BLAST Premier Bounty S2, GRAND FINAL – Team Spirit vs The MongolZ
Hey, Hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Show me. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, you feel me? Heat up Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] 32 teams entered the blast bounty, desperately battling to claim their spot on land. That 32 down to just 16. 16 down to eight. Those eight joining us here in Malta to whittle that number down to just four. At every single round, the bounty hunters attempted to claw down Counterstrike’s most wanted. But for the most part, to no avail. This season, Mike, it’s been all about the big names. The biggest of those names, though, our top seeds and Vitality and Maus could not live to seat the final day. Instead, they’ll have to watch as our two finalists vi to claim this blast bounty trophy. For Team Spirit, it would not only mean back-to- back trophies, not only affirm that their first roster move was indeed the right call, but also prove that any rumors of a second is not enough to shake Spirit’s insatiable hunger for victory. For the Mongols, it would announce their arrival at the top of Counter Strike, show that Austin was no fluke, and that this young team from a far-flung region too long forgotten is here not just to participate, but to triumph. All that remains is to see which team is going to claim this trophy. This is the culmination of the blast bounty and this is what every single team has been fighting for. Myself, Ferris Beers, VU, and Maui are going to be joining you guys to find out who is going to be taking home the trophy tonight. I don’t know about you, Maui, but there’s just something about waking up on Championship Sunday just gets me going differently. I mean, can you even name a better Sunday? I’m so glad that we’re blessed in Counter-Strike to have so many Championship Sundays, and I hope that this one delivers like so many before it. It’s gonna deliver. It’s gonna deliver. There’s no There’s no possibility that this doesn’t deliver. I’ve guarantee you’ve dressed for the occasion as well. Like you you’re looking very smart. I don’t know if I’ve seen you in a place before. I tried my best. I think I wore one that was way too large last time. Frequently happens for the first time. Yeah. We’re going to be diving into a lot of stuff in this pre-show today, but I think we should start by kind of looking at the uh you know outward picture a little bit because uh Maui, there’s obviously been massive update coming. I say massive and there’s been an update to the CT side coming into uh the start of the season. Maybe for the viewers at home that aren’t so familiar, can you give a kind of a brief TLDDR of what was changed uh in that mix? Sure. Let’s dive into it. I feel like the implications of the latest Valve update have been felt. They’ve reverberated through. We’ve seen that Valve added a $50 killreward bonus for every kill that the CTS get, but it’s spread across all of the players that are on the defensive side. So, we’re just seeing a lot more money into the pockets of those defenders. Yeah, they had the incendiary buff as well that was maybe a slight increase. Then you had the MP9 slight nerf. But really what we’re seeing is the impacts of this change, which is that the CT sides are dominant. The CT sides are more dominant than you could ever possibly imagine for a $50 killreward bonus. I guess it’s actually 250 though if you think about it. Yeah. I mean, if if you’re getting all that max out, right? Uh before we dive into how exactly that has changed when you guys saw this update announced, what did you make of it? Did you think there was going to be a massive shift in uh in the CT meta? I made a video immediately that was just CT side is saved. I I I day one I played with it. I felt, oh my gosh, you are buying better rifles, more utility, quicker on the CT side, and you’re also patting your lead when you’re in when you’re advantage, when you’re winning a couple rounds in a row, streaking them, then you get such a buff in terms of what you’re able to buy later in the half. If you lose one round, it doesn’t feel nearly as bad. The reset doesn’t hit quite as hard. The problem that you’ve generally had is that you lose pistol round as a CT, the T’s have a better buy. But now you can lose piss round. You get two or three or four kills and then all of a sudden you have a decent buy as the CDs, you can get something done and you know you don’t have this problem where the the T’s despite forcing on round two have better buys, but you also build the economy throughout the half. It’s it’s not getting chipped down with these terrible Mac 10 gal tech 9 forces that we see all the time. You’re not getting chipped down and then just losing rounds because you have no guns. Well, we’ve seen a lot of teams feeling the wrath of this update. So, let’s check in with Apex to see what he’s thinking of this most recent change. I’m curious to get your thoughts overall. We’ve seen the the effect of the new CT economy. It feels like we’re getting a lot of CT rounds statistically both here in Bounty and at Cologne. Do you think it swung a little bit too far to the defense? How do you feel about the changes? I think changes are always good and uh it’s uh what we need in the game like having small changes that balance the game. The game was a bit more T side, now it’s a bit more city side. So, we will need to find ways to get better on T side now. And I think that’s uh that’s what makes CS really really fun to play is that it’s always change even though people think that it never change because it’s the same maps all over again but like the small details change. So do think for example why we will with a small um update we change from having t maps to city maps. So yeah I think it’s fun and I just uh we’ll see how it goes in the next few few weeks month if it more going to get more balanced or not. some small details amounting to some massive changes. Uh tell me the story of some of these numbers we see on the screen. I mean, this has just swung so far in the other direction. Before the update, it felt like or I feel like it was five maybe six of the maps were actually lightly T-sided with a couple actually being very lopsided towards the T-side. Now, we’re getting at the Blast Bounty playoffs. Six of the seven maps are quite CTsighted and to the point where the discussion has actually gone to say that this is too imbalanced. It’s too CTIDed. I for one, I like it. I like when we have a CT focused meta, one where the defense does have the advantage because it forces teams now on the offense to really have good strategies, good good if you’re not putting together a layered default one with good map control, then you’re not being rewarded. Okay, we’re not seeing these scrappy buys. We’re winning nearly as much. If you have a a bad idea, it does not go unpunished. I mean, I was talking about this for the majority of CS2. The MP9 has been completely broken, but nobody tell Valve because it was the only thing saving the CT economy, saving the CTS from having just completely run over. You had Anubis in the map pool. Every map was looking T-sided for quite a while. This is the type of change. Look, maybe it’s overdone. You could argue at least based on these win rates which I think should adjust back but at the same time it’s been too long since we had a CT side meta which is the way the game is created. The CTs should have a an advantage on the maps. The T’s can kind of slowly chip away at their economy. They can get the bomb plants. They can get kills. They can slowly get their way back into a half. When a when an economy is T-sided, when a game is T-sided, it just feels too swingy. It’s too easy. And I was talking to Thoren just the other day about this, okay? and he he was working all the majors back in 2014 and Launders has cited that 2014 era being too CTIDed. But when talking to Thoren the esports historian, he said nobody was complaining about that kind of stuff. It just was the fact of the matter that you had to work very hard to make sure that you breach those kinds of defenses that if you h if you assemble a good crossfire, it shouldn’t feel as bad as it did early on in CS2. Now that things feel right. It feels like you really just have to earn these kinds of moments. And yeah, we’re seeing a lot of CT side comebacks, but that’s what makes it even more exciting when you get that singular big clutch on that T-side. When you get that great well put together strategy instead of just seeing what we had been for the first two years of CS2, which is just yeah, just just run at them over and over again. Gal, tech 9, doesn’t matter. Throw a couple flashes. Now you have to really split these bomb sites very well. And that’s why it’s been so rewarding to see some of these great calls from people like Blitz, from people like Chopper in the tail ends of an offense. I totally agree with you because like two of the most exciting and interesting maps we’ve seen. Obviously the one cited here on screen, Mongols versus Vitality yesterday on Inferno, but also uh the Aurora series 2 that was just uh some mind-boggling Counter-Strike going down and it’s massively down uh to the CT meta. I’m willing to accept that when one team just dominates one half and the other team dominates the other half, that can be a little bit boring at times, especially if you expect to see it coming. You know it’s actually going to happen. And maybe we’re looking at this event, the CT side has been a little bit too strong, but it has made for some extremely close and important clutches. We saw the Zyu clutch yesterday that was just such an a pivotal clutch on a potential comeback. I don’t think it’s going to stay this CT side though. I think it’s going to come back a little bit down. Teams are going to realize, as you’re saying, you need to have better executes. You can’t go for these kind of halfbaked force spies. You can’t chip away at the economy the same way. You have to actually play coordinated CS. I think that’s good for the game. I I don’t want to see teams anymore just buying two hero rifles, one smoke, one flash, and just doing the most basic strategy ever. I want to see people actually save and just realize, okay, they got to bite the bullet, say, doesn’t really matter about the economic damage anymore. We just need to make sure we have five rifles because when we switch to overtime, T’s are winning pretty well. They’re winning one round. We’re not seeing these CT blowouts over and over again once it hits OT. It’s just that so frequently when we’re watching these regulation matches, I think teams are a little bit lazy right now where they’re just thinking, “Yeah, if we just scrap together a buy, we’ll break their economy eventually.” It’s not that easy to break econ anymore. You’ve somewhat answered my follow-up question, but it doesn’t sound like you guys then want any changes to be made in game. This is all about teams adapting to the meta in front of them. Give it a little bit more time. I think Valve has done a good job in their history. Give it plenty of time. Make a small tweak. $50 kill reward doesn’t seem like a whole lot. It’s such a small tweak. It makes a big difference. Let it adjust, let the meta adjust, and then move back. Think about it in a month or two. We’ve seen that the amount of money that the teams also get from these reward bonuses kind of scales to around 2,000 to 2,200 per person for an entire half. That to me is it’s a it’s a it’s a nice little boat boost. It’s a nice little bonus, but it doesn’t feel groundbreaking just yet. I mean, what’s that, you know, a couple, you know, 10 more flashes per person, per half. And what I’m what I’m seeing and liking more out of it is that there’s more support utility. There’s more plays being drawn up by the CTs. They’re getting a little bit more aggressive because they have that extra flash to push down ramp on ancient. I like that they’re getting in the faces of the TE’s more instead of just playing on their heels and saying, “Oh god, do we just gamble now?” And and I I’d rather them take the onus to, you know, take the fight to them. Talking about getting in the face of your opponent, we’ve got some takeaways in terms of some of the interesting matches we’ve saw go down throughout the duration of the past two weeks. G2 massively stands out because they were one of the only teams that just straight up had the balls to be picking into a really formidable force that we see in this grand final. G2 versus Spirit. What was your take away from that matchup? I mean that’s why G2 has a lot of fans. They make plays like that. They make picks like that. They do confidence things like that. And when it comes to G2, they keep in mind they lost Monacey and Nico. It was one of the biggest all-time biggest fumbles from an or but they made a couple of smart gamles. They got heavy gods since then. They’ve got Malbs obviously beforehand. They’ve picked up Matis. They’ve got lots of things going for them. I think Hunter as an IGL could work out. I I really like the way the team is playing, especially Maui Snakes mentioned it a few times. The best move of the offseason picking up Saw. That’s one of the best moves of the offse because they it puts their T- sides together. They still have to figure out Sun Pas. I think he’s a bit of a weak spot. He has to hit his level. We still have to the question mark with Hunter’s igelling. But I think I really like what we saw from G2 against AmIgga and what we saw from G2 against Spirit in the game as well as the pick. A lot of people were really saying some hurtful words to Pza, the GM of G2, for quite some time as well. How’d you let this guy go away? How’d you let that guy? Why’d you sign that guy? Maybe I was one of them at times, but I’m liking what I’m getting from this G2 here. I I really like the Saw move. I think Sunpiest will eventually get things together. And Hunter needed to become an IGL by now. Like he was too frequently calling. Like if you’re calling the CT sides already and the pistols for both half, aren’t you calling twothirds of the game already? Just take that last step. I love this next point, Maui, because uh we finally get something positive to say about Team Liquid. Sure, you look at the context. It’s a loss, but it’s a very close loss versus Vitality. It’s an eye test win despite the results loss. Those are the kinds of pirick losses, I suppose, that actually works. They make sense for me in some way. Okay. I I like that Liquid is delving more deeply into their strat book. Some of the ways that they were dispatching of Vitality, especially on Nuke, just it it actually gave me a little bit of pride. I was actually getting kind of excited for this team. I haven’t been excited for Liquid for a very long time, but I actually saw that and I was thinking they can win this. And I it felt like they could win this. They had a match. I think they had a map point at least on Nuke. And honestly, Shuhei, it it feels like he’s been done dirty because so many of the players that are on his team, Nap’s not performing as the way he was he was before. Nerz isn’t performing the way he was before. But it finally felt like they were activated. And I feel like Flash’s inclusion to this roster has to be the biggest differencemaker to come from the School of Blade on Na’Vi to now bring a modernized stratbook to the table. It’s giving Shuhi the tactics to enable all of his players. I think the key is that they actually look like a team. When you saw Twist leading this team, they looked like a a group of players that had pretty good round opens, a few good finishes, a few good mid rounds, but they weren’t a team. They didn’t work together very effectively. Now they’re actually working together like a team, but in true Liquid fashion, they nearly get a map off Vitality and Vitality goes and loses and everyone questions, was that really Liquid or or was that Vitality? And I think I’m still happy with Liquid, but they need to prove it in their next matchup. Well, let’s check in with what happened yesterday. We can bring up the schedule of our semi-finals that did indeed go down on Saturday. Two uh quite uh close affairs when we’re looking at this. Maus versus Spirit. Mongols versus Vitality. We’re going to be recapping them after this short break. [Music] We’re here with the famed Team Vitality Brit, and you’re going to be taking us through your settings. Uh we’re also using the brand new Asus RG 600 Hz monitor.1 millisecond response time. So let’s check it out. What’s the first thing you do when you sit down at a PC? First thing is probably the Nvidia like always put full screen here. Keep the herz 600 whatever it’s set at. And then color settings. I never change the bright brightness and the contrast. Keep the same and change everything else like the brightness and the feeling on the the monitor afterwards. Digital vibrance I usually put around 75%. Orange boy. Yeah, I like it. pretty colorful. So sometimes like even put it up to 100 and then all this kind of stuff. This is out of my realm. I kind of keep the 3D settings the same and and then for the the monitor settings like I say the brightness I try and keep it quite low like I keep this around 65 and the contrast the same. I will change the blue light filter zero and then the color 5,000 and then saturation I’ll put up a little bit as well to like 60. And then the gamma I think it’s 1.8. So, it like brings the brightness up a little bit as well. Shadow boost. Uh, actually keep it level one. And then we’re we’re good to go for the the monitor settings. And then I’ll usually go in game now and then just see like how it kind of feels. Yeah. You got some binds I’ve heard. Yeah. I can change sensitivity. I use 2.2. 400 DPI. 400 DPI. 2. Have you gone up or have you gone down? Yeah. I was at 1.8. It’s hard to do on CS2. I felt like you need higher sense. Yeah. I think if I felt like if I could get used to a bit of a higher sense then it would just benefit me. Let’s go video settings. Um of course always full screen 43 128 960 feels good even though it’s fast. Always stretch sometimes black bars for a couple practice games or a death match session. It feels a bit different and then after that like go back to stretch and it just feels like I’m playing a new game. All of a sudden you you feel so fast like your aim feels crisp and I don’t know like for me just a huge refresh in the game. And look at those hertz. Yeah. 600 Hz. More Hz better, right? Yeah. You always got to max it out. Brightness stays at 93% for me. All right, let’s take us into advanced video settings. This one is always debated. Yeah. Do you have anything special? Any any tips here for getting the most out of it? I always put it like at maximum FS0. Just try and get the most, especially when you’re using like the 600 Hz. Nice to just max out the FPS. Keep 4x high. Like the top I keep all default. And then the texture filter I max out to 16. I think this one you’ve always got to keep high. Like CS GO you could still have them like medium or low and still see shadows pretty well, but in CS2 like you clearly see the difference. Got to still make the game look good, especially playing 1289 CSA. Get the wins where you can. This was a CS setup brought to you by ASUS. So, thank you very much, Mezzi. And best of luck in Blast Bounty. Thank you. [Music] The final four took to this very stage yesterday. Half of which were unfortunately sent packing. Let’s talk about our first semi-final that went down on this very stage. That was Mau taking on Spirit, which if I’m going to be real, Maui, I thought that was going to be a more competitive affair. I thought we were almost guaranteed three maps. Then the Maus collapse happened. You’d think Mau want a taste of revenge. Unfortunately, to me, this looked even worse than the Cologne Grand Finals. I I I couldn’t really stand to see how they fell apart in map two. Map one was a close affair. It kind of baited us into thinking, “Okay, this has got some juice to it.” But in reality, it was Spirit just taking the wheel and never letting go. Yeah, the the one player I have to point out is Jimmy. Not that he’s the worst player on the team. Not that he’s the only reason they’re having problems. I think there was a lot of issues, but the reality is 2024, Jimmy was one of the breakout players of the year. He’s one of the most interesting players, best anchors out there. You come into 2025, he’s having a bit of a downswing. And that downswing has continued. And when we look at that series, there were several times, I think he activated in the first map in overtime, but in regulation, he really struggled. You go into the second map, he really struggles again. And he’s been a target for Spirit in the Cologne Grand Finals, they attacked his sight over and over and over, and he just faltered. He fell. and and we need to see more from Jimmy if we want a mouse that can elevate themselves from third best in the world right now, maybe arguably fourth. And it’s such a shame, right? Particularly when we’re looking at Jimmy and his performance and kind of the rocky road he’s been on this year because we were talking about it last year was incredible for him in terms of like just his role as well. He was one of the best in all of Counter-Strike to be doing it in terms of production versus resources that he’s given. He was near the top of the list. I mean, never, very rarely is he set up to actually have the success that he had last year. He’s doing so much with so few resources, sometimes just isolated on the other side of the map. Gets two kills, changes the face of a round entirely. He was their lifesaver in a lot of ways. But this time around, he’s unfortunately causing them to sink more than swim. Speaking of changing face, uh the Mongols finally finally able to take down Vitality. It had been a lot of attempts, let’s just say that. And it happened here in one of the most high pressure situations you can be under for the Mongols. Nobody beats Mongols 10 times in a row, I believe is the saying. But yeah, this is one of the more high high octane high pressure moments for them. You can see they they had the quote. They had the quote. This is the the Na’vi quote had this as well. You can’t beat Mongols 10 times in a row. GG something apex. But yeah, this is this is Mongols the way you want to see them. They’re coming into a semi-final. They show up. They’re fragging out. But the question really is where does Vitality go from here? Vitality are in a very precarious position where it feels like if they take one wrong step forward, it they could just continue to decline, but I feel like they’re going to recover this. I I feel like the pedigree of the players speaks for itself. There are major winners amongst them, multi-time major winners. In fact, many of them. So for Vitality now, they’ve got to recover. They can’t be bringing their C game. I that’s that’s what I feel like I felt like I saw in many of the rounds yesterday. Maybe in composite they were at their B game, but Robs talked about this yesterday in their losers interview just the fact that what was their B game before could still win tournaments, but now their B game just kind of gets them into the semi-finals. So they got to either find a way to bring it all back and for the team that was the most airtight of the first season, they got to make sure that they plug those holes. Apex was taking a lot of the blame upon himself. He says, you know, bad calls. Obviously, he was trying to pull off some heroic plays uh in that second half of Inferno, which almost pushed things to the limit for the Mongols, but uh yeah, just not enough for them. Odess to 2019 Liquid. The player break has taken another victim. Vitality has fallen off. I I have a feeling that they should bounce back. I don’t think they’re going to fall off the face of the earth, but I don’t I’m not sure we’re going to see the same vitality because this vitality we saw on the server, not only are we seeing the B, sometimes even the C game at times, but they’re not playing together as a team. And if they can’t solve this, I’ll give them one more event before I’m kind of thinking that the era is over because they just weren’t again, they’re not together as a team and they’re calling it out. They’re calling it out in the middle of the games and nobody’s nobody’s really fixing it. Prestige events fix