G2 dominate Spirit to win BLAST World Final

Snax and his troops bounced back from their dismal IEM Rio performance in style to secure their third trophy of the year.

G2 have secured their third trophy of the year by taking down Spirit in convincing 3-0 fashion to win BLAST Premier World Final, cruising with ease to victories on Mirage (13-7), Anubis (13-5), and Dust2 (13-7).

Coming into this grand final G2 were heavy favourites, having beaten Spirit earlier in the event to run up their overall record against the Russian squad to 8-1 in maps since the player break.

The final ended up being a completely one-sided affair, with G2 rolling over Spirit in confident fashion and sitting firmly in the driver's seat throughout the series. Snax and company needed to bounce back after a woeful performance last time out at IEM Rio, and their imperious run through BLAST World Final was the perfect tonic.

Plenty of the pre-match talk focused on the potential battle between Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets and Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, one that the experienced Bosnian has consistently gotten the better of in the past. donk managed to flip the script somewhat in this series, ending 10-9 in the head-to-head with NiKo, but it simply wasn't enough of a win condition considering what happened on the rest of the server.

Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov was utterly irresistible and displayed his usual effervescent brand of dominant AWPing. Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač stepped up on the final map and carried after a slow tournament. Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa's aim was as precise as ever and he used it to find regular impact. NiKo and Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski were the quietest of the G2 squad, and they still had their shining moments.

Spirit were, overall, flat. They struggled badly on T side, failing to find a way through a G2 squad that was shooting hard, and largely lacked for individual impact beyond donk. A semi-final run is still a boon for Spirit, considering their lack of deep Big Event runs since the player break, but the way G2 outclassed them today showed the Russian side still have work to do if they are to recapture the incredible form they showed at the start of the year.