Spirit douse Eternal Fire to win BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals

The Shanghai Major champions start 2025 off with another trophy.

Spirit have been crowned champions of BLAST Bounty Season 1 Finals after a convincing 3-1 victory over Eternal Fire, faltering to a comeback on Anubis (14-16) before dominant wins on Nuke (13-6), Dust2 (13-3) and Mirage (13-8) allowed them to lift the first tier-one trophy of 2025.

The Perfect World Shanghai Major champions came into the event without coach Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev in tow and showed a few cracks throughout their run, including in an overtime win on Ancient against Natus Vincere and dropping a 12-4 lead in the final, but were tenacious on the last three maps to start the year the same way they finished 2024.

Eternal Fire will have nightmares about their first halves throughout the final, going down 3-9, 2-10, and 1-11 in increasingly deflated showings as more and more frustration crept in. They showed little of the grit they had against Vitality and G2, save for a comeback on Anubis, and were unable to contest against an exceptional final out of Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov and Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets.

They can still walk away with heads held high, justifying the signing of Samet "⁠jottAAA⁠" Köklü during the off-season with a runners-up finish, something Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli spoke to after the series.

"I feel like I let my team down individually," the captain admitted. "I'm sad at the moment, but when we look at the big picture, it's a good start to the season. We deserved this result because we worked really hard for it."

The Turks were made to look the fool on their Anubis pick despite winning the pistol and conversion, adding only one more round to their tally on the notoriously T-sided map against an immovable Spirit defense led by sh1ro and Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov.

Things went from bad to worse in the second half as Spirit quickly reached map point, 12-4, but Eternal Fire started kicking into gear after a few clutches went their way.

With Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş quiet, it was Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker's steady presence that powered the comeback engine, while the lack of hally's voice behind Spirit reared its head in a complete collapse that allowed Eternal Fire to take the map in overtime.

"Mentally we didn't give up. I told the team: 'Even if we lose, just fight, it's important for the next two maps,'" MAJ3R said in a mid-series interview to James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks. "I think we played bad, but we won. Let's keep the cool, we have a lot of work to do still."

donk's bottom-of-the-board performance and that comeback soon became a distant memory, though, with Spirit devastating Eternal Fire on the next three maps.

A pistol and conversion was all the Turks had to their name in the first half of Nuke thanks to a masterclass T-side called by chopper, helped by his late-round flanks, donk's entries, and sh1ro's excellence on the AWP. A second pistol win and 3-0 conversion for Eternal Fire did little to stem the bleed, and any hope of repeating a comeback was tossed aside with Spirit closing out, 13-6.

Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia spoke to BanKs about the recovery after the map, admitting that Spirit made mistakes that cost them but it wasn't holding them back.

"We understood we have everything under control, we just lost way too many dumb rounds. We know how to play, we just need to chill," he said.

One-sided doesn't do justice to how Dust2 went, Spirit again putting up an immovable defense to hold Eternal Fire to one round in the first half before closing the map 13-3. donk was unstoppable and the bane of Eternal Fire's existence, racking up a 22-7 K-D, 129.9 ADR, and 2.28 rating in the blowout victory.

"The third map was just donk reading my mind, he was following me, the little monster," MAJ3R said, laughing after the series. "He's really good."

Spirit's dominance carried on to Mirage, where Eternal Fire strung together a few rounds in the middle of the first half and launched another late comeback bid in the second, only for Spirit to take things over the line with pistols.

sh1ro's late-round multi-kills and a 1v3 clutch prevented Eternal Fire from gaining much early momentum, while donk ensured that Spirit could continue abusing Middle and Connector for the entirety of the first half before they closed out in the second.