all. If if Vitality win the second major of the year, it’s we’ve been in this era the whole time. It’s just that it’s in a dormant period for the era right now. We never really knew when the astrralles era was ending until they reminded us at another major that they’ve got it still. So that’s the state that I find vitality in. Either way, there were a lot of frustrations understandably so going down in the vitality camp yesterday. So let’s recap them in this mic moment. Nice try. Yeah, but with your smoke city, Mat, you missed it. So I didn’t know. I wanted to smoke it for you and but you didn’t think you said you smoke city. Okay guys, guys. The speed is explosive. We need to run on his face. I said that. You take your knife and you run. We know 910 is holding long all the time, guys. Yeah, we got flash in our face. We got flash in the way we run. We didn’t run on running on him like Okay. We were kind of torn when we initially heard those coms. Myself and Mari were siding on the air of, you know, maybe not the most appropriate time to be doubling down on mistakes. Sure, you can cite them, but then kind of revisiting them. Vu, you’re in a completely different camp. In the first clip, I’ll admit he he says the smoke missed. Zyu says, “I meant the smoke default yada yada.” And then Apex comes back and says something. That’s you shouldn’t have that re ret talk. You shouldn’t have the second point on it. The second one, that one’s normal to me. That’s round four of a game. Even if you’re not going to return to that strat, you have to say, “Guys, you’re not running the strat the way we know how to run the strat.” Certainly, they’ve run that strat in practice. They know how that strat should be run. So, I think that’s completely reasonable. Apex takes a time there. He sits. He says, “Guys, this is how the strat should be run. It doesn’t matter. You just need to run it that way.” They defend themselves. They say, “Okay, it was flash.” And Apex drops it. The fact that he drops it, if he’s not tilting for the rest of it, it’s not happening all the time. This is nothing. This is nothing. This is very standard. I’m going to need to listen to the entire 45 minutes of palms before I have a full take on this one. I I don’t think that negative reinforcement in the moment is really the most effective way to move to the next round. However, I I get Vu’s point in the when adding nuance to this discussion that yes, you can remind people that we’ve run these strats before. We should know what we’re doing and then I would just immediately want to move on to the next call. If I’m if I’m a teammate or if I’m a leader, I’m trying to just think of what’s the next plan so that we don’t have to keep living in the past. Yeah, you don’t want to be wasting the time uh revisiting issues that have ultimately already happened. I think something that we can all agree on though, honeymoon is over vitality. I mean, they are no longer in Bermuda. They are no longer in Italy. They are they are right now back at home, you know, three-bedroom apartment just like turning on the TV after work and then they’re just hoping things work out right now. They need to get back and they need to find a way to just reinvigorate themselves. And I hope that the hunger to continue their era puts them back on the right track. The question is always, how do these great teams deal with the loss? We saw when Liquid had their quote unquote era in 2019, they dealt with a loss, went into the player break. H they didn’t deal with the loss. They just never came back in the same way. You look at Vitality, they they had a great honeymoon, 6 months. Is that even a honeymoon at that point? But the honeymoon ends when you lose. And now they need to find a way to bounce back from that. And they I mean, this is two semi-finals in a row. They’re still doing fine. teams, but how they doesn’t really are we going to deal with this loss? How are we going to deal with not just destroying everyone every game? Well, when you put it in that context, right, it might sound like we’re exaggerating it, but we’ve been so used to Vitality just being the unforidable force throughout the first stage of 2025. Maui said he does have faith that they will bounce back. Do you have faith, Lou? I’m 50/50. I I I wouldn’t say I have How many trophies this season, Vu? How many trophies is Vitality gonna hoist? Let’s say Okay, two. So, they’re not gonna get to that. Isn’t that bad? Isn’t that gonna make it back? Does that make it back for you? That’s I mean, that’s Vitality that had a 30 map series. That’s Vitality. We’re talking about being arguably the best team of all time. That’s Vitality. We’re talking about can they can they be a Strralis? This two two trophies this season. That’s a loss for them. No, I don’t I don’t Well, if it’s just one If it’s just one, it’s the major that they’re back for. It’s not the major. That That’s what matters the most to me. But Apex 10. He said he wanted 10 total. So that’s looking shaky. That That one’s looking shaky. Yeah, a little bit risky. Um either way, let’s dive into Nova Shots.io. Uh the game that you guys can play for free at home as well. Um obviously two teams remain. We’ve made we made some decent bank Maui. Let’s have a look at uh what the uh charts are saying. Okay. So there was a peak in Mongols. I understand that overnight. Yeah. I mean everybody’s buying into that after the uh Vitality win. Damn. That’s like Nvidia. Okay. Sure. Uh right. Yeah. I mean, what do we got? Oh, Mongols are so cheap. I love a good deal. I love a good deal. I might have to do that. I might have. Does our accountant agree? I’m liking Mongols. I’m liking Mongols. I think it’s I’m upgrading them to a definitely buy. Wow. Wow. They’re in the He’s got to do it. He’s got to do it. So, all in. Okay, let’s do it. Transaction is confirmed and that is locked and loaded. We like being a little risky here. We like a little risk, don’t we? Well, either way, we do need to head things to a short break before our grand final can get underway. A best of five awaits. After this, the Mongols taking on Spirit. [Music] We’re here in Malta, Mi, Maui, Scranny, and our goal today is to have the best day ever. Just north of Africa, just west of Italy. Man, what a place it is. My love as of late is golfing. So, we’re starting here at the Royal Malta Golf Club. So, how we decide who goes first? We’re going to play the hesitation game. Three, two, one. Vegetables, celery, carrots, potatoes, parsley. Damn it. I was going to say celery. I was going to say celery. That went high and right. Yeah. It was pretty nice though. Right on. Tyho. Oh, yeah. I didn’t see where your ball went. Some Somewhere around here, I’m pretty sure. Like in these trees, I think. Oh, you just walked by it. [Music] Oh, yeah. Nice. Mickelson for birdie. Nice. That was good. When I tell you guys, this is the perfect start to the best day ever. We’re here at Rampila Restaurant in downtown Valetta. We want to get into the best day ever in Malta and you got to have one of the best meals ever. We got a very traditional Maltese dish here in rabbit. They really exploded in popularity when the Romans came over because Romans, they actually think if women eat rabbit, they’ll become more beautiful. Cool. Let’s eat. Bone appetite, fellas. I think we all get one ravioli each. You know what? I’m grabbing two. Hey, we’re in Malta. Am I right? I’ve never seen that happen in my life. I think you’ll be grabbing one now. The Maltese eat more rabbit per person than any other European nation. It’s actually like a more flavorful chicken thigh. Yep. Yeah. Wow. Delicious. Another hit. I think I’ll go for two. So, it’s been a wonderful day, but I thought we would end the day, gentlemen, with a little bit more violence, a little accuracy. You know, things that uh really embody Counter Strike, a little bit of archery. We’ve got plenty of targets. Well, then I’m going for the goat. Obviously, a delicacy. Goodbye. Simple. Archa’s ready. [Music] Oh, you’re shooting lasers. What if I get the otter on top? Make it happen. [Music] Oh, damn. Head shot. Bullseye on the goat. Goat for dinner. Unfortunately, all great things have to come to an end. I had a blast from start to finish. Who knew going outside could be so much fun? Yeah, this was a perfect day. already claiming one trophy post summer break and now within touching distance of a second spirit return to the Malta studio for one last marathon a best of five is all that separates them from the title and for a change they’re going to have to face a somewhat unfamiliar opponent that team is the Mongols who have been on a steady rise throughout 2025 of course uh punctuated by a historic major run which netted them second place which does mean Maui trophies still somewhat evading the Mongols but now this could be a chance to course correct respect y’all compass respect underpick world championship for the Mongols they obviously want to live a more prestigious title okay they’re setting the their sights here in front of us at this cobalt blue trophy and I feel like right now the the journey that the Mongols has been on is really it’s been a it’s been a heartthrob it’s been just it’s captured our attention from an underserved region to now competing at the world’s most competitive stage. These guys are playing face it games with 170 ping from home just to even be here right now. So don’t talk about, oh my god, I’m lagging. I can’t shoot him, okay? Like these guys have had every excuse in the book and they’ve let none of it slow them down. Mongols have have continued to surprise and impress. Every time they hit a new level, we think, is this it for them? Have they hit their ceiling? Are they not going to be able to go from here? Because they come from a small scene. Where where can they go if they need to replace a player? Where can they upgrade a player? Typically, you you have a team, you plateau, and you just find your worst player, kick them out, and pick up a new player. Mongols can’t do that. They don’t want to do that. And so, it’s so impressive when they keep getting better and better and better. And we talk about them getting better. That betterness happened just yesterday because we were kind of prefacing before going into that semi-final. Okay, great results for the Mongols, but there’s always been this kind of consistent ceiling for them. They managed to punch through that just yesterday. We had not seen the Mongols take down a top three team for the year. And so yesterday, shedding their demons, taking down a vitality team, some of the individuals playing incredible form. The Mongols right now are crafting, they’re they’re they’re brewing this perfect storm of great individual play along with team tactics that are on the macro level, sometimes actually outsmarting some of the best teams in that European CS has to offer. And when it comes to it, Mongols have their own style. I think that’s what makes them so interesting. They don’t necessarily follow the men on every map. They don’t necessarily play out 5v4s in the most fundamentally sound way the way we think of it, but they play their own style. They do it extremely well, and you love to see it succeed when they’re not just trying to replicate what Vitality are doing or some other top team. Just one more point on that matter. Sure, taking down Vitality is one thing. Does that make them a true contender yet? I think they still need to prove it. I think beating Vitality is a huge step forward, especially in terms of confidence. I thought it was a huge step forward. The way they took down Aurora, coming back from 111 down, 110 down. You know, I think they’ve done a lot to prove themselves as getting to the next level, but this is still one step in a a journey that they require a couple more steps to me really thinking. When you look at the other teams, I mean, you’ve got Spirit, they’ve won a trophy. You’ve got Mau, they’ve been contenders for so long. It’s hard to put Mongols there unless they can win a a a game like this. And there’s going to be a couple of key pieces that need to show up today. A man who’s been doing a hell of a lot of work so far. Blitz, the fragging in-game leader, right? We we we can say that now. Oh, yeah. Without a doubt. Actually, I don’t see an in-game leader right now, Vu, that is a better fragging in-game leader in general. Blitz’s approach. It’s methodical. It’s well drilled. He plays around utility incredibly well. And on top of that, he’s making great reads. What if I counter you with Jame? Okay. Feel like he’s a little bit out of the running today in 2025. I think you’re right. I think Blitz is the best fragging IGL we’ve got here. I’ll bring you back to the Aurora game again. Blitz carried his team to victory in that matchup. You don’t see other IGL’s do that. When we talk about fragging IGL’s, we’re talking about an IGL that can put up a 0.95 rating. We’re talking about an IGL that can have one good performance once in a while. Blitz is routinely pulling off these great performances and the other IGL on the other side of the server has to call and now he has to keep up fragging wise, too. Well, I think it’s only right that we get some words from Techno on this exact matter. Blitz was humble when I asked him, but do you think he’s one of the best fragging IGLs? Of course, surely he is. Is he the best? Yes, of course. I have been with him around like five or six years together and he’s the best deal. Yeah. Techno seal of approval. What more could you want, Maui? I mean, you could want the brotherhood that those two guys have. I mean, the the five, six years that they’ve been playing together back on the checkmate roster when it was just a Mongolian lineup that no one really ever heard of. They’ve gone through absolutely everything. I think they’ve gone through three organizations together. and to see his brother in arms truly just get to this height. I Techno has to be his right-hand man for this entire time. And really, I just can’t underemphasize the the story that these guys have had of just really being a no-name team where there’s all these legendary Mongolian players that like Zilkenberg and like they they went through so much to even get here and it’s basically off of the back of Blitz just seeing the game in a way that not many people saw it in his region. Somebody else that obviously has to be showing up for the Mongols is Senzu. A man that we’ve had question marks about in terms of when we make it onto these big stages and actually delivering in playoffs, right? When you hear about when you hear Mongols talk about themselves, one of the things they talk about is their coaching. They talk about their IGL and they talk about Senzu’s fragging. I think Senzu is really one of the I wouldn’t say unsung heroes. I think he’s one of the most impressive players out there that we’ve we’ve seen. And I I see him with the OP. When he goes for the double OP, I think that’s where Mongols are at their best when you see Senzu with that OP in hand. dust two CT side makes them incredibly dangerous. He gives them a different look. Whereas I think most of the time you have other players pick up a secondary OP. They’re not very dynamic with it. They’re not good opers. You have Donk pick up the OP. He’s he can hit the shots, but I don’t think it’s the same as when you see Senzu go for the double OP. The problem with Senzu that we’ve had is that he seems to have one of the most fatal Achilles heals in tier 1 CS that in group stages he’s a beast. This guy’s got laser sharp aim. He takes any fight that he wants to. He’s winning it versus the most elite rifers in the world. But when he gets to the big stages, we’ve seen him crumble time and time again. At the Austin playoffs, it felt like he shed his demons. Cologne though, they came right on back. So to see him play as well as he did versus Vitality. There’s proof that this guy can hold his own versus these teams. But you don’t always know daytoday, is it going to be the same Senzu? Let’s talk about the primary opera on the Mongol side of the equation then. How happy have you been with uh 910 and what he’s been showing here? I would say that 910 has had metronomic consistency. He is just on a beat every single time. His reads are incredibly strong. He’s moving around the map exactly where he needs to be. Maybe on the T side, he’s not always giving it, but as a defensive player, this guy is the backbone of their roster. When you look at it, he’s not got the same stats as Senzu, but I actually would argue he most of the time has more impact than Senzu. Some of their defenses actually just rely completely on 910 being in the right place at the right time. He’s the backbone of the defense. But he’s not only that. He’s getting aggressive. He’s getting entries. He’s going for the repeats. And he can pick up a rifle as well. He’s one of the more dynamic CT side rifling operas, too. He’s he’s such an important part of this this team that I think sometimes gets overlooked. Okay. So, maybe a little bit of a different vibe when we’re comparing him to the opera that awaits on the other side. Shurro, you know, known to be a little bit more passive, playing those late round situations. Shirou is just an artist in the clutch. Late round situation. There is nobody on planet Earth I trust more than to close out a 1v one, a 1v2. The numbers show it. The eye test shows it. He could have any weapon in his hands. Doesn’t matter if it’s Tech 9, AK or an OP. He’s going to get he’s going to deliver. And he’s been a big reason for the despite the fact they have one of the most explosive openers. It’s been Shurou that’s been there at the tail end of so many rounds including the final round of the major final. He he held it together on the biggest of stages. Let’s get nerdy for a second, Vu, because you’ve been diving into some of the numbers in terms of uh the changes or the impact that this most recent update has been having to the ORP and how often we’re getting to see it in game. Yeah. So, we looked at the stats and one of the things we’ve noticed in the last month, if you compare it to the last 6 months, these opers are generally getting the OP in their hand about 6% more, which is based on the economy update. It It’s surprising though. That’s, you know, 1 in 10, 1 in 15, 18 rounds. You’re actually getting the OP in their hands. But when it comes back to Shirou, my most impressed part of Shirou this season is his rifling. Actually, he’s been getting the rifle in his hands. He’s been actually statistically better on CT sides with the rifle than with the OP in the last few months. Shirou, it’s crazy actually how he continues to improve as a player. But when you actually look at him in this season, you’re looking at a Shiro that maybe maybe the eye test is actually showing that he’s continuing to evolve that he came out with Gambit C9 back in the day. Now he’s continuing forward. He’s on this team. Everyone thinks of Donk, but Shirou is the second star there and he’s trying to buy for first. Shurou really is the three-eyed raven of Counterstrike. Okay, not in terms of just clutching in the server, but in terms of making good roster moves for himself, perceiving that Cloud9 was on the downtrend, that he was going to jump ship to this new young upstart spirit that was supercharged by Donk and a and a veteran IGL in Chopper. Like he he took a big gamble on his career and it’s paid off magnificently. It’s been beautiful to watch the evolution of Shirou. Just looking at the context for this particular game as well. Of course, so much pressure going into a grand final. But if we’re looking at the live VRS, Spirit are now number one. If they lose this though, they will actually drop below Vitality, right? I think that’s what the the numbers indicate. Yes. Yeah. I I feel like when you’re near that top right there, you’re just trying to stay in that sort of pole position if you’re able to secure that. Obviously, all the implications of all of these tournaments is that it’s about qualification to the major. So Spirit right now and Mongols for that matter are both in great great positions, but there could be some movement at the top. I really want to start a fight up here and I’m sorry to do this, but uh we obviously have to talk about Donk. Is Donk number one coming out of this year? Obviously. Obviously. Indisputably indisputably. Indisputably I feel like you look at Vitality’s run of seven events winning MVP at all of them and I can’t ignore that entirely. I can’t say indisputably that it’s okay. Why? Why? Because Donk is he is a generational more than a generational player. We’ve never seen a rifler like Donk. And the fact that you have Donk getting better every year. He’s better this year than he was last year. And last year he was already the best player in the world. Players are constantly learning from him. You you talk to any player. You hear Nico talking about it. You hear the best players in the world. We try to learn from Donk. We’re picking up. Oh, I’m trying to add his movement into my game. trying to be more active, more proactive. You You know Donk when he’s on the server. You see him, you could have name tags off, you still know it’s Donk. He’s just too good. He’s just too good. Donk is really on such another level. Okay. Even though I right now I’m still debating in my own head between the Donk Zyu for number one of the year. I would concur with with Vu that Donk is the best player in the world today. Okay. Achievement and how you’re doing for the year does slightly differ from that though. just uh tell me very quickly uh you’ve been diving into some of the numbers about you know Donk getting his hands on the AK. What what’s the story there? I mean thank thanks to Bram for this one. This is a crazy stat. Okay. I couldn’t believe that Donk has an AK in his hand for over half of the rounds on the CT side. Like Spirit make it a point to get an AK in his hands. And when he does start a round with an AK in his hands, they were winning 77% of their CT round. It is that those are just absurd numbers and they add to the the gravitas of of how meteoric the rise of this guy is. Like he is changing the game on his and you’re saying Z was better and you’re going to tell me Z was better. I didn’t say he’s better. I said I said the greatest player today is Don7. I’m grading there a year though. That’s a different conversation. My conversation starts and ends Donk is better. Donk is the best. Well, I do need to diffuse this argument as it is time to find out our maps will be playing in this best of five. Of course, when it comes to a best of five, it’s much more about the order in which some of these maps will be played. My biggest question is overpass. Is this something that uh Spirit are going to be willing to pick out a bit earlier, do you think? Given that they have more reps on it recently, I would like to see Spirit pick it maybe in their second phase instead of letting it go to the Decider. In terms of the picks though, I’m a little bit surprised that actually Spirit already go for the nuke early on. And I feel like that is uh I’m actually I’m actually quite surprised because that’s that’s been the one map Mongols has been kind of decent against Vitality on. Yeah, that’s a map that you expect to it’s it’s a best of five. It can’t get banned. You expect it a little bit later. You expect Mirage Dust 2. Those are the two maps you’re always expecting as the first two. That is a map that we talked about in the major final. Mongols banned that against Vitality. You know, this is a map where they beaten Vitality on it though. And I think the reason that we saw they they were moving back from it is because Senzu is quite weak on that map and I think Spirit might have noticed that. Okay. Okay. And then uh well, we got Dustu fourth now. Yes. Okay. That that fell down in the pecking order quite a bit. And fifth map, Overpass. If we get there, it will be the first time that the Mongols play it given its reinduction back into tier 1 CS. I’m pretty excited for this map pool. I’m especially concerned though about what we’ve got on this first one. Nuke is I’m a bit I’m just I’m honestly surprised that Spirit went for it so early. Well, by the way, this is what it’s all been building up to. The blast bounty grand final of finals for Spirit. They’re crafty. They’ve got good individuals. No doubt about Spirit’s form right now. They earn a place to play Spirit. Donk