Spirit keep playoff streak going at BLAST Open Lisbon

VP remain without a win in the derby against Spirit.

Spirit have secured a trip to Portugal after clearing the BLAST Open Lisbon group stage in Copenhagen with a double 13-9 victory on Ancient and Anubis over regional rivals Virtus.pro in the Group A lower bracket decider.

It’s no surprise that superstar Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets was front and center in Spirit’s win, with a 1.78 rating on a hectic Ancient, where rounds went down to the wire. For instance, when Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov planted the bomb with less than a second left to hit map point and deny Virtus.pro a possible momentum swing.

Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev, who was one of the supporting cast who stepped up to leave FaZe behind earlier in the lower bracket, had another great map, with a 17-9 scoreline and a 1.37 rating, closely followed by sh1ro with 1.36.

donk was often the point man on Anubis, too, which he ended with a 1.49 rating, but again the secondary cast stepped up with Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia topping the board with a 1.64 and the rest of the team also gunning with ratings in the 1.07 to 1.17 range.

Virtus.pro lost out on a great opportunity to tally some more VRS points today, as they are neck-and-neck with Astralis in the race for a direct spot at the Major ahead of the April 7 deadline. They are currently 11th and trail the Danes by five points for the final spot in Stage 2, which would allow them to skip the online MRQ.

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Follow the race to the Major as it unfolds

Since making their rise from the second tier to becoming Major champions, Spirit have cemented themselves as the top Russian team, and now have three consecutive 2-0 victories against Virtus.pro dating back to when the two first met at the BLAST Premier Spring Final in June 2024. The two teams then met at IEM Katowice, where Spirit once again took the head-to-head 2-0 before denying VP a single map again today.

Spirit’s playoff run at BLAST Open Lisbon hung in the balance after MOUZ sent them down to the stacked Group A lower bracket, but donk and company have extended their playoff streak with this victory in the decider against Virtus.pro, making it four out of four in 2025 and eight in a row going back to 2024, when the team bombed out of IEM Cologne in August.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
19/03/2025	Spirit Finished 2:0 The Huns	Match
21/03/2025	Spirit Finished 1:2 MOUZ	Match
23/03/2025	FaZe Finished 0:2 Spirit	Match
24/03/2025	Virtus.pro Finished 0:2 Spirit	Match

Sergey "⁠hally⁠" Shavaev’s men kicked off the year with a victory at BLAST Bounty, and will hope to find that winning form again at the MEO Arena in Lisbon after losing the IEM Katowice grand final to the red-hot Vitality and going down to their MOUZ nemeses in the Pro League semi-finals.