mirage was a much more closely-contested affair. Spirit were destroyed by Staehr's Five-Seven after starting 2-0 on T side, but answered back with a force-buy of their own. Spirit then fell apart against pistols again thanks to a deep jabbi flank, allowing Astralis to get to a workable five-round haul, but recovered to maintain a slender lead.

The second half devolved into insanity. After the pistol, the teams traded chaotic force-buys back and forth until Astralis finally wrested control, eliminating all five players in a losing round and winning the follow-up to get to 11-9. Spirit got the score to 11-10, before stavn whiffed horribly in a winnable clutch to let Spirit level the score and take control of the economy, which allowed the Russians to close the series.

Mirage was a study in what happens when two teams low on confidence and facing immense pressure collide. Grenades were missed with regularity, players whiffed shots they would normally hit, and fast-paced force-buys were the only rounds either team could win with regularity. Spirit may have come out on top, but they will need to improve vastly if they are to make a run in the playoffs.