still isn’t missing. Spirit in pole position. Back to back from Cologne. Now into the finals at Bounty. The Mongols have taken it to a new level. Is it really just enough? Oh, of course they’re holding it. Quad kill from 910. Celebration for the Mongols. But there’s a bigger demon that still sits in wait. One more question remains here for us, and it’s a question that’s haunted all of our minds. Will we finally have a wager at the blast bounty? Now, Minino, you’re sitting on a cool $68,000 if I’m not mistaken in the bank. I think Spirit’s sitting on 69. You willing to stake any of that here in this best of five grand final? No, we need money. So, we don’t we don’t They need what they’ve got. Donk, there’s no stake to be had, but I suspect you weren’t going to wager anyway. No, we need to m you. Everybody needs their money. No wager today. Can’t blame him. Uh Mike, the real MVP for attempting every single time to get this this wager underway. But it makes sense when you’re coming into a grand final like this, guys. Your VRS position is quite safe. It’s quite safe here. I think you can blame them. I think you can blame them. Maybe they could have bet everything. They’re they’re they’re static in the VRS. It doesn’t matter that much. Just bet the money for the aura. Maybe next season. Maybe next season, gentlemen. Either way, Nuke, very very exciting start to this best of five. Does this open up room, Maui, in your mind for this to be, you know, potentially going to all five maps now? It it feels like teams have underrated Mongols’s nuke for a bit until Vitality would lost twice in a row on it to them. Now, for Spirit to go for this, I just have to think that Holly and Chopper came up with some neat game plan that’s going to unsee the the defense from that team. I I’m personally very concerned about Mazinho, though, on this map. This is one where I feel like he has such a strong responsibility on ramp. He kind of has been sort of quiet for MVU throughout this tournament thus far. And I feel like Spirit, they don’t mind doing a mid- round ramp hit against him. Yeah, I think Mongols have underrated their own nuke and I think that’s baiting teams into it. I think this could be one where Spirit have a lot of troubles. Mazinho is a name I wanted to bring up because when you look at Nuke for this team last year, Senzu their best player. This year, their worst player statistically on Nuke. He’s the bottom fragger for them on Nuke. So, you need Mazinho, who has been a little quiet this tournament, who is their best player on Nuke. He’s their ramp player. He knows how to get active. He knows when to push. She knows when to leave ramp and maybe stack up or he needs to be able to summon that energy, summon that and and carry this team because this is the map where they need him most. Hal’s got a lot to say before diving into this one. Understandably so. What do you think they have been cooking then to uh be putting it up to the Mongols? I feel like there’s going to be a decent amount of mis misdirection here. If your spirit, you’re not coming into this with some super basic game plan of just defaulting and spreading out. I’m curious about the layered crossmokes that they’re going to have outside. We’ve been seeing teams use sometimes all five of their smokes in around to just cross down towards lower. And so this is really going to test the rotations of the Mongols. But the thing is that the Mongols, they’ve their communication has been seamless. It’s been telepathic. They’ve been so fast at moving around the map when needed to. So I don’t really think that Spirit is going to have as easy of a time as they think they will when they’re crafting this offense. This is a spirit team that I think has made another step this season in that they’ve actually begun really effectively changing their play style based on the team they’re playing against. I think Mao has experienced that where the previous season that Maus could counter Spirit, now Spirit comes in with different looks. I think this is going to be a very different spirit and they have clearly an idea what they want to do in this match. It is time to get the culmination of the blast bounty underway. A best of five grand final. It’s the Mongols versus Team Spirit. The tale of firsts when it comes to the Mongols. First it was breaking into top eights and then it was staying there and then it was slaying the beast that was Vitality. Another first lies ahead of them this evening in a best of five grand finals over Spirit. And for a team that only 24 hours ago finally beat a top three team this year. Can they truly do that now versus another one of what has previously been insurmountable challenges cranked to a 10 in a BO5 series? In terms of Mongols runs in tournaments, this is going to stand above all the rest. Even in this playoffs, having faced off against Aurora and Vitality already and taking them down and not losing a series so far has been really impressive. They would have the hardest run in this playoffs. Taking down Vitality should be a championship if we’re talking about almost every other event this year. And then to have to do it versus Spirit, who now become the number one team because of Mongols. Well, that would be pretty historic to be honest. But with that also a best of five and a first attempt at one. Mhm. And you said, “How often does a team win their first best of five?” And I said, “Well, we have one example of that happening.” And that was when Don joined Spirit over Jame in a studio. Yes, sir. Sort of a small crowd and it was a reverse sweep. It was all kinds of crazy things that you couldn’t expect happening at the same time. But how could we have expected Mongols to have made it to this grand finals in the first place? You know, one of the contrasts I think is worth noting in my mind is when you go back to Cologne and you see Ma defeat their demon in Vitality in playoffs. The celebration was immense, especially knowing that the defeat back in Austin had Torsy so crushed. You said it best last night when the Mongols defeated Vitality. They stood up, looked at one anothers, walked across that stage, and there was no massive jubilation because the job’s not done. They want to take a big piece out of Team Spirit tonight. And they’re going to do it on this a site if they can. Holding back Spirit is the challenge. Don Sway a kill a piece and Sway will come forward as he has throughout this event slowly. The last map we saw him on that Mirage in the semifinals. His best map yet in a Spirit jersey. And Team Spirit will take a quick move into a falling the sight in an instant. They should actually Yeah. win the round off the back of this. Very nice couple of kills from Z. Choppers. This the insurance. Doesn’t even need to fight this right now. Can take his time. Even go for a knife kill if he’d like to. Yep. All right. Round one. That’s great. Get the money at the same time. Right into it. Well, they said they the money and the embarrassment and the power. You know, it sends a message early on. Blitz knows that best. There’s no denying he went for the knife versus Aurora because of the message it sends. Good on Techno to react to that. Was very quick player swinging out wide into him, but a little snap in the flick gets his kill. Good on Zway to follow through. However, it’s kind of crazy cuz Spirit also haven’t lost a series since way he joined. Sure. Just ran through Cologne and yet there’s still questions about how good how much better he can be. For the record, Spirit are 18-1 in their last 19 games. The only loss to Ma back in Austin. Yeah, they’re doing it’s not a it’s not random that they were so close to number one and now are in the number one position. [Music] Nine in the front of Huts. Good for the hold, but Zway’s going to challenge further and get another multi frag. So, two rounds in. Two twoks for Zway and Blitz tries to get aggressive. Costs him. Zeno’s flank found out. Team Spirit looking real quick off the bat in this game. The only thing is with Spirit, you know that changes are coming. That’s sort of like the the the temperature and the mood a little bit is sort of like, well, what happens now? I mean, that might not have been the case at Cologne, right? It’s not to say that like Zantics would come into this game and, you know, not play his hardest and everything like that. In fact, it’s a resume. It’s a resume builder. It’s a really important last message. You might want to try your absolute hardest. But, you know, when I look at these two teams, I just think the Mongols aren’t making a move after this. They’re looking to build their legacy with this five. Yes sir. No, I I thought Vu and Maui Snake had a really good conversation about the actually the difficulties around the Mongols and their roster moves. You have such a limited pool of potential replacements in contrast to international teams, European rosters where we can start getting into second languages and whatnot. This is a team that made a lot of changes quickly back in the day before they took themselves into this top eight form, but now seem very locked in on this roster. And so young, so much potential, so much achievement for such a young team, too. It is, it is amazing from such a small pool of players. That is the Mongolian population of Counter Strike players. They put this team together. Nice one, Mino. Hold on a second. Crossing a minute, losing their ramp lurk. It shoehorns them into this exact the bomb just got spotted. Confirmed cross downstairs, but they have the sight. So, so deep on sight already. Dom slides in. Pops make sure there’s no other prying eyes on the B site. So, Team Spirit off to the races now. 300. And that a Oh, excuse me. It’s a Galil for Techno could still be held if he’s lucky. No way. Chopper gets a second. No. Okay. got eyes on the flank and all looks good for Techno. Racking up some costs finally because the first two rounds went down a little too smooth for the Mongols liking. Culturally, it feels like Nuke is not a map that you warm up on, you know, like in Counterstrike. Like you’d say, well, what’s the difference? You’re going to play it now, you’re going to play it later. But because it’s just so uh so difficult, so punishing, sometimes you leave for the last map of a series, some kind of like an inferno or something or an overpass. And so I was a surprise as they mentioned on the desk to pick it into Mongols who for them it’s a sleeper pick. They don’t pick it but they play it and they’re really good at it. They’re scoring 60 or sorry 80% on CT sides and I think that’s even pre-changes including nuke map. So they’re just very strong at it. This pistol however these two conversions fly in the face of that. It’ll be much harder for the Mongols now. Even if this was a risky first map to choose from Team Spirit, maybe it’s to say you’re not warmed up. Let’s throw you into that CT side quick. And as you’re talking about tactical maps later on, of course, overpass in this series. Makes sense then that we end there if we get there. I’m missing my magics. No, just sitting there like, “Uh, uh, who? Excuse me. It’s time to move on, guys.” That’s what he’s thinking. Yeah, that’s funny. Sitting there like Don’s like, “Hard agree, bro. Hard agree.” Uhoh. Yeah. Burned out, but find Sanctuary and comes back. Okay, that’s a little wild blitz. That smoke was coming back. And then we find Senzu trying to go down that vent, thinking we’ve got to make up for the lost player outer. And you play right into the lying trap of Team Spirit. Five versus three in the first gun round. Hunting the 40 start. T-side nuke in a CT dominant meta. Got to say this is pretty pretty strong round here for Spirit. Ooh, one back for Techno. He’s got a couple of good kills. Stomps the fall back though. So Chopper has all the info and welltime peak. And Zeno and Techno back at it with Chopper chasing what he thought was a stomp back into the A site. He was full confident, but Techno returns for second servings. I’m shocked. I can’t believe they brought back this round. And now it is just Ze with 30 seconds and three guys to find. Four rounds into play, we’ve got ourselves a 3v5 pulled off by the Mongols. And not a 3v5 that’s going to get very competitive at the end. You’d think Zoe has 20 seconds. He can actually try to go to the upper sight now with that kill. And it’s a low health techno. So I take back what I said. This is very much possible. He won’t have time to fake. However, single bullet on Techno and you got space and now that’s all that’s left. A 1v3 clutch attempt from Z, but a quiet walk out from Techo to Ny. It’s a 3v5 pushed over the line by 14 health. The difference. This is a little bit of a mistake though from 910. It’s a lock down position for sure. Re peaks into that angle. They lose the OP. They lose a second player on a round where they’re down 3-0. They almost got to a spot to win with Majority Alive after that 2K from Menho. And they kind of throw it away with this peak. Didn’t need to happen. It gets so scary. They’re excited to win that round when it should have been a done deal. Oh, another aggressive look though. Doc’s just going to Mac Tenu down and he gets traded by Chopper off in the open rafters. 910 gets the cover with that one critical kill. And not to mention Blitz finding it through smoke. So when the aggression looks so good, it’s nice to see the Mongols can step up to that tempo. Must be alert. Blit Shirro insta head shot. But back inside of the A site, Mongols find more success. You know, the opera was up top and Zeno also gets a kill. Both players confirmed upper sight here for Shurro. I don’t care what gun Shirou has in moments like these. I’ve got so much faith in him to figure out a way back into it. This will be heard. And Shirou’s going for the long rotation all the way around. This will be the last thing that Mongols think of. But also 910 is actually pushed out of the lobby entirely. This will be hard to figure out. Let’s see if he’s aware of this. Oh, this is a weird one with so much time as well. I mean, Shirou surely he’s not going to turn and clear main, right? That would be unreal awareness. Let’s see. Big flank because he expects Oh, 910 comes back in. Such a good move for 910. How How could you figure that out? Yeah, I mean, Shirou makes the move when the player drops down off of heaven. You know, he’s going to reposition in anticipation of you climbing Heaven. Forces Shirou’s hand, but 910 going that one extra step further. Yeah. Like where are you normally going? You’re going into hut. Yep. Exactly. You’ve either pushed around a ramp or you’re sitting in squeaky. Yep. And he goes T-spawn and then doesn’t waste any time there. Really comes back and finds that timing to a T. So it’s very good move. Really good presence of mind. And another great recovery round for the Mongols. Think of the pace that we saw Spirit come swinging onto Aid. To be honest, yeah, you want to play fast. This is another team that enjoys it. Vitality said they liked it with the way the Mongols played. Spirit can definitely run these up quick, but it’s that smoke break as well inside of Mini that that saved it. Ouch. Oh, missed shot though. It’s going to confirm bodies on the cross. Senzu kills Chopper. Zontics cut off from the pack, but down on that B site. They’ve got an opening. Daunts AK rips Techno’s head off. That’s money. Mino is going to go downstairs to supplant his position. 910 trying to find that one player that they know didn’t cross. It is at max. Three players lower. Mongols damn well know it. A tech dine versus an OP at this range. Yeah. So Minho is going to get the clock. A great spot for him with Senzu on ramp as well. This going to be so hard for Spirit. I feel like now a second set of hands to help out down on lower. Senzu here to tether with Mzenino posted on top of Silo. They could wait a second. You can see that doubt start to creep in. This is that spot where he’s got to jump up. Gives Mino an advantage if he tries. Oh, but the timing, it’s not the duel that MZO was looking for. He’s still able to survive it and they clean up all four. So, quick burst down to the lower sight when Daunt gets his entry. Things look sketchy for a second, but in that moment where Spirits slow down, the Mongols don’t. They keep walking forward, advancing their positions and finding that comfort zone. to tie this game early. I actually once again like 910 spot. So the two rotations lower, they have guaranteed that three out of four at least have crossed lower. 910 gets into big garage that covers the entire lurk paths back whether he people are going to go back around the lobby out to mini into big garage to wrap around hell. He’s got that all solid. He doesn’t ever have to move. Sometimes you get into big garage and now suddenly you’re there, you can’t leave. But it’s provides so much value when you see that many crosss that I feel like it’s worth it just to have them here. And he gets the Zontics kill as well. Little cherry on top. Now 910 has missed a couple of small opportunities. One that got a couple people killed. One that a smoke break could have made the round a little easier. He was amazing yesterday, but that’s something we got to watch for in this kind of match. In the meantime, Techno and Minino will pick up a bit of slack. Be the front runners ahead of the three players you’d anticipate the Mongols banking on. Yeah. And and the reason they beat Vitality yesterday is because you have a Senzu, 910, Mzeninoheavy board, and Blitz has key rounds in there, but he doesn’t top frag. I think you bought him frags and Techno comes in as support. That’s what the scoreboard’s supposed to look like. As much as you’d expect Donk, Shirou, and then either Zay or Zantics to be there. Smokes a cut off main means Blitz has got a challenge coming his way in a second. Two players behind him. It looks a little desperate from this angle, but the support’s right there. Wow, great shot. But because they’re so acute on those angles, they’re doing a good job of shaving them off into 1 v1s. AC unit held here by Senzu. And that’s the bomb chucked up by Unbreakable. So very difficult recovery now for Spirit and continuing to take damage while the player actually inside A gives them nothing to really tug on. So Senzu makes up for it. Bomb in front of them. Look at their spots. So much coverage. Just playing from hell. basically playing the ladder for that little bit of cover as well. And Don this entire time has been waiting for a man on a to make a move, but Techno’s locked into the vent. He’s got cover up in heavens. Locked in positioning here for the Mongols. And you saw how tedious Spirit were with trying to clear that out inch by inch ultimately only to get one kill. So it’s a good response after that pistol and conversions are lost for straight back for the Mongols looking to catch fire. Loving these moments from Zway though. He put up his best series in him. Mongols jersey versus mouse. Very strong team to play against. Extremely high rating. So much uh sorry against mouse. No, you said Mongol’s jersey. Oh, Mongols. Stop. I can see it. Stop leaking. I could see it. Miss shot again. 910. He said keep an eye on it. He’d prefer us not look when shots like that with Chopper found an entry and it’s who other 910 on the fall back gets his wings clipped trying to keep that off mobile. Smoke goes forward but the bomb and an escort is ahead of that utility already. So this is Spirit one step ahead again trying to play up with early timings. Mongolsesque in that regard. opening gambits every round. Some sort of a move to try and test the Mongols defense and this time that test goes poorly for the defense. It’s almost nothing you can do about it after losing and your opener 910 that quickly. That was a very nice call out of Spirit. They they found an opening on ramp which they haven’t really tried to test in this game. All Mongols can do is give this round away and hope that they don’t get hunted. No 3v5 attempt this time around. No chance at dropping spirit players. Just a gentleman’s handshake to agree this game stays tied at four rounds all. with money in the coffers. What could have been the opening kill there ended up being this instead. Perfectly timed from Chopper. It happens. It’s both of the openers. Yeah. You go back to the Cologne Grand Finals. Chopper gave a performance to talk about. He was actually Yeah. Just been getting better. Definitely long gone is the chopper that was choking playoff moments in Antworp. He has certainly evolved alongside all the new faces he’s brought into this organization. Frag grenade goes through smoke. Don sees that as a chance to challenge, but nobody really there to shoot at just yet. And another new opening angle for 910’s OP, but it’s a Donk swing. Yeah, he’s missing. He’s missing. He goes wide straight past him. Insta kill from Donk. You know if you give him that chance. And now Donk with another. And Zeno steps up to the plate. Gets walked upside the head. And we go 5v3 again just as quickly as the last round ended. This one back to that sad reality for the Mongols. And unfortunately for them, it doesn’t look like the path to a save will be very easy. So now Spirit can really put them into the pain for the end of this T-side. So nuts how quickly Don gets that second kill. There’s just no chance at all to win that duel. But right now, yeah, 910’s posting up on a few fights that he’s either just missing out right or doesn’t stand a chance in. Operally had to stop Donk there. had the chance. Sitting in wait and missed cuz the kid swings quick. Terrorists win. That’s the coveted HLTV number one key cap. I I do like that they’re ready to exec behind it. I mean, this is like when they got ramp, they had, you know, the threeack going down ramp. They still have map control. They’re ready to exec MH kind of trust the entries are going to happen. And last round it was Chopper. This time is Donk, but that’s kind of all you have to do to bring a C T-side together. Spirit being able to win this series means that they’re winning two tournaments in a row. No series lost with Zway. Pretty pretty amazing stuff. Almost numb to these stories of like new player comes in, instant success. Just never gets worse. And of all the debuts, Zoe would have been the most sort of unlikely based on his individual level, you know, compared to what we saw from Kyoske or what we saw from Aaz. It was sort of just like they’re also incredible to kick it off. So, he was just helping, but he is getting better and better and faster than I anticipated to be honest. Again, I guess the confidence should be high with Don’s seal of approval. There’s something comforting about not seeing everything be a honeymoon though as well, right? So, why should it be easy right away? If you’re if you’re having to learn all this new stuff, starts to lead people to think that roster changes are solutions even if it’s temporary. That and like are you actually leveling up your gameplay or are they just letting you be really comfortable? Sure. That you’re just getting kills now. 910’s off goes wider in secret this round, but still really giving them the opening space into Secret. How do you approach this one? You know, last time Spirit kind of came around this corner a little more haphazardly cuz it almost felt like they knew 910 would be further back. They seem cautious as if this is a normal variation from the Mongols. 