Spirit teach The Huns a harsh lesson in BLAST Lisbon opener

The Huns were mercilessly swept aside in their Big Event debut, but nin9 scored a highlight to remember.

Spirit recovered from a 5-7 first half in map one to brush The Huns aside in the first game of BLAST Open Lisbon.

A slow start on Anubis increased chances of an upset for the Mongolians, but those hopes were rapidly dashed as Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets took over on T side.

That offensive rampage continued on Dust2 as donk ended the two T halves of the series with a 32-8 K-D and 2.43 rating.

Retakes like these from magixx saved Spirit from disaster in the first half of Anubis

The score was 1-12 on map two when The Huns had their best moment, a ridiculous Yesuntumur "⁠nin9⁠" Gantulga Deagle 1v4.

Spirit now move on to a playoff-deciding upper bracket match against one of MOUZ or Falcons, with The Huns facing elimination against that games's loser.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
19/03/2025	MOUZ 14:15 Falcons	Match
21/03/2025	The Huns 11:00 Falcons	Match
21/03/2025	Spirit 16:15 MOUZ	Match

donk makes up for CT Anubis struggles on T side again

In the last twelve months donk has a 1.14 CT rating on Anubis, well below his average, and the young prodigy has been vocal about his dislike of the map.

But he's an absolute menace on T side, a 1.58 rating in that same period, and The Huns felt the full force of that today.

donk was 2-6 early on, 9-12 at the end of the CT half, and still ended the game 24-14 after a 2.76-rated 158.4 ADR second half.

In this game, there was no problem for Spirit — in part thanks to Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev winning two 1v1s to even get the team to five CT rounds — but against stronger opposition donk will need to work out how to have his impact on both halves of the map.

nin9 enters highlight of the year race

BLAST Open is all about experience for The Huns, who have two players in the form of entry Anarbileg "⁠cobrazera⁠" Uuganbayar and support Bilegsaihan "⁠Veccil⁠" Riina who have never played at a LAN anywhere approaching this size.

The Huns are only here because of ESIC's provisional ban on ATOX, who nin9 and company lost to in the BLAST Rising Asia final, and they learned some tough realities on two difficult CT sides against Spirit.

But AWPer and captain nin9, who played in IHC alongside Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren and Sodbayar "⁠Techno⁠" Munkhbold in 2022, had some great clutches with a 1v2 and a 1v3 on Anubis.

Then what happened on Dust2 boggled belief, a highlight of the year contender even if it came with The Huns staring down 11 match points.

In his post-game interview nin9 was more upset about his team's poor anti-ecos than proud of his clutch, but it's clear what this game will be remembered for.