Team Spirit's run to playoffs at StarLadder RMR is miraculous
Four consecutive comebacks in the group stage have landed Team Spirit a spot in the StarLadder CIS RMR playoffs.
As the #1 Regional Major Rankings team in the CIS region, Team Spirit was expected to dominate their group stage on the way to a playoff berth. Spirit’s final scoreline of 4-0 lines up with the prediction, but the team’s group stage run was anything but clean. Team Spirit lost the first map of every single series it played only to come back each time for a victory.
Team Spirit’s first match against Entropiq was exhausting. Quintuple overtime on Nuke eventually ended in Entropiq’s favor. Both teams played more rounds on one map than Gambit and Akuma did in their entire series. Team Spirit flexed their stamina on Dust 2 and Mirage with Boris “magixx” Vorobiev picking up a nice triple to defend the A bomb site.
The next day’s match against K23 felt eerily familiar. Team Spirit rebounded from another overtime loss on map one to dominate on Nuke and Overpass. Spirit’s run-in with Virtus.pro was the first match that never went into overtime. Virtus.pro won solidly on Inferno only for Spirit to snatch their victory away on Dust 2 and Overpass. Spirit’s wide map pool more than paid off at the Starladder CIS RMR.
The final round against 100PingGods went exactly as anticipated. Things looked great for the Kazakhstani team after winning the first map, but Team Spirit once again worked their magic for a clean reverse sweep. That last match gives Team Spirit’s CSGO squad a flawless record going into the playoffs. It’s worth noting that Team Spirit’s map pick came second for all of these match, but pulling off four consecutive comebacks is still quite the achievement.
Who plays for Team Spirit CSGO?
Team Spirit’s current roster looks like this:
- Nikolay “mir” Bityukov
- Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov
- Boris “magixx” Vorobiev
- Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov
- Victor “somedieyoung” Orudzhev
somedieyoung has played for Team Spirit for over two years now, making him the team’s bedrock rifler. The original squad fractured after some rough losses in early 2019, but chopper’s patient leadership style has brought the team some consistency.
degster became the ‘s most recent addition in March. The Russian AWPer puts up a solid .71 kills and a remarkably low 0.59 death per round. That second stat is particularly important for an AWPer, whose death usually involves handing a $4,750 gun over to the enemy.
Team Spirit will continue to fight for 8,750 Regional Major Rankings points and $100,000 in the StarLadder CIS RMR. The four finalists are Team Spirit, Natus Vincere, Gambit, and Virtus.pro.
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