910 goes steps further. Donk is sitting up on the railing ready to swoop in on this. If if enough time passes, this is going to come down to MZO taking contact at ramp. They really are going to have to exec. Yeah, somewhere. And they take at least there’s some revenge on do ramp though it will be held. Nice spray control from MZ. Okay, looking like had nobody else there to work with. He had to do that on his own if they wanted to keep up man advantage. And so they do. A suffocating hold from the Mongols where they seem very content with the angles they were holding. Yeah, it’s a matter of like does Spirit have the only way you could dislodge 910. That’s why I brought up MZO. If Ram took contact first, Mino failed. Maybe 910 feels like he has to turn around cuz he’s the first player downstairs to go watch him, right? Or they have control of vent and now there’s a lot of stress on him to make up for it. But Spirit didn’t really do that at all. So, uh-oh. Oh, letting it happen. This is how that Aurora comeback was fueled by the Mongols. I love that. And Blitz said he had to pull the knives out because they were getting a little too loud. Well, we go knife for knife. Chopper to Blitz. Techno to yogurt. Chopper to Blitz. Howie to Mara. You know Mara’s really a coach where he I think he picks his battles when it comes to when he gets involved. Looks like sometimes he takes the whole time out. Sometimes it’s for him. Um how is sort of each and every single time it’s as if you know he’s got a book to write and have you read. He doesn’t have enough time to tell you everything that he thinks. Smirks on the Mongols faces. Only time they they smile really is during these disrespectful moments. Yeah. They’re having fun. Got a bit of a hunch they might be kind of sick and twisted. Yeah. And if they are, I’m all for it. Yeah. This half has remained competitive in the round count. No denying Spirit will be content with the rounds they’ve won. A strong CT side awaits, but another challenge towards ramp by the looks of it. Mzenino not in that deep corner that allowed for Spirit to come wide for that double swing around a go. They brought their friends reinforcements in the form of Shirou on the angle and they clear. So now that question about how do they adapt to the lower sight? Do they pull 910 back? That is a valid question again, but 910 doesn’t move because he’s got the support already. A set of feet back sight. He gets his kill towards secret. He sprints down lower trying to post his OP to the one that is tearing apart his teammates. Shirou gets those first two kills to compromise lower bomb site, but now it’s coming back up with that kill inside of hell. Zoe scrambles in lobby this entire time and a beautiful game of cat and mouth goes back and forth. Round 11 for Spirit 6. That’s a monster T round here for Spirit. They lose Donk to this OP and they still operate so efficiently. This time it’s Shirou. They’re taking turns of who gets 2Ks on this T side versus the full rifle rounds. Shirou full control. And it looks like the game plan is so good right here when it comes to the ramp attack there. It’s almost as if, you know, we see Minho use his entire kit to get everybody back on ramp. So maybe he could switch over to playing the close wall position. He really wants to get back there. But even after the molly, they throw their flashes. He throws his second one across his back. Shirou doesn’t move the entire time. He’s waiting for that exact movement. Really looked like he he punished the tendency right there. Donk wants more blood this half, dude. I mean, the amount of rounds that don’t have Donk’s name on it and them still winning on T-side is has been wildly impressive here. Molly into the A site. Don gets hit by counter util. Look at this charge from Minho. Shirou more than happy to stop that challenge. 57 swings next in the same angle and same result. So we see the act of desperation in the 3v5 roll out. Zontics in reaction to the Senzu aggression and Blitz. He’s got a knife kill. One of two throughout this half. a non-factor for the defense, unfortunately for the Mongols. And it looks like Shirou’s going to put this half on ice. A 75 lead for Team Spirit. No denying Mongols brought the challenge for the defense. But the real challenge starts now that they swap sides. [Music] [Music] This game simple was definitely a big surprise. I remember I just opened my Twitter and I was I thought it it was a prank or something. Legendary move. I think it’s a big chance for Simple to come back on the grind again. Well, it’s a simple. Yeah. So why we can talk about it? It’s simple. He’s one of the best player who touched the game. Seeing him in this lineup, he maybe deserve better. But I think Simple in Faz showed that he he took it really serious. Shut the [ __ ] up. This game are probably all with a lot of cash. You have pieces that kind of have been in the T1 like Nexa. I think that he has bigger ambitions than staying in the roster they currently have. Without offense to the players, he needs some time to grow back to the player he is. We all know that he’s greatest of all time or the second one. At this point, it doesn’t really matter. He’s one of the best. I think if he had the chance to join a tier one team, the amount of time he would have been given maybe wasn’t that much compared to if he joined a tier 2 team. Either way, he kind of needs to go through a similar process of just playing a lot. I think it’s to some extent a good approach because in tier 2 you have like three officials, two officials a day and I think for simple it’s something that will be like maybe a good place to start going again because you just have to grind and grind and grind. Sometimes it more easy to play T1 team than T2 team. Like to be honest, the style like uh it’s completely different from that to come back to tier one is very difficult. The meta is evolving basically every day. So I think Simple needs time but I don’t know how much time he needs. I don’t want to underestimate him because obviously he’s great. It’s all about him. Like if if he want he can go back like top three players and next year I think he’s one of the best player. If he did it one time he can do it a second time. Hopefully we will see him back in tier one. Maybe not instantly, but I’m sure he can make it back. I think 6 months to one year is when I would expect Simple to be back to the certainly stepping up to the biggest challenge that they’ll face in Malta, a BO5 versus Donk. and a little back and forth while Don remained I don’t want to use the word offline, but I’ll say offkilter and not because he looked bad per se, but just because he didn’t need to do everything this half. He was just fine. He actually had a one very solid round on the two entries. Every other round it was Chomper getting a 2k, getting a 2k, Shirou getting a 2k, then winning the pistol, Chopper doing a good mid round, setting up to plant the bomb after a lot of these kills happened early to force early saves. They just had a great T-side in general. So really good start here for Spirit. Chance for Donket. First blood in pistol number two. It does lay the land for Donk. Beast now that they switch over. You know, you can leave Shirou over on ramp and we’re going to watch Sway play inside that a site. Donk should be the guy succeeding outside. You don’t always see that. That’s a Glock duel one. Senzu would have dropped the bomb in the most uncomfortable place ever. Top silo alone. Oh, Zontics though steps. Okay. Yes, sir. Yeah. Zontics doing what Donk wished he could have. Yeah, actually. And that was as they were kind of departing, right? Look to me with I mean the camera from Jay tells us that they’re leaving. Fakes out Chev and I understand why. Zontics just sprints in to get what he can before they leave. Now a 2v4 left over. You know just two seconds earlier. Mongols were feeling great on the recovery for the pistol. Blitz coming at this. Great gymnastics work to climb the railing silently but isn’t able to anticipate Zontics. So a triple kill for Zontics and a close for Shirou. That is 85 in the score with a pistol in Spirit’s back pocket. Gets real scary here for the Mongol. I mean, even though this is this is Spirit’s pick, but it’s a best of five. So, you know, everything everything sort of matters uh this gets real scary without some kind of performance out of the Mongols. Expectation again, underrated map for them. Scary pick for Spirit, but such a good first half. Two pistols, one already. Mhm. This could very easily be stomp territory if Mongols aren’t careful. And and so far, donk not required. And that doesn’t mean he’s not going anywhere. Yeah. It doesn’t mean he’s going to have a stinker of a series. Yeah. He’s probably the best player to love getting carried. He always whenever his team does well, I love my team. Well, yeah, cuz he’s the guy who’s the most unfamiliar with it. Yeah. I love exotic things, too. It was so cute the way my team carried me that game. See, guys, you can do it, too. But nobody does it like Donk. Not normally. Ooh, Senzu with the deagle. Zontic’s kind of floating out in the open. Opens the door for a huge ramp charge. Don believes in the multi-kill potential and that whole fun thing you were having before he arrived. No longer a problem. MP9 to close it. Chopper hot in the heels of Donk who definitely saved it cuz the first M4 peaking with only one that didn’t make up for Zantics dying empty-handed. No, not at all. It was Donk that saves the day. Yes. Otherwise, it would have been a lot little bit more scary going downstairs. hard to take the guns over since they were in turn fight, but it was a good start. You know, one of the things that the Mongols pulled over top of Vitality in the victory yesterday was those Tech9 deagle moments, the solo AKs here and there. That was something that certainly kept Vitality on their toes. Between that and some pistol round wins. That’s usually how the upsets come through. Spirit quickly stomp on that one. Where’ that Nate come from? Frags hailing from above. It’s just getting high score bonuses. Sprint over. Nezo now compromising secret control. Chopper not too far away. sitting over towards the stairs. But it’s very threatening outside position. The CTs have absolutely no information and they all want to peak something. The TE’s are covering everything except that beautiful moment for Donk to peak in and out and see see they don’t have any idea of where anyone is, but you give him enough chances and eventually Don’s going to find the connection. Two kills to his name this round. looking for more and more, but that walk out from Squeaky. I thought that’d be the end of Sway. Instead, fast reactions kills Techno and upgrades the gun confirms that the Mongols are still floating outside and goes for the climb back onto Hut. So difficult to come in through main to clear that. Yeah, so non-committal here first way. Just one peak and he’s out. Wanted that upgrade, nothing more. Very smart stuff. 910 down to 35 HP. This one won’t be easy. Chopper’s not going to stomp. Doesn’t want them to know. Plays in front of the flashbang and that’ll bode well for him. Bomb to the dirt. Chopper needs no assistance down on the lower sight. Just lets them come to him. Sweeps them down into the radioactive waters of that B site and puts Spirit to double digits. 105. Oh, bounced off him. That’s where it came from. Give me that back. It wasn’t a a kill streak reward. What if this is like uh Cologne all over again where Vitality go down to a competitor? Yeah. Then that competitor loses in the finals. I mean, if we want to play that game, I’m thinking to myself, Spirit are waiting to try and take a huge bite out of what has been 2025’s number one. Yeah, we’ll return to this. We’ve already got a player down the ladder and for the challenge ramp. Oh, he goes back to the second target to clean it up and bomb hits the ground. So this round, you thought it had legs on it. Rounds like these also kind of gave Vitality a run for their money. Not this time. So Spirit shut it down. And Spirit want to shut down Vitality. But Vitality aren’t holding up their end of the bargain and getting to these BO5 grand finals for Spirit to kind of get their attempt to take it back. So in the meantime, Spirit, I guess, will just keep beating the upset winners. Yeah, that’s how it feels. It could be the parallel and they are tough competition and it’s not like Mong for example it’s not like Mongols have never beaten Spirit. They beaten Spirit. Sure. They they actually knocked him out of last cologne or or took that win in the 2020 final upper bracket something like that. So that was uh you know that’s one of the top five teams they could take down. Since then though it’s been pretty one-sided. Yes sir. Only played once in 2025. 136 Anubis 1311 dust two for Spirits. So no map wins over Spirit this year. And tonight they will need three. If we’re really lucky tonight, we get an overpass. That’s what we’re looking for. Spirit like looks so fun on overpass already. Plus, it’s Mongol’s first time. Totally untested. Mhm. You want five maps of Counter-Strike? I got nothing else to do. Yeah, I I’m ready for that. But the Mongols T-side not yet where they want it. Not even a bomb plant in the first four rounds of play. They will however cross the secret. A little closer. Yeah, no test on the outer cross. And a preemptive smoke down lower. Uh-oh. Chopper. Oh, they didn’t come through just yet, but understandably Chopper gets pounced on. That was almost a crouch moment. Turned around to pick up a nade, dodged the flash, jumped in a bit. Zontics can’t stop him from getting onto the site. And so no challenge on the outer yard has really allowed for the Mongols to close the distance into the B site. Bomb has planted. You kind of let him get close enough to bite. And now Senzu still close enough to close out all five deaths for Spirit on the table. and he will just dance with Donk a little on those edges. This is the most convincing round cuz it’s the only round that the Mongols have won on the attack to be honest. Yeah, but also like this is a round where Spirit don’t do anything in response to the cross smokes. Everyone crossing quietly. You should still have some pressure on those smokes and they’re spamming them, ning them open, playing within secret or whatever. And the only thing we really had was Chomper playing back, throwing a smoke super early, which in my opinion looked a little bit like, wo, what are you so worried about? It’s cuz they had no info. Uh, none of the CTs elsewhere on the map were actually doing much. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mongol tried something similar. See why Spirit haven’t given them an answer. I’m very certain we’ll have more attention outer this round for Spirit. And it begins with Shirou looking for the same jewels that Don has kind of signed up to at times, but with the OP instead. And he’ll await that red cross. There’s a deep wall of smokes already. So sure enough, this is a great angle for Shirou. And the fact he slides beneath the eyes of the silo hold gives him a chance to escape. Blitz on the walk out through credit card doesn’t end up finding him. And now Don takes the place of Shirou. M4 over the OP on the prowl. Oh, timing crazy. Here’s the stops and Blitz wins the duel. Wow, really prepared for that. There goes the man advantage at 45 seconds. Senzu wants to go join, but he also wants to do it quietly. So he gets now from the CTs forward. Techno knows they’re going to come into this squeaky but he doesn’t have to technically take the stool if his teammates are coming. But Shirou doesn’t have to go through hut because the ramp players actually pushed around lobby. But right now no CT is considering heaven. Zoe back sight in a panic is trying to turn around to it dodging flashes. Shirou in a tough spot continues to tear up bodies as they step forth into that scope. It does open the door for the cross into back site. Blitz will remain above as Techno plants behind the silos. A frag with his name on it to soften up the rifle. Techno tries to take the challenge and he’ll hit that head shot quickly. A frag that’s only for the quarter of Zontics as Blitz awaits now. Confirmed. Player down beneath him. Oh, this is critical. And there goes Zontic stepping into it as the fire burns. A huge reroute from Chopper. Blindsides one and almost gives him a chance to finish that clutch. That was very very close. One bullet off that spray and they don’t have to think about how how much control they had over that situation. Shirou really got them a lifeline hitting those extra OP shots as well as first. But this is a 4v5 victory. They were able to take out Donk. He’s kind of getting vested very often now. Even Senzu in that save. I know it’s just a safe, but that was one of the purest 1 v1s we’ve seen for him. And there’s a lot of confidence from the Mongols taking that duel. They do a great Techno does an excellent job mollying the opposite vent, making it really feel like he’s going to make the attack happen. Getting them out of that position when they went for their tactic to double flash into the back of the site and peak. That was impossible to dodge that in between both flashes. It was very fluid in the back of Spirit’s head. They know that the heaven threat could be there. Sure. Mongols did an excellent job of just saying like even if you know this is coming, we’re going to make it feel like it’s a million other things you got to worry about. They made the other avenues of attack feel like the bigger threat. And I think that’s why Z scrambling into backside and just looking up was supposed to be quote unquote enough because in their minds it couldn’t have been such an all-in. Now just get through pistols and the Mongols are within touching distance of Team Spirit still on this map. Economy bottoms out here for Spirit. A tall order nowadays. Ah, Techno loses 10 health. It’s okay. He’s young. The knees bounce back. Nine more lives downstairs. as they’ll find no resistance. Took 10 outings versus Team Vitality for the Mongols to finally beat them once. They don’t have that same amount of reps versus Spirit. Rifle gets picked up a second time for Shirou, but this is bomb planted. Bomb has been planted. Bite overwhelmed. You know, when the questions about mass pool this even at least smile on takes. What the heck was that? It’s in rigamortis now. Oh my goodness. What in the world? Kind of unfair if you ask me. I mean, airontics, man. Need that on a sneaker. You know, yesterday Mongols taught us that they can win on new maps versus Vitality. They had only previously done it on Mirage and Nuke. Yeah, but that’s the thing. That’s what the desk highlight. Interesting first pick for Spirit because we know Mongols have quality Counterstrike to stand on in this opening map of Nuke. And now we’re starting to feel it. Getting the better of Spirit outer a couple times. Getting down to that B site in a tempo and pace that Spirit didn’t seem prepared for. What’s so funny is that these recent numbers and the crazy skewed CT sides. It’s Nuke is the only one that it seems to be T-biased. It’s so it’s so random. Sure. And that’s not even here just at the bounty. I’m pretty sure that was also maybe in the online portion maybe Cologne as well. But the uh but what’s weird about that is with these two teams that’s definitely not true. like with Mongols like 80% on on CT side. But what we’re seeing in this game maybe is maybe it’s not that simple. [Laughter] Yeah. Well, we’ll see if they win this round. It’s game on. If not, then it was just a small streak back for the Mongols. Okay. And a reason to believe as the series goes on. Yeah, definitely. That’s true. And I think that’s very important all the time in important matches, let alone a best of five. This is probably around where Don could be the reason, you know, release the tension a bit and be like, I’m back because he’s lost a couple of duels now that like hm and that that when Mongols pulled off that win at Cologne versus them. Yeah, it was donk. They neutralized. It really was. Well, that kind of tends to be the win condition when it comes to fighting spirit. Cage the demon. He still didn’t have that below 1.0 rating or anything, but somehow overcame it. Main player dodging flashes. Oh, Chopper from a distance. Don ready. Instant head shot. When you step into that crosshair, you know you don’t have a lot of time. Do I need to remind you? A third challenge, a third victim. And so, HUT, all that remains here for the Mongols. 12th round secured here by Spirit. It is Chopper with a welltimed smoke spam that sets up Donk to succeed. These flicks are airtight. I don’t even think Techno’s feet touched the floor. That was just so swift out of Donk. The spam as well was excellent right here from Chopper. took one out, gave him a warning, but look how clean this second shot is. Boom. Oh, great support to try to close out. Donk laughs off the a split. No denying they had Spirits attention for a second. And now, okay, we still play on. That’s a Blitz who was previously seven kills into this game. And this is the signature style of Mongols, right? You’re losing, things are getting ugly, you don’t care, you go faster, charge down the battlefield. Yeah, we get Chopper over towards Decon and playing on this side of the door. Mongols don’t get safe, they get angry. Zontics and Shirou over towards ramp. Shirou starts to push so Zix is freed up to come help. Chopper just waiting for this fight. Crosshair’s a bit low and he still ends up getting the better of Blitz. Now Zontics diving down into Dark is well known. Reposition here for Chopper and he’s got to be quick about it cuz they could have just popped out. We hit 50 seconds and Techno starts to take this look back at a huge pickup on a back turn from Z. And Shirou had also come downstairs to add himself to that. They were so convinced that this was going to end B that Shirou opts not to continue on that lobby flank. An emergency protocol that could have helped out in this chance. They have called it off. And I feel like this is Shirou maybe talking to Z. Yeah, they’re trying to figure this out now cuz it felt like all we had to do was think about lower. That wasn’t the case. There were still options here for the Mongols. I think they thought this is anti-force. They probably don’t have they probably really are all committed to this lower hit. Uh-oh. Oh, they’re just losing everybody. Just Shirou left alive saving this OP. Money’s already been a problem for Team Spirit. ICT’s coming this way with nades. Shirou’s not going to be able to keep it. Clean sweep of the defense. Much needed round for the Mongols to break into the last few rounds of this map. They don’t get safe, they get angry again. Another unceremonious death here for Don. Smokes broken open in his favor. Look at this reaction of Blitz. Yeah, that’s I mean it’s it’s pure. That was such good contact on the slap. That was very nice. That’s how good Don is. We now have to rate his team. Does he do anything badly? 100% at all times. What a shot from Blitz. What a lifeline. It’s more than just a shot. It’s a lifeline for the round and the few that are left to play. One of four map points survived for the Mongols. And Techno’s Mac 10 versus Zix picks it up wild. Getting dinged in the process with the Mac 10 gone. And they’ve already got 910 into his outpost. They have lower. They can pivot around this position. They have lobby, which means the CTS can’t push into it. Donk responds by dropping. They’re clearing the control steps at the moment. See if he gets this kill fast. Don’t tell me Blitz kills him again. No, it won’t happen this time. Donk doesn’t overstep that boundary. Trying to run from the nades now. Hit in the head, but to be honest, they still have upstairs. They saw the option to go back up. Techno is playing ramp at this moment trying to squeeze this eventually. Shirou definitely has a safer spot. Don feeling pressured now. Wait, they got to wait. They going to commit. They are seconds and they’ve got a back turned on ramp. Shirro with a pistol sitting duck. And so Mino just brute forces his way through that smoke. They take over Team Spirits Bite and with it double digits. Damn, I thought there was a chance that they they changed their call, but when you see Senzu’s even lurking out ramp, they have the two players coming down the ramp at the same time. They had everything in place. They could Oh, nice shot, Senzu. They could have lost someone to an OP shot right there and still had full control of the lower sight. That was really good movements here for Mongols. Another solid T round. And now we talk about this game where Mongols lost both pistols and still only two rounds away. Yeah, they send 14 flashbangs into CT spawn to get Chopper down for the count and majority still up for the Mongols. This is a 24 round game, I believe. Yeah, potentially. Yeah, CT side maxed $3,000. They’re going to save for the last round of play. I’m looking at 57s, a couple smoke grenades. That’s it. And this is because they’re winning rounds and they’re killing everybody in the saves. Not the first time. So, the one that should never I love that it’s a rush be for Spirit is here at hand. 5 sevens across the board. Huge charge. First good contact of damage though is to Spirit’s favor. And Zontics, he’s going to keep his head down. Half ass clear the bomb. The double doors gets pushed to join back up. And luckily here for the Mongols, it’s not like Spirit had many other players that dangerously close. But a sketchy spot to wake them back up for a second. Bomb has been planted. Mongos were afforded space down on lower. They went into the dark corners. They cleared it all out once they were able to get past that P250. The fact that this game could go 24 rounds is actually pretty astonishing considering the T-side, considering the two pistols, one for Spirit, and honestly considering the fashion in which Spirit won some of their rounds. So decisive on Tides Crush the economy of the Mongols more than once. Massive 2k from more than just Donk, right? Not just him carrying every single round. Lots of signs that it’s a very one-sided game for Spirit. And instead, here we are, round 24. Full pressure on you, Spirit. It’s that big multi-kill moment from Don inside of Maine. That was kind of his glowing moment so far in this best of five. His impact sprinkled in with kills here and there, but that was the big one. Are there limitations? No, not really. Healthy nades, M4s, and an OP for Shirou. Yeah, I mean, the Mongols went with aggression in the round prior knowing they were up against pistols. Yeah, they don’t really have nades at ramp. Zontics doesn’t have nades outside either. That’s maybe less important, but here. They’re they’re looking to catch some a heaven wrap with Zontic spot. Maybe they could try to reclaim outside. They don’t have any HS to break smoke. Oh, they they do. Okay. All right. A walk into the sniper. Is that it? Shadow advantage is huge here for Shirou. They bait out the shot. He confirms two bodies. Doc’s the one that gets the kills with a missed OP shot. He just stands in the flames as if it’s where he was born and slays all three. Big multi-round moments. Not as common as you like to see for Donk here on Nuke, but when they really need it in the 24th round of play, he delivers a map ending triple kill over towards that ramp. And as per usual, the rest of Spirit are there to close out. Call him when you need him because he just saved Spirit from a comeback from the Mongols and a potential overtime loss. By the skin of their teeth, Spirit get map one over the line. An admirable T-side coming out of the Mongols. It was just down to those final inches and a triple kill going in the favor of Spirit to be sealing up this one in regulation. Two great T-sides stopped in their tracks by Donk just doing what he does. I I mean, how many times are we going to see this kind of stuff where this is a well-crafted peak? I mean, it’s a good peak, it’s concerted, and then he just goes for the full wide swing, the full commit on the spray, and he just gets all of them. It’s It’s unbelievable how Donk just keeps getting away with this. That’s That’s Don on his BS, man. That’s Shirou getting jiggled out flawlessly. Goes for a weird jiggle. I honestly thought he should have been taken down, but Don’s there. Donk’s there. Spraying down three. I was saying the round before, don’t let Don get an AK. He can do with 42. It’s It’s so egregious for him to go for those kind of players as well. Like particularly when you’ve got OT looming and looking incredibly likely with the way Mongols were playing in that second half. And it feels like also the pressure just didn’t get to him at all. Okay, there’s this comeback that’s mounting for the Mongols. What does Dong do on round 24 when all the pressure is on? He says he just lets complete loose. I mean, to just jump into the flames like that, to just fully commit, it’s so ridiculous, man. And I thought the Mongols were doing such a great job. They were getting a lot of space. They were having some nice conversions onto bomb sites. They were waiting for their lurkers to make plays, and then it just all gets stopped with a fist fight, a bloody fist fight. We spent the so much of this pregame talking about how the meta is moving CTIDed. You have Mongols, they lose 75 on their CT side. They can’t get anything done. They go into T-side, they lose both pistols and they come through and they have round after round of great play, great ideas, great strats, and they’re so close to converting and Donk not having the greatest game still the confidence go for a play like that. It’s kind of weird though because uh on the graph that we showed in the pre-show, right? Nuke is one of the only maps that hasn’t really fallen too much in that. Do you think there’s any particular reason for that? It feels like a lot of teams are still playing what I would have considered the old meta of T- sides where you’re just trying to chip away. you’re trying to buy tech 9, buy gal, just have a couple poppy plays, but those are those aren’t good enough. Those those ones haven’t been good enough. And nuke, it really is that teams are making so much more of a concerted effort to just run the playbook that they’ve already had. You can’t play nuke by just brawling it out that much. You you’ve got to layer your smokes. You have to look for misdirection. There’s a lot of trickery on the map, and that hasn’t changed. I I think that the sample size is admittedly very low. CT except for Nuke where it was evergreen the calls. You can’t win Nuke if you brley except for if you donk I guess. Uh let’s go back to the first half though because you had uh your eyes on Mazinho coming into this one. What was the story of him on this? Yeah, me and Maui both both brought up Mazinho because he is one of the most important players. He hasn’t had the greatest event so far. Here’s a here’s a couple of rounds. We’ve thrown them together to show the game plan as well because initially you have Spirit. They find two entries. They get the entry there. They catch Senzu trying to rotate down Vent. Then you have Techno get aggressive. But the key here is Mazinho leaves ramp, goes through Secret, catches Spirit offguard. That was a 5v3 turned into a 3v1. You can be critical of Spirit if you want. But going into the next round, they they think to themselves, okay, when when we get an entry, you know what Minho wants to do? He wants to leave Ram. So what are we going to do? We get an entry. Ridiculous entry from Chopper. They go for the red play. Mazinho actually rotates back just about in time, but not quite. And he actually had a slight delay juggling nades to get back there, but he’s 2 seconds too late. And that spirit going to punish you every time. H it’s a it’s a great adaptation. It’s a great recognition. We’ve got a couple other rounds actually that show just how they were able to hone in on the activity of the Mongols as well. Yeah, it happened at the tail end of that T-side for Spirit. obviously as we’ve been talking about, you know, T-side rounds so valuable uh for your side. Uh let’s dive into round number 11 straight away because I believe Shiro was the one kind of opening up uh this uh this execute for Spirit. Yeah, I mean there were there were a couple ones. I mean Shirou did a great job in in round 11 and round 12. Round 11, he’s the one that just kind of initiates the pick into this play. Flash, unfortunately. Unfortunately, not a perfect flash for for Mazinho there on his own peak, but even in a four-on four situation, I’m a little bit surprised by Techno’s willingness to just take the duel right there. It feels like he’s in the key position could play the crossfires with 910. But you’ll see in this one really just the way that Spirit, they they keep lurkers in so many positions that if you’re Mongols and you want to spring back into a round with some extra activity, you’re caught so quickly. And even to finish the half, they do the same thing. They they throw an execute and really the Mongols just play right into their hands. Yeah, let’s roll round 12 straight away, right? Because it’s same same thing coming down for Spirit. That’s one of those rounds where you as as Mongols, they have this play style and they like to be broly. They like they see the exec coming out. They’re trying to get inside of the ex, not give any time for Spirit to get anything done. But Spirit such a good team individually, they can win these duels. And so with Mongols, when they’re losing these sorts of gunfights in these situations where they’re trying to get inside and not give the opposing team to regroup, it ends up looking like they’re just kind of all over the place, that they’re not playing as a team. But I think that’s kind of the point. Spirit really just rolled out the red carpet for the Mongols. And the Mongols predictably just ran walked right across it and they were it was right into the waiting arms of all of the players that are just safekeeping all of the extremity positions. And it’s it’s you you know, you have to live by your play style. It’s what got them that victory in round four with Mizinho and Techno just kind of throwing out the playbook and just going for some individual plays, but it is also something that Spirit was abundantly aware of as they proved on multiple rounds. Shout out to Shirou throughout the entire duration of this map as well. Not only closing out those moments we saw, but also opening them up as well. He was really not afraid to be uh getting in the action in this one. And he had a bit of a slow start in this game. I mean, I don’t think he had more than just a couple kills for the first five or so rounds. But this is what Shirou’s been so good at at the bounty and really in general. He’s I think people really underestimate his ability to just entry into a bomb site. Sure, it’s not typical with the the he’s not going to just sprint on in just whip whip his OP around, but he is so good at playing for contact. Just having a contact play set up for Shiro where he knows the tendencies of opponents that the ones that they’re going to jiggle onto corners, jiggle onto angles, the peaks that they’re going to make. Shurou, he’s just his arms are wide open at all times and just ready to greet them. The thing about Shurou is that he has the aim. He has the reactions to hit the flashy shots when he needs to. But what’s what I love about him is he plays Counterstrike the correct way. He’s posts up with the OP. He plays for the trade oftent times. He waits for We saw that round Mazino throws a bad flash, swings right in. So many of those clips are just players swinging into him and giving him a kill because he knows their tendencies. He knows how they’re going to peak the angle. He gets the frag and then later on in the round he can activate those insane clips, those ridiculous flicks and and reactions and and make crazy plays. The the elevator pitch for Shirou is not sexy at all. You you’re like you’re just saying he hits a lot of the easy shots with good reaction time and he’s a pretty good late round player, but when paired with what a tweet I’ve heard recently, he’s the goat of hitting boring OP shots. I thought there was another goat that you already named. But but the but the way it works in tandem with how Spirit like to create space, put pressure on the map, he’s the perfect fit and it’s it’s like a glove when he and Donk are together in the server. It it is you cannot win the early round, you can’t win the late round. They’re covering all their bases with practically two players. How well did Ze fit into all of this then, guys? I think he’s an underrated aspect in that you didn’t hear his name necessarily all that often, but he was in a ton of close rounds, very interesting situations. the 5v3 we we we showed on round four. This is it here. He’s in a 1v3. He turns it back on his head. And although he doesn’t end up winning this round, that economic damage, even with the new economy, still ends up mattering. It’s going to end up putting Mongols onto an eco earlier than they wanted, it messes up their economy quite badly. And then throughout the T-side, when you really look at it, Magic so far has been was better than Zoe on the CT side. But on the T side, Zoe adds just another dimension to this roster. Zoe wasn’t the most fitting plugandplay member to be added for Spirit in thestead of Magix’s, but his explosive qualities are something that I I like Magix’s, but Magic couldn’t match some of those moments. The multi-ill potential that Ze has and the fact that he can just turn around on its head so quickly with a successive amount of perfect burst shot kills is something that now Spirit are just relishing in terms of how much of a luxury that is that he’s got this this potential and it’s getting better. Like every single series I see with Zay I’m seeing progress. That’s that’s the most that’s the best part about this 100%. Either way for Spirit they are now one zero up in this best of five grand final. But as you can imagine plenty more Counter Strike still to come. It’s going to be going down on Mongol’s map pick of Mirage in just a few. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] The grand final of the blast bounty continues. But before we dive on into that, it’s time for you guys at home to potentially get involved in the action and have your say. There will be a survey link going down in the Twitch chat or YouTube chat depending on what you’re watching on where you guys can uh be saying, you know, any improvements moving forward, things you like, things you want to see changed. So, yeah, take the opportunity to have your say in that link during the chat. Either way, we do have Mirage uh tried and tested from the Mongols cuz we literally saw them yesterday beating Vitality on this very ground. What uh what stood out to you from that game? Well, I liked a lot of the ways that the Mongols were able to pick apart the Vitality defense. I really feel like this is the map where they can pivot rather well. I think their default players across the map can always hold their own when pushed on the extremities and I feel like their mid control also just gets enough space. So, we’ll have to see how Don Shirou they’re able to adapt to the variety of nades that come out from the Mongols. The interesting thing about Mongols on this map is their timings. When it comes to mid, you know, Spirit against a lot of other teams, they they have a really good read of when a hit is coming, when they can toss down their utility, when they can empty the util belt and and expect a hit to be coming. But Mongols so often are able to change up the timings and prompt an aggression into palace and an aggression into ramp when they’re not really going for it. Or they can get a team when they’re going for the reagent to mid, they can execite into an empty sight or B into a B site. But I actually am most interested in their execs. I think they’ve got a really strong B exec on this map. Chopper hasn’t been playing B that long. I think that could be a very important part of the map. Yeah. What’s the tale of both in game leaders if we’re looking at it from that perspective? Maui, I don’t really love Chopper on the B defense necessarily, but on the C on the T side, man, he was also just throwing so many different fakes towards Ma yesterday that even if Spirit don’t get the majority of their dirty work done on that CT side, I’ve seen this team just pick apart Ma yesterday. So, anything goes. Well, it’s time to keep this grand final rolling. It’s the pick of Mongols. It’s Mirage. We keep the grand finals rolling and hopefully also the Mongols rolling. When they were in that form to make that second half comeback just now on Nuke, that’s when I knew, okay, we’ve got a game on our hands tonight. And I don’t anticipate Mirage being a total flop either. A couple extra pistol round wins and maybe, just maybe, the Mongols win a map in this best of five because God knows that nuke could have been their win if that was the case. Yeah, I mean I don’t think Spirit haven’t beat Vitality on Mirage, have they? And now we have Mongols beating Vitality three times. They’re really good at this map. Um, they looked super strong yesterday. Honestly, there’s an argument back on Nuke that they maybe played a better overall game. We have to look back at the rifles and everything, but they got 11 rounds without any pistols. They really pushed Spirit to the limit. So, let’s see if they can replicate what they showed us yesterday. Zay will be looking to replicate what he showed us in the semis. Lights out performance on B site Mirage and right off of the pistol he gets a chance to slow things down with that smoke. It bodess well for Spirit when he is finding his comfort zone and playing that way. You know Don asked in the post game by Darth Mike playing that Zway what was it about Sway that allowed him to do this and he just went Zway showed us his mechanical skill. He said it in a way like true like as if he has always known the potential and that’s why it is bold prediction for this year. It is true. Zontics sees bodies cross down on the B floor. Finally recovers vision. I’m shocked the player sight didn’t get that kill in the meantime. He kind of lets Zontics get away with one and then sway through the smoke. Oh, that’s just insulting, isn’t it? All those way through the smoke. Finds the line. Finds the lineup. Donk wants a bit of that action as well. They’re waiting for the other two players for Spirit to get into the cat retake zone. That’s Shirou and Chopper on one side. Zay and Donk on the other. Mongol stuck between both attempts at this retake. But now Techo’s got a bit of sanctuary into that back market. Bomb is not planted for him. Hits on default and Zer just has his way with this pistol round. Great finding his zone through that smoke and following through to close it. Everyone chipped in. I mean, even the fact that Zontics, like you said, stayed alive. H flash full blind the entire time, they run by him. Now, this is also partially because if you’re jumping out of the window, you have to get your kills, but you also have to scale. If you get too tied up in any engagement, then you know, you don’t get to Ebox team, your opponents jump out of the window, then the whole round’s in jeopardy instead of just that one duel. So, yeah, Zontics could have died sooner. Uh, and it’s a miracle that he got his kill, but he had to get it as soon as he woke up from that flash. He had about half a second to pull that off, and he did. So, three pistols up in the series for Team Spirit. Chopper feeling real frisky. If there’s a force by out there on the field and you push this MP9 into their hands as the only guy at B, now what? Yeah, there’s uh there’s that push. Totally punished. Techno with his full kit of utilities feeling grateful to have it now just spending that money. It’s pretty scary spot here for Spirit. Lots of utility left over. Pretty scary. And it’s one that felt pretty avoidable. They try to make a move that’ll keep the remnants of Spirit on their toes. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re playing into Spirit’s hand. This would be a good round to go for the cat split to take it B and they’re hoping that Spirit over rotate, but Don’s just holding back in spawn. Way trying to get the frag out to connector. Pack of players comes over top. Palace Swing gets cleaned up by Zontics who’s going to deliver the double kill. And as they push beyond that bench, nobody’s allowed into the site. Nice triple here for Zontics. And Ze also in with one. Counterterrorists. Yeah, good tracking on that. And yeah, it as much as there have been some great rounds from individuals on Spirit overall just like fragging game plan has also looked really pristine. Again, there was that that round where they figured out exactly how Minho is going to play ramp and they, you know, isoed him and the the pistols they’ve had the counterplay the late rounds where they’ve stacked correctly like they’re making as many good reads as they are hitting good shots. Uh, and that might go under the radar. Zix’s touted for his CT side impact. We get a piece of it that round when he has a weapon advantage. And if the rumors are to be believed, enjoy his CT impact while you can. He’ll be showcasing it on this AIET working with the new blood. She is a CT specialist. Not a single flash to get them out, but just eagles to rock heads. Still low heavy. Oh, Senzu insta kills Don Donk. They put a smoke in front of the ramp, but that doesn’t matter. Three players still ahead of it. Techno gets one with a Glock. The Palace player scramles the stairs hold and a flashbang at the perfect moment to keep an additional piece alive here. That is now an M4 picked up as well. Desert Eagle out from the palace. The pistols are pushing through. But we go back 2v2 with low health on Techno. They’re going to go for the bomb plant. That’s money made. Six on the scene. Sweeps away the planter and it’s going to come back to the Senzu Desert Eagle. The same gun that kicked off this push out the ramp could be the gun that ends it. But Chopper a multif frag to keep Spirit’s CT side flawless. Barely standing in round three. I can’t believe how effortlessly he was weaving between the fights, avoiding the nades, getting to better positions, and then hitting that second to last shot. Unbelievable here for Senzu. That’s a warning of what’s to come. I love how he’s the one laughing and smiling. Stop fooling around, guys. Stop making me laugh. Let’s get it back on. And honestly, yeah, laugh should be muted cuz we’ve got four deaths. No laughing on Connor’s team. No, sir. Not when you almost just died to deagles and a Glock. Yeah. Enjoy your moment of relief and then get right back into the lab. There’s a lot of utility when it comes to that underpass stoppage on Blitz. He didn’t see that. Oh my goodness. Right now, he hasn’t been hit by anything. No nades with his name on it. He will just keep working up middle ever closer trying to get this Donk challenge going. Litz is so good at this, but who better than to to fight back than Donk. They know he’s going to be here on stairs. I mean, they know it. Donk is holding for them to walk out through the smoke. Sometimes you walk crouched. Sometimes you fight right here. And Donk wins over Blitz. Since he doesn’t denounce himself, waiting for the swing out, he will push Donk over the line. We go 35 seconds left on this clock. Ramp play really wants to get going. Zoe’s got to stay fixated towards it. And Chopper’s going to he can miss surely. Zoe afforded a little bit more space forward, but that’s where he ends up getting killed as he tries to push outwards. Chopper had actually peeled back. Shirou makes up for that slightly, but no coverage of the bomb plant. And so these ticket peaks just keep end up taking away late legs on the Mongols. Yeah, too too often to be honest, they don’t think about how their post plant’s going to go. They’ll just put the bomb down when they can. And here’s a spot where yeah, it would have been hard to fight for more control on the site, especially with the time coming down. But maybe they could have maybe there was a better way to do that here though. This makes things a whole lot easier. That raw duel won by Dong. They know he’s going to play on the stairs. They’re trying to find him. They don’t put any special utility like they don’t have Mino try to flash donk standing on the stairs. They just wanted to approach him and see what happens. We got Mara on the phone. Every time Don’s been counter in that position, you know, famously that M’s game, it’s with utility, right? That’s going to be the difference between the good and the best teams when it comes to dealing with the best player. We’re talking Austin quarterfinals. Mhm. No, it was one of Don’s worst Mirage performances. It was farther back than that, but um like you know, you can be the best player in the world, but you’re still going to play every position in three to five spots, right? like tops. There’s only so many ways that you can play a map in a position and connector for that matter. So, you know, we we look at the mini map half the time Don’s going to be sitting right here at top of connector by the stairs. And the reason is cuz it’s so versatile. He can turn around, fight Palace, come catch a lurk inside a window, come back the stairs, PK ramp. There’s that utility for Blitz I was alluding to. Frag grenade off the backboard of middle. Zontics gets the damage in. How that get extinguished. Most of that molly was not in the smoke. Ooh, Sway shows an elbow. Uh-oh. Zontics doesn’t pounce on his kills either. Shirou’s got one now. Bomb is still sitting back top middle. And Don has got a chance to just feast in the middle of all this, but he drops the ball as Shirou still threatened by Palace presents his head on ticket. Now the bomb is going to drop into B because Oh boy. Oh boy. Techno has found a what he thinks vacant bomb site. Senzu is still up in the apps. He tougher if he’s going to take the stool though. If he does, okay, if he doesn’t then the bomb will walk into him. Wait, what if he could diffuse this without killing anybody? Executes the planter and he thinks that the other’s in market so he lets his guard down. Oh boy. I was dreaming big right I was like, man, what if there’s a one in a million chance he could do cuz if he kills him, he’s going to get found like Mogles is going to get him with a silent defuse. No, no. Right there. He just What you do is you sit bind him. You sit banan. Okay, they’ve already cleared it. You sit banan. Let them all leave. Let them all leave. You saw how early Blitz that other round. True. They do hunt hard. They do hunt hard. Okay. All right. I can’t blame you for believing. But instead, we get the first round for the Mongols. Five rounds into play. 41. Another timeout. So, we’re getting these in early. Getting 11 rounds without pistols is impressive back on Nuke, but if you don’t win any pistols, you you’re not going to win this series. So, three good starts in a row here for Team Spirit. They can afford to lose around. This is kind of all posturing right now for Spirit. They They have like a not really even a slight bead lean. They’re really trying to play reactive um and probably just trying to play on their toes. Just get ready to to rotate quickly. Don’s the only one with a rifle in his usual spot. There’s no surprises with Don’s positioning. You want the fight, you know where to find him. Yeah, it’s just very hard to trick the other team when you don’t have any any nades to do it. But the the lead is coming. Donk is going to make the right rotation. Zix full blind on catwalk. Still recovers in time with the one. Here he comes. Donk is on the site. Oh, but Mino back around bench. Just hits him and then standing inside of the fire. Zontics can’t manage it. And Blitz has already gotten eyes on this 57 stuck on ladder. So Donk getting out more concerned with the front of sight than Mino wrapping around bench and the final two pieces will be held back by Blitz as the Mongols very quickly cut their path up through catwalk and into that B bomb site. You know Zantics held his but doesn’t end up being that important when your site players and market fall so fast. So it is nice to see a setup like that where it’s not a stack but they’re playing very close to all the mid positions. They are ready to move very quickly and you can see that donk with the red and the problem is with stack sometimes you play with no information on one half of the map and then it’s way too late to ever get over because they’ve snuck in. They planted the bomb and you that was guttural man. I loved that. That was straight from the soul. couldn’t even see him. But in that spot, they had a a really good way of actually having a chance to win the round. And I think that’s why we saw Don get so frustrated. But now there’s no rifles here for Team Spirit. 910. Watch the OPIN. And it’s Shirou down. I was actually quite surprised to see Donk come out from market and try to fight front sight when Cat was held so well. and Zontics had gotten away from it. You know, it felt like he thought they were slotted in, but suppose if Jon can’t see you first, that’s your best chance at dropping him. You slow this round down to a crawl for the Mongols because they know that openings might not come so easy again. Yeah. And in CS2, this is all you got to worry about. You still want to go for the same cat splits you did back in the day, which we can call that CSGO, but you have to worry about the smoke breaks on connector. That’s so much vision for the CT side. It allows you to stack really heavily on a and not have to worry about anything else. But uh once that you slowly, you carefully, you know, you respect that smoke and you carefully pass by. Well, it’s an easy round. Get around the corner on cat. They haven’t lost a player yet. Mongols are in this game. in this game and in control. In control. Let’s say in control. In control of the game. In control of the game. Yep. Don’t you have to have a lead or something? Or like be on the No, cuz if they had won the pistol, you know what I mean? A pistol in conversion. Is that control? No. Well, but they didn’t win both pistols and then they lost the map last time. So, were they in control? Hey, listen. me asking too many questions. In control for the moment. In control for the moment. Slightly a little bit maybe. They’re writing. They have the pen. They’re writing the story. You know, they’re they’re replying. Okay. We’ve um downgraded to replying. Dear Donk, we’ve received your message of four rounds in a row to start this half. This is the second time this tournament that Zantics has very carefully checked the bottom of his mouse. Watch this. Okay. In control. Yeah. Let’s watch the in control round here from the Mongols. They got four back after the pistol lead on nuke. Not sure if they got that fifth. Heavily intentioned aside stack here for Team Spirit. No off available for Shirou. And you can kind of see how quiet the map is that there isn’t much for Spirit to reply with in terms of utility. They actually have no flashes left over. It’s going to be hard to be disruptive. Uh-oh, they’re Meanwhile, Mongols take control of middle closer to the catwalk split again. Yeah, they they are making it the same anti-force B split chopper just with this spawn on this. Frag grenades and a smoke for all of Spirit combined. We got a party here inside of the ladder room. They’ll go for the boost to come at this. They’re just going to be worried about a peak from A, but OP can hold that if needed. 30 seconds now. The scramble from Spirit starts to come over. Oh, insta clear from MZO and then 910’s OP coverage is good. You’ve got Blitz inside of Connector. The only thing that goes well is Donk catching a player cut off from the bench, but the other two are still cut off by Blitz. And Don’s not even allowed to leave. The Mongols never interrupted on their approach to that B bomb site. And they hunted down that opening kill as if they had a tracker on Chopper. Honestly, it’s because they had slowly cleared everything else out. It looked like they hard cleared him, but there wasn’t even much left to look at. He was in one of the final spots. So, I’ll give it to you, Connor. They look like they are in control for now. Maybe it’s you who are in control. But thank you. Both teams have a hand on the wheel. Is that the best way to drive? That’s it. No, they take it by force and we’ll see if that is what Spirit answer with. You know, if the T’s and the CTs work together, they win way more rounds. Yeah, but they can never find the common ground. Man is flawed after all. Not the Mongols, though. No flaws on that one. MP9s and what looked like a very kind of muzzled setup last round like you said with no utility can’t really cause the Mongols to swerve. Another one where by the looks of it we’re going to sit back. Shirou at B early. You know there was this really heavy belean on Mirage from Vitality yesterday despite the Mongols not committing to that site continuously out of the gate. It’s so the thing is that the Mirage you could stack B 10 times in a row if but if the T’s have a proper B split in there’s not enough places to stand that are solid that that stack will even work. So there’s this sort of like that’s why you see these anti-force subs always end um on BLS. It’s not that you can’t win that way, but if it’s going to be 5v5 at 40 seconds and there’s three T’s coming up CAD and two coming out upper B and you only have pistols, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got all five in the set. probably still going to lose. That’s when Mino is going to come and hard clear you at fence. That’s when Getright’s going to get molly before you come in. Bench is totally open. So here comes another attack. Got Shirro’s USP in the corner. You know that’s always a one and done. Supposed to be. Can’t reach down. Arms not long enough. Don’s SMG with a singular kill again. Spirit try to throw themselves once the Mongols arrive. That’ll get picked up if M Imagine it came down to time though. Surely. Oh, I thought he would reach it. Well, luckily they’ve got enough bodies to pick that up. That could have gotten awkward. But it’s all good for the Mongols. Four players up on this one. Again, getting through the little bit of a test that Team Spirit could offer with relative ease. There’s sort of this frustration from Spirit where they’re like they got to come up with all these eco stacks now because Mongols have been screwing up their money and well they want to make it these A stacks. They they I like the first one where they played a lot around mid and then just rotated over. But this round’s finally the round where they just cut to the chase and like let’s just go for the B stack. We’re not having any success. But it’s actually a very good sign for the Mongols that they’re winning these cleanly. We’re deep into the timeouts here. on round 10 only. Also, I saw another uh Ulan Bar watch party by the Mongols for this game. Fans showing up in droves again. There’s some crazy stat like 4% of the nation are playing Counterstrike or watching or something like that. Shirou gets no vision early. 910 also tries an opening pick. And with the slower pace that the Mongols have played, I don’t think you’d be too shocked if Chopper kind of got clipped by that. It would be a real tragedy for Team Spirit to go down, man. Disadvantage. Vu brought up this round. He said they have a really mean B take right now. Um, and this is about to be the fullest strength Bake ever. If Spirit thought this was coming, they would not be playing this setup at all. Perfectly timed by the looks of it. Chopper chucks a smoke out. Zontics at least has the lineup through said smoke, but it’s already going to require a scramble. The window challenge here by Donk. That was nice. Think about what’s kept them in this round. And think about what’s still to topple. A nine health blitz drops a player back. Market leaves on his own. What was early Zoe impact on this kind of an approach is now getting pulled apart. Blitz on the OP has gotten a couple of kills. It was a 3v4 post plant and they don’t even do a tidbit of damage. Perfectly sprinkled in that allin be hit when Chopper’s not anywhere nearby to stop it. Yeah, not going to lie to you. Blitz is calling circles around Chopper at the moment. I mean, coming into this position specifically like, okay, the pull that attack to be honest, the passive response where they pull out this boost and they get the spam through the smoke. It’s all really nice. That gives him a chance to maybe go for the retake, but open sight off the jump. The timing of the B attack is perfect. Not a single anchor there dedicated. It’s the totally wrong setup here for Team Spirit. [Music] This mid control round is what Spirit were looking for last round. Right now, they’re looking one step ahead. And right back down to this draining pace that you know a guy like Donk hates. What a contrast to Spirit. Last Mirage game. Oh man. 910. Low frags. Donk. Low frags. Sway. He’s alive. Avoided that nade. eating shrapnel as we hit him in it. And again, the Mongols look to set themselves up for this bite slice. Utility is going to keep that MP9 preoccupied, but an MP9 and a 57 on the B site. Luckily, Shirou just catching Senzu over top of smoke. They need Blitz to come up cat quickly. Chopper’s 57 goes down with nothing. And Zic’s pinned against this wall is going to bank on Shirou’s arrival. SMG with nothing. It’s all Shirou so far. And with the damage on 910 and Blitz, it could still just get pushed over the line. It will, Shirou, baby. Four frags right there on the defense. That’s beautiful. It looked like he could have kept going. Honestly, those frag grenades soften them up top middle to make it a bit easier. But if it is not Shirou with that fast pace into the B bomb site, it feels like you let the Mongols get so much control again of a sight that they just keep closing. Excuse me. It’s not over top of the smoke. Yeah, he he’s Yeah, through the smoke. That felt like one of those kills where, you know, he’s just on top. But a nasty Shirou lineup. And Spirit looking to close out this half with at least a two round streak. Just some sort of a reminder to the Mongols that they’re in this map. That definitely feels like forever since we got a response. That was a six round Mongol streak. And a lot of those rounds were nothing more than a whimper from Spirit. Honestly, the Mongols have they just really ruined the economy for Spirit this half. It feels like for these last six rounds, it’s been basically EOS and anti- EOS. Maybe finally having guns will do some good for Spirit. That M4 worth its weight in gold. One round to go. And now Zoe’s got an AK-47. Two more players to topple in Palace with Don behind him to help. But caught throwing a frag grenade. Senzu down to half health. And that connector walk ups going to put the challenge back onto Shirou. Up close on the smoke, but no scope to his counterpart. A head shot onto Senzu. It is overkill for Shirou as he’s trying to take control of the last couple of rounds, but Blitz has got the answer. It’s two head shot back from Sandwich and a one v3. Blitz knows no bounds. [Music] Get ready. Go. Mission failed. Just get on Good morning. There we go. For the second time this playoffs, Blitz stuns us with a onev3 clutch to close a T-side on Mirage. Difference being versus Aurora, it was the only round they had tonight. This clutch right here is just another on the pile of the Mongols win. Oh, that’s crazy. Oh, that’s crazy, man. the bullets. It looked like it was Senzu. And then that tap in the end, Mara had to give it up. Darth asked during the break, “Is Techno the best?” Or sorry, he asked Techno, “Is Blitz the best frag in IGL?” And he said, “Absolutely. I’ve been playing with Blitz for so long, I’ve never seen anything like it.” There’s a reminder of it. Three bullets in the magazine as he taps out that last flashes over top of the ramp though. pressure. If Team Spirit can’t pick up a pistol, are they dead in the water? It’d be the first for the Mongols, and it would come at a very convincing time, but this round goes right back where it came from. Diving back into ramp. They could probably do an analysis, you know, for all of Don’s matches on how many times Don is set in the game. This would be one of the lowest, I think, for a map. And as good as it was at the end of last series or last map, it definitely felt like last presence. Yeah, it wasn’t godlike until that fired kill triple bettas for Techno. Chopper goes sailing through the sky. Long jump gold medalist. There he is. And okay, back to it. Huh. We’ll see how long he can keep it up because there was only a couple rounds back on Nuke. Don, he’s got another one. And with it on, MZO to cross over. It’s two health now for Shirou. And two health is enough. By God, he’s closed it. Another pistol for Spirit. Yeah, no pistols so far in this series. They’re looking to do this the absolute hardest way possible. Nice kills from Don. Nice close from Shiro. It’s about as close as it gets. And an ice cold close from Shirou as well cuz one bullet takes him out. Gives Mongols the pistol. Mongols looking like they’re going to let this one go. No armor for the force. Couple deeds floating out there as they do, but a fast move for Spirit into this B bomb site. You know, this is going to call on a big T-side for Team Spirit, and I just want to pick your brain before the gun rounds start. Where is it that you place Spirit in the conversation of T-sides and tier one? Yeah, right now, I mean, we’re seeing everybody really succeed on CT sides. One of the reasons I thought an upset could happen today is because Mongols, they had an impressive T-side versus Vitality. They had one just now on Nuke as well. Um, Spirit on the other hand, they play maps like ancient, they it feels like almost just throw away their T sides. I think the desk brought it up that mentally it feels like you could just do whatever on T-side and get some rounds and be pretty good. But right now you can’t do that. And I think Mongols we saw last half. Yes, that was a little bit grueling how seriously they were taking those T-side rounds, but they they didn’t disappoint with them. They didn’t actually come up with three rounds. They took it very seriously and they actually had a very good T-side. I don’t think Spirit have actually figured that yet. I don’t think they actually are respecting how heavily CT favored this meta is. I think they’ve just been able to make all the comebacks very easily so far. So, I’m actually thinking this is going to be the biggest test for them, even though we’re still early days into the meta. But I I do agree with the death that half of this battle is mental. um the the the changes haven’t been so significant that it could just mean you’re going to instantly crush, but the numbers are showing that there’s obviously some difference whether it’s mental or some I don’t think the bomb has got that good that suddenly everyone’s supposed to be winning every round on TG side. Wow, that’s a nice find. Make it two maybe. I guess we’ll see how much respect Spirit put on these approaches as the Tside goes down. No way. Blitz has the confidence to go back. But that’s the problem. The trade-off. That smoke that was keeping him safe fades. He’ll bring one with him. And the damage looks good though. That’s the difference here. Shirro Donk. Both two weak pieces. This is a round where Spirit may need to bank on Zen Zix instead. And with Mino just floating out on that mid window sill. Making it a 3v3 is crazy. Look, look at what it does to Mino’s rotation. He’s not tied up. He can move over towards A. That’s where the bomb’s going. 910 also going to get comfy here on the site. It looks like TE’s are going to have to come up with one more strong kill unanswered. Love to see the timing here for Zantics. Got a smoke on Shirou sitting inside of the ramp. Flash double Molotov. There’s going to be lines of sight here that the Mongols can certainly challenge. And 910’s off angle is going to give them space to get out. So they’ll be exposed to the stairs peak as he lets them walk forward. It is an execution for two and a perfect tether from Mino. That’s pretty great. I mean, they split the difference on this. Not as if they knew it was going to be A, but two players there. Techno, they said, “Let’s just watch B just in case.” They were hoping that this walk out happened and it did. Spirit have used all their timeouts now and they’re actually very early on on this T- side. You see often times teams will save up those timeouts for this second half. Hi’s going to have to really make this efficient. And if I’m mongled, I’m not even going to use those timeout now. You know, only if you absolutely have to. Yeah, for the time being, it feels like all the [ __ ] are turning the right way. Oh, here is that watch party. And you’re not watching previous footage from the major. No, they’re doing this for the bounty grand finals. It is huge that Mongols have already taken down the number one team in this playoffs and maybe I don’t know for the first time ever have created a new number one team VRS in Spirit and then maybe can take them down too. Two different What would you even call that? Two different uh the two-headed dragon. I don’t know. Two different number one teams in the span of 24 hours. major champions to cologne champions back to back in one day. Yeah, that is what’s at stake for the Mongols. And it’s been a revenge tour, right? They took down they took down FaZe from the from the uh before the playoffs age of the major. Got the revenge in playoffs. Took down Vitality who beat them in that grand final at Austin. Same thing with Aurora. There was that beef after they called him Btier on that tier list. Now Spirit just the final stepping stone as far as Mongols are concerned. Yeah, it certainly feels like this one’s less personal, but just more impressive than anything else. Trying to keep his head low. Blitz gets out of that corner at the right time. Spirit come climbing in. Chopper trying to find a lineup in a desperate attempt. We hit 40 seconds. Donk smoke soon to fade. Total mid control here for Spirit, but Donk drops the ball. Zway’s going to try to make up for that. Chopper still in the window as that jungle player turns away and Shirou catches the aggression off Cat. 2v4 and Sway slides outwards. This is the Mongols getting picked apart. And it’s not off of Donk. He finds nothing here in round 16 of play. In fact, he gets bested first and foremost and then everybody else around him finds a way to help. I feel like so many small missteps here for the Mongols. Actually, Meno gets his kill. That’s huge. But how does Blitz forget someone could be in the window? Chopper was just in there spamming. The Aplit comes forward. He gets killed to that lurk. 910 doesn’t finish his frag inside of connector. And just that touch of sloppiness on a couple of those engagements and suddenly it’s a 4v1 save. No chance for Techno to come back to this. Spirit went around again. And I think this is off the back of the last pisto um the last time out that they’ve had. So at least they find success here. Terrorists win. But no more finetuning will be afforded to Spirit unless Mara lets Howie back in. Yeah. So Chopper is going to have to keep this ship steering straight. And this kill from Shirou as he covers catwalk. Not sure if we have it, but it’s an insta headshot coverage. Senzu was trying to get in as that death ball looked to rock up through connector. Yeah, that was a very nice frag from Shurro. Now we’ve got some economic woes here for the Mongols. M4 for Techno trying to really be the hero of map 2 because it’s not Senzu. It’s not 910 and unfortunately it’s not Blitz either. When victory felt achievable in Austin, it was off of the 910 Senzu domination on Mirage. And slowly in that series, we watched them fizzle out. They may not have won nuke, but they were driving forces again. This playoffs has been a place for them to shine. Looks like Spirit have them tricked with their setup. First half of the round left a sense of a Bplit, but instead Spirit immediately organized back to A. No lurkers involved in this at all. CT’s starting to come back out of respect. But here’s that full-blown execute. Right. Desk doesn’t want halfass gal rounds. This one’s got all the makings of a strong hit. Shouldn’t have come with a cost, but a USB finds the one. That was scary for about 3 and 1/2 seconds. Yeah, it was scary for Spirit. That is because they’re looking to be cost effective, build up the economy. You know, you’re banking right now on Shirou alive as always. It’s not every day that Shirou gets to step out of Donk’s shadows just because of how big of a shadow the kid casts. But you’d be a fool to forget that Shirou is a pillar for this team spirit success. Yeah, he’s top five, too. We’re used to the rifler being the right end to the oper, but it is a new day, my boy. Double window smoke. 910 sees the underpass calling him. Anybody home? Donk ready to swing it. Oh, just jiggles it and gets out. 910 floating around down here down to half health. Caught on the corner for a second. Could have been the casualty of the round. Gets another target over towards Palace. So 9 going from fight to fight but not really getting a chance to pull on anything. Sways approached and now that the player beneath is burning. That could have been his kill. He didn’t hold it. With fire on Meno’s feet, he is given a chance to leave and he opts not to run away but to take the next fight and that costs him. And now 910 swings back around to the A site. TE’s look like they’re still going in this direction. No, now they’ll come back. Now Spirit have regained control. They can maybe make this a real nightmare for the CTS to guess what happens next. The idea is to isolate Techno to make sure he can’t get support off Cat and to make Mongols think that it’s still going to be an aight hit. Will they fall for it? Ooh, drops free. That comes back. Vision inside a middle. They’re going to try to trade to get by though. That was for no damage as well. So Blitz content with how that’s gone down. He even gets a second. Has the bomb down too. This actually brings him forward into the A site, but it also activates Donk and he will find that market kill, but it comes at a cost. Down to 20 health. 910 in CT spawn. Certainly not ideal, but Shirou also takes the same path and Techno gives him a glance, gives him more than that. A head shot comes out to the Mongols favor. 10 seconds to the clock. Donk picks up bomb, but it costs him an extra second chance and that’s going to cost him the clutch. He’s got to get out. can’t go swinging for it and certainly can’t afford to die after time. Mongols tie this game up at nine rounds all off of Blitz holding on to connector and making that so much harder for Spirit. So last frame kill right before he gets traded without that and the bomb’s still alive. Surely they win this. But okay, here’s a moment where Zay Yes, his yes, he did stand in the fire in Balcony for 1 second, but if you held it for 2 seconds, that would have been for sure an engagement you win. And very smart from MZ, but it really was his only option. Got to calculate everything. Okay, here we go. This one we’re a little more used to. Donk immediately looking for a kill here. Yeah, finally a tempo change, right? Trying to weaponize Donk as you have in his entire existence in tier one. And his 910 with AAM smoked. He can actually jump up if he wants to. Donk has slipped the net into jungle. Joel tracks down the ladder. Nicely done. Challenge up from Senzu for the double kill. Donk still on the rebuttal and with a player here towards Ticket. It is all Senzu so far. Triple kill to him and down to 19 health as Techno’s now on the scene giving himself utility in front of it. Zway looking to make this happen. He’s got a huge health advantage. Fry grenade could equalize that as he just goes for the plant. Three quarters his health is indeed enough and he goes from he knows dropping the ball. One round ago to closing out this one. Sick to see this tactic out of team spirit. The way they got up connector. It was totally unprotected. Donk made his way to the top of it. No smoke there. No players watching it from stairs. Full vision as this came in. Track that right to under balcony. 910 covered in CT spawn. Whoa, this kill through fire box is nice. It’s nice to see something different here for Spirit. Sure. Agreed. Mara, let’s haul in. It was a decent attempt in the 1v one, but uh the HP was definitely on Spirit’s side. AR knows without this map, we call it a wrap today. The two good chances and um without winning pistols could be two good chances gone. This force down looks desperate. Yesesh. Oh man. Wow. That was a that was a big round. And a great call for Chopper, man. Something different. It works very well. Wow. He’s just still jumping. It’s crazy. Oh, brother. Chill. No. I mean, you got to make up for the fact that you don’t have utility. So, I respect being like, “Okay, if I keep jump spotting, he doesn’t keep peeking me, then I won’t have to use this, you know, precious single flash that I’ve got. At the same time, Mongo’s making a move over towards ramp with the other MP9s. The Zway 1 v one that puts all of it on the line for the Mongols here in the 20th round. Last two force ups. Spirit have rushed B straight up with a donk entry of the Mac 10. The round before that they faked the default to make it look like a B play. Came back to A. This round going B once again. Lean preset over here. They kill one, but there’s still Senzu. That was a much needed pickup from Z as well. Just Man, MZO’s in there spawn blitzes in between two players and he’s going to Oh, it’s actually Shirou on cat to shoot beyond chopper and get that. And with it an open road towards a a hailmary moment here for MZO and the poor kid doesn’t even have a rifle to work with. They will have a bomb plant exposed to him. It was faked once and he doesn’t bite. And then Chopper commits to it, but he’s a little bit too late. He will still catch the head shot. Gives up his position and the element of surprise. But time is ticking for the Mongols. Three-pronged attack in the retake here. Senzu with a good gun. But how how in the world can they get this done? No kit. This is problematic. Mino starts to come back, but 910 offers something to shoot at. Shirou head down now. Angle held and he’s got both those players towards Dick. And just like that, most of the job is finished. Now that’s uh the last of the money here. Gone for the Mongols. The lead evaporated. It’s going to be basically anti force ups from here on out. straight between the legs. And a couple more here for Shirou. They can start to feel this one slipping because what was that huge streak of six rounds plus the Blitz 1v2, the seven round T-side, we’ve yet to see the Mongols string consecutive rounds together now. Mhm. And so the money starts to creep back in and compromise it all. And in a game that’s coming down this close, this was the pistols, man. pistols. Again, we got to say it again. Very impressive to get nine rounds, get 11 rounds without pistols. You can’t say that’s not impressive, but that doesn’t matter when it comes to winning. Um, this is the map also we’re talking about the the one of the greatest comebacks we’ve seen in CS2. 11-11 down. The Mongols came back on CT side here on Mirage versus Aurora in this playoffs and haven’t had that any of that same ump. Although that is the kind of daunting challenge they succeeded at that they need to remind themselves of and tap back into in the chance that they get another round win. Mhm. If they can find one more full-blown execute coming through from Spirit not skipping any steps. Donk the front runner here and 910 waits for a moment to strike. He is coiled behind this box. They are standing and nobody seems to be watching. So Zenzu setting it up with that deagle distraction is exactly what they need. A double kill from him and already a player on ramp. Blitz with the knife down again. What? What kind of madman is Blitz turning into? Are you crazy? Chopper trying to do the same thing that happened to them, but they’re going to figure it out. He is here by ticket exposed to all the others. And Blitz playing mind games brings this back to the one round gap. Are you crazy, Blitz? In a moment like this, you’re in the grand finals. I mean, I don’t care how many teammates you’ve got alive. Another knife kill. And to be honest, they needed the money. Yeah, true. Maybe he really is just He’s a chess master, man. He premoved this. He’s just thinking one step ahead. Everyone else is laughing. He’s stonefaced. He’s just thinking about the dollar amounts. Look what this gets you. Maybe it’s the off for 910 that he drops over. Knife count two to one. Mongols lead. Yeah, that’s the only real calculation. All that three to one if you count the uh the knife and the yogurt by Techno. Okay, sure. For those really tapped in. Yeah, he did it for the money, guys. Did he drop an OP for 910? 910’s got 2750. I’m just wondering how he spent that. It could also just account for him having a full buy and something something left over. Three kits into this round. attack coming towards A. This is getting real. Round 22. Zeno gets a blitz in front of him. Donk manages to get through. There’s no other help. He’s not on it right now. They were so dedicated to this B site that the assistance is nowhere to be found. Especially with 910 dropping a chance at the shot. So in a round where the Mongols came through with better buys, more nades, bomb has planted and a chance. It’s a retake. No one’s watching this at all. Nobody whatsoever. Back turn by Donk. Banking on Zway. A lineup here for Blitz as the M4 presses in. And it’s a long road for Shirou to somehow try to come and open up what is now a smoked off bomb. The Mongols were just given a gift of a retake opportunity. I’m sorry, but they retake CT all the time. Nobody holding whatsoever. Nobody challenging this defuse. Team Spirit get into that site in convincing fashion and fizzle out just as fast. They had if they had an Opera holding from Apex. If they had Shira holding from Apex to CT or had Zoe watching his back instead of everybody staring at connector side, there’s actually a chance that they pulled that off. Instead, here’s the easy response. One kill is enough for Mino in this spot. Wow, off the force ups. They managed to avoid map point. So maybe they do it without the pistols. Oh, or maybe Shirou’s Shirro off as he top frags will be enough cuz he needs to be enough cuz you’ve lost Donk on the other side of the map. But listen to the rumblings of the rotate. Blitz has let his guard down. Chopper’s going to tech n in. That’s a second weapon to now pick up. Look where the bomb’s going. Oh, there are options here in a game where it felt like Blitz had the calls over top of Chopper Banking on Shirou again. You could hear a pin drop right now. CTS just want any information that they can get. Someone could drop out of the window right behind 910. Oh, that’s a free opra. Now they’ll go far angle shot. Zay able to cover with the trade. Goes ahead and grabs that OP. And while Chopper was never able to get the fruits of his labor, that weapon still sitting here in jungle, he’s going to find another player with their back turn. And I don’t think Senzu’s thinking that Chopper has still stuck around this long. So the longer Chopper waits, the less help that the players on the bomb site have. Zontics yet again with just the sidearm. Zoe doubles back. Three bullets in that OP magazine. And he strikes down Techno. It’s a much needed Senzu clutch or a robbery of a 12th round here for Spirit. And he is dead to the new gun. A sway double off to get them to 12. Well, they absolutely stole that away. It’s an amazing opening kill here for Shirou. What a flick onto MZO. That looks like actually a very safe peak for him when if Shirou missed, he’s pretty much just dead. So that shot this OP is blessed. And then you have Chopper get away with that same lurk that he sent Donk on up to the top of connector taking advantage of Blitz inside of jungle. Everything goes wrong here for the Mongols. Oh, that is a gut-wrenching 23rd round. And they’re not going to forget about it if they can’t win this next one. One kid on the round. 910. To be honest, we’ve had a lot of boring rounds so far on Mirage because there have been so many broken CT economy rounds saved on both halves, but this one kind of equalizes it. We got a chance now. Ops on both sides of the board. Two ops in fact for the Mongols. Still a chance to bring it into overtime. Is that the money that Blitz made? It all adds up. And it could make a difference. That was Was that a pre-fire? I swear he actually pre-fired that shoulder. That That would be the kind of shot that Senzu takes. Puts in a connector getting peppered by Donk. And Donk was a non-factor in that last round. Remember how Nuke ended? Sudden donk triple. Oh, he gets exposed again. So there’s no heroic moment here for Donk. Nate timing is perfect. 3v5 or we go overtime and Senzu’s got that coverage. The double off comes out and the impact is immediately felt. Shirou’s been a god for Spirit trying to save them all T-side long. Four more players to topple. Two of them with ops. He is so pinned into this spot. Senzu waiting gets peeled off of the play and there’s 20 seconds with a bomb on his belt if he peaks deep into Catwalk. Now he’s got a third. Don’t you tell me this is real. 15 seconds and he’s going to go for the kill to just come back. Time is going to come down to the wire, but the time is still there to take it. Four kills, but on sight is MZO and his guard is down. If he does this, it’s a god play denied at the final hurdle. Wow, such a nice try from Shirou with the amount of time left over in the 1 v one. It’s a perfect move back for the Mongols. And now all bets are off. Here we are in overtime. Anyone’s game to do it without Donk means that you need Shirou. And it was right there for the taking. I don’t think Spirit are going to be happy to be in this position. Another map with both pistols in their in the bag. Another lead towards the end. This time Mongols somehow brought this back off a force up. Their money was destroyed. In fact, if Spirit didn’t win that round with Shiro’s OP shot and that Tech 9 lurkill from Chopper, this game would be over in favor of the Mongols. What a master class of a round that would have been. Yeah, that’s what dreams are made of. I mean, that’s the kind of guy Shirou is, to be honest. One of the best clutchers this game has ever seen. Sporadic CT round winds. The Mongols sprinkle in across that half to get us here. Perfect. And this is one of them triple nade situations, isn’t it? Yeah, he used this versus matcher and killed him 100 to zero. Third one in the cash, but a very very decent amount of damage has been dealt. Chopper got this lur kill on Blitz before with the help of a connector push. Will Blitz get caught off guard again? Don’s been given a lot of rounds to warm up now. 14 and 18 is heat. Blitz losing support. Zay trying to make up for it. Double entry. Spots the third and down he goes. Triple kill for Zoe. What an entrance into overtime here for Spirit. Four five still alive. Senzu alone. This double OP setup absolutely crushed. Honestly, in Don’s absent in terms of openings, Zay has been picking up some of that slack. Mhm. Up through the ramp into the A site. Multiple rounds now. And to do it in overtime means it’s all the more valuable. Another moment for Ze to shine, particularly on Mirage. It is not the absolute domination we had in his last outing on this map, but that round right there is one to be proud of. You deal with 910 swiftly, react while jumping up to Blitz. Not an easy reaction to make. Donk gets the assists on those. Zway cleaning house to kick off overtime. 910 Senzu Donk kind of all lagging behind in this game. Not something you’re going to see every map, especially not a Mirage for either of these teams. They’ll lead with Shirou instead. And with the shots he’s nailed this map, you can understand why Don takes up the mantle. And unlike last round, you’re not going to find that close challenge. We get this double apartments push up. Ooh, sitting dock 910 again going down. No impact in overtime so far. He has been the victim of the 5v4 both times. It’s not a threat from ticket whatsoever. At least they’re not scared of that threat. Donk ahead of his connector smoke as well which missed. Zeno laying down this smoke grenade announces to team Spirit that he is indeed pushed forward. Yeah, but regardless, look, look at the info that’s been gathered already. They’ve got the flank in place. Meno knows it’s going to be an aside round. Blitz takes up the OP from 910. All right. Rare. Check this out. Bottom Connector player. Hold on. Tech though could have just dropped that ball, but now connector entirely in the hands of the CTs as they scramble into the execute. But it’s Spirit coming out on top of these muchneeded duels. Zantic’s finding one somehow through that smoke. It’s a blind shot through the cross. Senzu’s intuition is always tot. But as he continues to reload, Sway’s going to chase him. It’s a dink with the USP. Blitz slides forward and this position unbeknownst to Spirit them again. When you need him, he is there. That might have been their only round here in OT. If Blitz just scored that for Mongols and saved them, it’d be another remarkable moment for him where he didn’t need his team. is not the guy you you think to talk about in any one specific charact category other than IGL. But when it comes to clutching, the impact is very obvious and stoic as ever. One v3 at the end of the first half. This one v2 in overtime. Two knife kills. This is a resume of a grand finals for Blitz. Tied OT and the smoke spam frags go back and forth that round. Zontics out of palace. Senzu in jungle as he always does. Jumbled up on top of each other. That was awkward. Why did he keep trying to jump? Blitz moves in mysterious ways. Man, that nade is bad. Oh, that’s Yeah, that could have been a money grenade right there. See if that damage matters. 910’s leaving quite a bit to be desired in overtime. Is the longest he’s survived in OT yet. Just trying not to be that opening death. But you know that nade trajectory goes both directions and Blitz gets a taste of his own medicine. Senzu tries to peak ahead of this connector util. Oh, that’s Oh, that’s beautiful. They blocked that instantly. There’s been a lot of jumps from Techno that could have been punished. That’s why maybe Shirou’s still sitting on this angle. Blitz one step ahead of this mid control, man. It’s just that he’s been hit so hard with this grenade. It’s really going to affect his jewels. So, 45 seconds. Don scoops up that bomb. These window lurks have been super solid for Team Spirit. Usually, it implies that they’re going to split A. That’s what they’ve been using it for, but Zont gets a kill out of Palace. Oh, this is tough for the Mongols cuz it’s going to keep so much attention on A. I mean, Techno is alone in the club right now over here on B versus Don and Shirro and soon to be Z. And if Zontics just keeps that pressure up, then again, you can see the Mongols aren’t making their move until the moment they look to peel away, he does go to the attack. Techno, it is your time to shine. And Don gets finally one of these instant entries. And even if it did go south, you had Chopper wrapping around through market. Total control of this round coming forward here for Spirit. Absolutely. But obviously they’ve got to give it a try. And with the clutches that Blitz has posted, you’d think maybe he had something left. Finally, we get a round where we can look at Donk and we can see those instant head shot because he may have 16 frags, but he hasn’t been dominating rounds. Zay picking up some of the entry slack in his absence. And Don here now just trying to close it all out. A 4k in the third round of overtime. Got to always get the last word just like he did on Nuke. That’s a great round for Don to end on in overtime. The first kill was really the most important. Um the extra frags after that just frills. 14 rounds as they go into another our our second half of overtime. [Music] Watch this though. This is what you know this is the POV we’ve all fallen in love with this year. Yeah. But I mean the moment that Zontics got his kill out of palace and it was Techno alone to be that’s really when the round was lost 910 off duel. Compare him to Shirou and Spirit have the edge in the sniping department. Zway giving Spirit enough of a rifle presence as well that now we get that donk 4K. And does it mean he is fully online for a CT side that he loves? A position he dominates. Oh, with a nade. Donk is not in his zone, but Zix looks to make up for it with the cat push and winds up being the second death. But Su again right when you need him. He steps forward once more. Yeah, and that that refrag stat is so important. Great trading here. This attack goes over towards the other side of the map. Shirro’s cutting off the lurk for Zenho. He will play that like a violin. Beautiful out of Mzenho. Does Chopper stick around? And even if he sticks around, is he able to kill one or two? Cuz right now Aite still what they’re going for? He catches them unprepared and he slays both on the brink of that bite. M Zeno. It’s a Hail Mary attempt, but Sway gives it over to him. And Chopper’s coming forward. All right, Mino, he can be really smart in these moments. Will he be prepared for this? Oh, he’s going to jump out through the window. And it looks like Chopper’s going to find his back, it looks like. But you’re giving Mino now a lot of time to climb up and to grab that bomb. Meno with 10 seconds. And Chopper hasn’t gunned him down just yet. That’s where he’s going to catch him. The pass to the apartments. And in a game where Blitz is finding as many clutches as he is, you know, Chopper has to step up in that department, too. And the two kills up in Baps. It must be refragged. It doesn’t happen there for Spirit or for for Mongols. And now they’re one round away from actually closing this out. Terrible position for Menu to be in right as that lurker. He he comes out early enough to maybe bring the CTs over towards A. That’s all his job is. It’s not to pull out a 1 v one where the bomb is up in B apps and he has to run halfway across the map. Chopper was starting to scare me with just how passive he played that. Oh, definitely. Yeah, you’re just so worried about getting tricked. Like what if he’s watching? Here we go. Full-blown execute into the A play. We’ve seen good protocols and util out from the Mongols, but Shirou looking to be the showstopper with another multiffrag off moment. And you have given Donk enough runway to get in with his. But here are what are supposed to be the stars and they shall be cut down at the same impass. Donk is ready to end Mirage. Despite your best efforts, despite your attempts on Mirage, they will not fall like Vitality did. Team Spirit a two0 start in this best of five grand finals. Extra innings required, but it’s Spirit to be knocking Mirage out of the park. Now just one map separates them from lifting the trophy that lays right in front of us. Maui, that was an incredible map. I wish we had an hour to break down all the plays that went down in that one. But uh Mongols, we can see on their faces left frustrated, heartbroken after letting that one slip away. Oh, it’s got to sting. But yeah, so many points of emphasis, so many little bits that we want to break down in this one. So I feel like we we should just be diving into this because there are just so many aspects to this game. Let’s do it. Let’s go back to the first half because something you were kind of prophesizing VU is uh you don’t love the bite holds from Spirit. You expected Mongols to try and punish that. They were doing exactly that on the T- side. I think Chopper has done a serviceable job as a B site anchor. You can’t ask for that much more from Chopper. And later on into the game, he did a pretty solid job of it, especially going into that last round of the CT side. But early on, this is what we were looking for. Mongols have a very strong Bside hit. They have a lot of utility that works very well. And despite the fact that Spirit had a good idea of what was going on many times here, they had a third player there in support quite a few of these executes, the exec is just too strong for Mongols. And when they have the utility coming in behind them, their players are so confident taking these lines into the site. They just insta everyone at every angle they’re at. I mean, we have the rotate there in time. You have a second player and Donk rotating in as the third player as well. It’s not like Spirit is in bad spots, but Mongols are just beaming them off the server. I I I love the slight variations in their execute, too. I think they throw the molly in maybe three different places on this one. Sometimes it’s at bench, sometimes it’s empty pillars. And and honestly, it seems like it always either catches somebody or it also just creates new entry routes that they can take. And also the flashwork on it is just crazy. It feels like the first guy is blind over half the time there. Yeah, it’s just so well orchestrated as you kind of talked about, right? A bit telepathic between the mongers as well in terms of these executes. It made for a very competitive first half. Then we get to the end of it. There’s two ways you can look at this one. Amazing work from Blitz or maybe Shirou fumbled in the back a little. I think I’m I’m happy to look at it both ways, but the thing that jumped off the page that I was screaming about in the green room was Shirou’s moment. But the round itself is a great round from Mongols. They they kind of pull pull Spirit apart a little bit until Shirou he he expects the play through the smoke. He hits the second shot. I think in his mind this round is over. He’s thinking my team is going to finish it off. Just wait for them to finish it off. But Blitz picks up two and then the insane third shot. But the presence of mind from Blitz in this moment. He’s getting shot at in the side. He blocks off that angle, turns and catches the player swinging from Triple that he knows is going to peak on him. That is an insane game sense play. I feel like Shirou in many ways is the platonic ideal of what I want in an oper. He hits the easy ones, plays fairly conservatively, and then he goes for pop off moments with the no scopes. Oh, wait. I’m just describing how I like simple to play. It wasn’t like a, you know, it let it unravel for the rest of the map, right? Like Shirou was really showing up in a lot of the instrumental moments. Sure, maybe a blip on the radar when we’re looking at round 12, but he he he recovered firmly after that. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, he was one of the main factors, a driving force into why this was such a great defense for Spirit. Yeah, that round 11 we saw a couple seconds ago, that was the only bite hold they’ve ever had on that on that side, I think. and Shirou in general when Donk is having an off game, we need Shirou activated and we need Zoe activated. We had Zoe activated to some extent and Shirou absolutely popping off the server with some of these frags especially later on. Well, uh we obviously focused on the approach from the Mongols on their T-side. Bit of a different story when we’re looking at Spirit on the other hand because there was a lot of focus towards that connector area. Why was that? I mean, I feel like we we saw just one side of the equation where I mean, Mongols created a clear game plan. They wanted to focus on chopper. They wanted to focus on the bite. They love their executes, but on the connector hits for Spirit, it just opened up the map for them beautifully. I mean, I feel like if you have Donk, if you have the common utility, it allows you to just also create a lot of variations, too. And whereas in some ways in my eyes, Mongle’s maybe more singular in the approach, connector just unlocks the A bomb site in so many different ways, even going all the way deep into overtime where you get you you conditioned the Mongols to think you’re always going for it and then you just go for the window boosts as well. Yeah, this this is a connect this is a connector play that they’re going for quite often that I actually you want to see you see Mongols try and avoid. They go for the early round early on in the half. They were actually going for a lot of aggressive plays in mid. Then they wanted to play a little bit further back and give up the connector a little bit. But through and through throughout their T-side, Chopper and Spirit in general were just constantly pounding home connector and getting into great positions. And I wanted to highlight exactly why they got into those positions as well. But showing out the way these rounds actually end. Yeah, this is this is what I’m talking about when I say the way they get into these positions. Oh yeah, Mongols they they play they play their CT side in a little bit of a different way than a lot of other teams do. Uh they they don’t always smoke off palace. They they they focus smokes often times on towards ramp which is not the meta way to do things. So if you watch the entirety of this half, Zontics is in palace every single round and they’re often going for these double lurks out a and because Zix is in palace, he can give support for the connector player. It’s really uncomfortable for Mongols to be in in the jungle area to actually defend against those plays and Zantics can also flash them out of connector. Flash the jungle player that’s trying to cover the cross. So that’s one of the the downsides to Mongol’s play style. They have an idea of how they want to play, but it does leave some openings. You saw Mazinho just get pinched because of that play so many times. I mean, sometimes he’ll be able to just get the one. He’s swinging out wall on fire just gets one person towards ramp, but it’s not enough when the when Spirit’s just swarming onto the bombite from multiple angles like that. It’s just a nightmare for them. Yeah, super calculated with Spirit to kind of identify that weakness early on. Obviously, we saw Chopper taking advantage of it, but mostly Zay managing to get a lot of those entries towards that position and just so instrumental, so impressive from a player that is so new to the Spirit squad. For him to actually take it upon himself to look for some of the entries he does while on extremities is uh showing that he’s already gaining a level of comfort for this team that it doesn’t look like every single pick he’s getting is drawn up. Sometimes he just goes for a swing, takes a fight in a default, and then he’s just giving his team an advantage that they otherwise wouldn’t have. And frankly, I don’t know if Magix would have done that, too. So, just the one to one, I think Zoe is just a tad more aggressive because he believes in his mechanics so much. I give credit to Magix because he’s often he was often put in situations where he wasn’t expected to get the kill and and it you have to respect the ability and willingness to go for that. But Ze is able to go for that, but also find the kills. He finds entries constantly. He’s one of the few players that can go for a ton of entries in a T-side and actually go 50/50 or above despite having more usage than almost anyone else. Just to round out the conversation, cuz of course, Mongols, they do let this one slip through their fingers. Does that give you kind of any warning signs moving on into the later stages of this grand final? I mean, it’s it’s not getting any better. I mean, this is the map that they’ve taken from Vitality. They they’ve looked pretty I would say even just world class. It’s to me it’s their bread and butter map. There’s a big warning sign at the top right of the screen. They’re down to zero. That’s that’s a pretty big warning sign going into a spirit pick. Obviously, they expected Ancient in this map pool, but there’s there’s more than a few warning signs. We rarely ever see reverse sweeps happen in a best of five final, and the time for Mongols to begin is now. We’re going to be diving into Ancient. The pickoff spirit, however, on the other side of this break. [Music] [Music] [Music] The Mongols must turn this ship around now, but rough waters lay in wait because it’s the map pick of Spirit. That map is ancient and it’s been looking very solid for them since the addition of Sway. What kind of engagements are we looking at uh for this particular map, Maui? The marquee matchup has to be Blitz versus Donk. And Blitz has been incredible on this map. In fact, I think he’s actually their highest rated rifler when it comes to the CT side of Ancient. He’s very frequently involved in all of the opening duels. But we unfortunately could see a little bit of a preview there back on Mirage where Blitz kind of sacked the the connector area, the fact that it was a focal point from Spirit. And if you really are taking these two guys headtohead, would I want the best fragging in-game leader in the world or do I want the best rifler of all time? Yeah, I think we’re taking Donk in that matchup. Maui, I think we’re taking gong. But so far, so far in this series, one of the things I wanted to highlight is that you’re going to have Mongols starting on CT side, and they’ve been getting run over in terms of opening kills. Mongols have the best CT side in the top 20, and they’re the best at converting 5v4s and getting opening kills. But so far in this series, they’ve been getting destroyed. I think it was 105 on their CT side to this T side of Spirit. In that last map, it was 84 in the first half of Nuke. They were getting destroyed. They struggle when they’re down 4v5. They struggle to convert those rounds. They need to find a way. That match up is a perfect example. They need Blitz taking down Donk, which doesn’t sound likely, does it? It doesn’t sound like something that players often able to do. Um, tell me about the spirit side of the situation when you’re integrating Zoe onto this very map because it’s one of the maps where he had to change some positions from that of Namiga prior. So, how well has he been kind of fitting into that? Yeah, for Nimiga, Zay was the donk for that team. He was swinging out middle frequently. Now he’s lurking towards that B site, but he has been rock steady. This to me has been one of the most un unprecedented seamless transitions for a young upandcoming player like Ze for to become a brawler to a guy that just needs to be a safe pair of hands on one of side of the map. He’s keeping space so frequently for Spirit and he uses all of the spots possible in that lane side. I actually really like Zay on the CT side of this map as well because sometimes he’s left completely alone on his lonesome to try and defend the B site when they’re going for mid control when they’ve lost Chopper in towards Cheetah when they’ve down in situations. We saw so many times against Ma that Zay was the backbone of that B site actually holding it going for doubles and making plays possible. So Shirou in the clutch actually has a chance rather than just falling and they’re in a 3v5 and it’s just unwinable. This is a painting a pretty dire picture then if you’re rooting for the side of the Mongols. Is is this where it ends for them? I I feel like it’s unfortunately yes. I mean I I thought Mirage had to be the map for them. I if if I were to have picked any I thought that I thought that’s really just where they get so much of their best work done. Ancient on the other hand I almost see a way where this should just be the first pick of Spirit in almost every series now with how good Zways look. I mean we talked we’ve already talked about both sides of the map. He looks like he is infallible off of the fact that the first couple series he was making mistakes. So, he has progressed so rapidly and really slingshot them on this map. It all comes down to ancient. One final opportunity for the Mongols to keep their heads above water at the blast bounty grand final. I think Maui’s point is very valid. This could be the first pick of Spirit in every single series. And for me, I’m hoping that maybe that’s the one silver lining here for the Mongols that in this best of five, they would have anticipated this map being the first. And maybe that means there’s this new level of preparation that could somehow someway test them because the first two maps were truly tests. Mongols could have walked away with either. It’s more of their comfort zone that much for certain. But at this point, they’ve got to try to grasp for something. And if it’s not going to be Senzu, and if it’s not going to be 910, then maybe, just maybe, it’s the game plan. Yeah. I mean, Senzu 910, it’s like you okay, Donk wasn’t really there for most of Mirage, but Shiro very much was. And you can expect that Senzu and 910, those aren’t optional. You need to have them top of the board. That’s how they took out Vitality yesterday. You saw the disappointment for them at the end of the last map and the odds of this series getting flipped on its head. Go to nearly zero. The only team that’s really ever done this is Spirit in reverse sweeping a best of five uh a grand final. Mongols have more than their work cut out for them. Ancient is not a great place to start. A CT side to work with, but an opening death. And I think the desk highlighted very nicely as well their inability to win off man disadvantages. Got a molly still for Donk who then catches the only other immediate B player. That molly is a little wobbly and it’s also allaroo. It’s a fake as they walk into the A site for absolutely free. Donk is going to double back, get caught by the corner, but still react fast enough to kill Blitz. And I just hope we’re not living in a world where the Mongols have lost their fight. You could I mean, you could easily lose hope and lose steam and lose stamina all at the same time for sure. But the 910 head shot gets that retake going towards sight. Unfortunately, losing his teammate means he’s going to have to do all of this on his own. Two kills to Don, two kills to Zoe. That’s what Spirit are banking on. A tap of the bomb to cause a ruckus. Looking for others, but it’s really just this donut post plant. And they are giving him nothing. Oh, this is tough to watch. Late play out of Don to end it off. And that’s the pistol again for Spirit. I’m really glad that they talked about uh Ze and you know, we brought it up. It It really does feel like when Bit Bit first joined Na’Vi and how much potential he had before, but how uncomfortable he looked at first. And it’s almost made me feel like if you’re not at all uncomfortable at first, are you really going from tier two to tier one? Like how how aren’t you? You know, if you’re not having a few days where you know, provided you’re not one of these talents like Donk or super exceptional enom. Exactly. That there is a learning process and evolution and changes you have to make that should make you better before worse before you get better. Yeah. Um, Spirit have a system, you know, shooting gallery in the A site. AK goes down. Fast reaction for the mop up and it’s good. Shiru and Don get them all. I think there’s also this other side with roster moves that sometimes people forget when Robs goes to Vitality. We’re not talking like a ze to Spirit. It’s two potentially championship teams, but it’s one who’s making a gap up in tiers of Counterstrike. Rob’s coming in and slotting in so quickly. I feel like when those kinds of roster moves happen and they succeed so fast, it then puts an extra bit of pressure when we deal with these kinds of roster moves because you look across the board and you think, well, Vitality got instantly better. Mhm. That is the player caliber that Robs brings. And Zoe might be that one day, but you know, as a teenager, Yeah. to step into a team that’s supposed to beat the most winning team in CS2 history. And now he he’s on the team that has the longest streak currently. He has not lost a series with Team Spirit. Must be nice. And it might be two best of fives in a row as well without losing a map. Unreal. And before it was getting carried, now it’s doing the carrying. Yep. or even just picking up in the rounds where Donk can’t do it all. That’s that’s really all you need from him. But Donk on these angles on Ancient is a whole other beast. And so as you’ve become accustomed to the instant head shot and red room doing his best Donk impression with the time to kill and cave, he’ll peel back as there’s no overcommitment yet from Spirit. It’s just instant head shot right now. It just feels like no matter what spot Mongols are standing on, they’re not going to be able to find a way back. But um does anyone expect I expect to stay stable throughout this mentally? It’s Blitz. We see the fragility sometimes from Senzu and and 910 and they’re younger and less hours and everything, but that’ll help. kill one off site, but Galil in the back lines not going to make this any easier for the Mongols. Smokes in front of them, too. So, it’s not even like they can just sprint away from Shirou immediately. Oh, totally trapped. And Shiro goes to the other side of mid. They have to come forward into this. Dog’s going to step up to the plates with again a good head shot. A tap onto the bomb from Blitz to try to cause Chopper to panic. And Shirou’s now banking on wall bangs. Wa! He’s not even testing this. Damn, that’s a huge call out. I don’t think Chopper saw anything. Dead on as well. Shirou continues to spam through wall. No attempt at it for Blitz. So Tux tail to save and a three T-side start for Spirit. That’s I love that. That’s standing on right there. Chopper. I mean, he could have afforded to to go through, but there is a small chance Blitz then could have stuck the bomb afterwards. So nice call out and this will be the fifth three 0 start for Spirit in this series. It’s all the pistols, all the conversions. And unlike some of those other maps, now we’re talking about a Donk that is immediately to the top of the board on a map where he is comfortable all the time. 61 kickoff. M4 supported by the 57 gets the better of the A main aggression. You got Shirou down early. That’s obviously the one gun Blitz was afforded to hang on to and maybe Spirit have to slow this down. Slow squeeze to keep the streak going. Way oftent times will walk up banana by himself, take a fight on his own terms. Now waiting for the push to come down towards him. It’s a matter of timing though. He’s on the right side of this engagement. He’s watching two angles now. Two pistols alongside Blitz. Nate out, but he gets his gun back in hand as they go for the boost. And still gets Techno. They’ll run right by him. Donk trying to beat Zenzu out. Senzu’s got the M4. And Chopper coming in late is actually perfect versus Senzu. Is he going to turn around? Plus 910 with the AK over from that A site. That was one earned by Blitz. You’ve got a player locked into the cave corner. Don fighting it, but backs turn. Chopper great target prioritization. Cleans up that bomb site with ease while everybody else starts to kind of panic on the cave exit. Yeah, they’re moving nice. Chopper smooth as butter. So, the first gun round in round three is a win for Spirit. The single M4 got this round kicked off well, but the nade will end it swiftly. or zero secured. I guess the question is would Spirit have been able to beat Vitality too in this position with how strong they look? Is there a world where Mongols actually won two maps in this series despite losing all the pistols? That last one going into overtime certainly feels like it. Second gun round. Techno versus Zoe. Solo B play and Zoe right now. Flash from middle to try to get into this tool and he’ll lose it. A man advantage for Mongols. This has been elusive so far on Ancient. trying to draw out some utility. Great spot here for the Mongols. Looks like they might press up against the CT regression in middle. And this can help walk out towards B. Oh, the tap. Oh my goodness. Not to mention another one on Senzu for 93 and the adjustment. Damn Zenho. Oh, nade. I mean, you wanted the fight. You burned him out from behind the box. He was letting you live a little longer. Oh, that tap was nasty. Senzu is lucky to be alive as he took that head shot through the phase but off the bricks and Chopper is going to finish off with Don got started. Techno here low health because of that cave duel against Zay. At least he’s ahead of the utility but it’s going to take something massive or maybe a mistake. Zontics planting and he’s going to get gunned down. A little jump spot from a main’s not enough. The wall bang comes through from Shirro. 910 announces his presence towards Donut and a bomb scooped up as 910 goes quiet means Shirou can plant but back exposed to the CT spawn Shirou’s yet to consider this. Oh, he’s walking in front of the box. Doesn’t see him in donut. Now he might swing it around. Looks at it once, looks at it twice. He’s so now walked in on the angle. Smoke grenade and a miss shot from Shirou. It’s going to be a bit of panic here. 5second stick. He’s going to nate it open with the clock and still not finish his kill. Too much panic. A little frazzled. And that opens a door slightly for the Mongols. To be honest, he he actually played it well. Like he he still threw that nade out, had the Glock and just didn’t get an extra bullet in. But 910 nice wrapound even though Spir Shiro calls out his spot. And there’s that tap again. And the tap through the top step as well. And the flick over, man, what a monster. Oh, see how hard that is for 910. I think that was his last bullet. Still nice. just toss tossed the flash to Nona at least to put the uh plant down on the other side and gave themselves a chance. First time out call for Spirit. Shout out Techno 4K for gunning down the bomb planter. Bought his time very well. And again throughout this uh event, Spirit have not really had good T-side um T-sides on Ancient and still just absolutely crushed on CT. So they’ve nearly done the job already. Stuck in now. Don’s got your number. He’s also got teammates behind him, but oh my god. That was to be fair a very tagged up Mino. I’m not sure how much help. Thank you. Stanking street sweeper. Zontics softened it up so that Donk can just try to track while fully blind. Ears ringing, head spinning. Donk with another double. And you could feel it coming off the start of this T-side that Donk was not going to let his score sputter out like it did in the first two maps of this grand finals. He just started blasting. And I don’t think he’s going to stop. Yeah, he’s killing indiscriminately here. Spirit will group it up and find a vacant a site. Wongle’s just hoping to keep a few guns. What is it about Donk in the middle of Ancient that just always leaves me so shell shocked? As first, it’s the way that he can pivot. Um, he can he can turn he can dodge flashes, turn back around like 180, mouse in the middle of his mouse pad, aims perfectly because that’s the hardest thing to do when it comes to mid takes. You have to come out on your own teammates’s flashes and a lot of this is set up too. You know, who’s flashing and when and what teams you’re playing against. Um, and Don has to weave those and sometimes you eat the flash and he still gets a kill like you see there. So those two situations you have to be able to uh win versus hs that are going to take you down 30 40 health every single time you come out middle. Who better than donk who has some of the best instant headshot kills possible? That’s why you get so many multis. So in a world where it’s very favorable for tease to try the mid takes with their rifers running out mid despite the n damage that will come despite the flashes they know that will still come. Who is better than donk at doing both of those things? dodging instantly and instantly hitting head shot. This round actually puts that both into a display perfectly. That first shot if it wasn’t his first bullet would have meant Don gets neither of those kills. You can see the backup protocols behind him as well. Two other players not blind, but it’s the fact he does it without them. Blitz is just going to crank this one. flies towards L, but oh my god, how is he still alive? I don’t know. Second player in Chopper just tries to bail out. Leaves Zoe untraded in a round where it looked like Blitz should have got slapped upside the head after tracking to the wrong player. We go 5v3 with a smoke up. So fighting fire with fire here in the seventh round, but this is what we say when it comes down to the Mongols. They may be trailing 5-1, but as they start to lose, they don’t get slower. They don’t shell up. You just see these sprinkled in calculated acts of aggression. And here in the seventh, it works. Yeah, they don’t get safe, they get angry. But this isn’t a save yet for Team Spirit. They are actually organizing towards A. There will be some pressure on Zeno. I think he might be playing tall box if he can get over there. We’ll see. No, actually right now behind big not allowed to cross. He’ll hold the angle as they come out. Bones and then you cast the other two unprepared for the swing. So perfect round coming out of the Mongols. But that’s really cool cuz I feel like Blitz is actually in a spot where he didn’t even have to he didn’t have to did he have to adjust for that kill? I don’t know. He was CT. What I do know is that in in absence of 910 and Senzu were talking about the best fragging in-game leader yet again and the desk said that if that’s what you’re banking on, you’re not going to win. Yeah, I think I mean he Yeah, he can carry in some ways. Uh but Senzu in 910 like the okay the very minimum you still have to have a core. So it’s like Blitz great. He can be part of the core. Absolutely. He can be the third best player on this team. Menu can be fourth and he’ll still win. like he is good enough that those kills are impactful enough that the we saw the clutches, right? We’ve seen entries, we’ve seen lurks, he plays connector on Mirage. Like he has important spots. He gets lots of kills. His individual level is just as important as and more important than many other IGL’s, most of them in fact. But you still need to have a core. And a core in Counter-Strike is two other players. These days it feels like you need four to compete in the top five, but three is the minimum. Well, it’s a little more than he can’t do it alone in this buy. Three rifles for Spirit. But turns out Mongols have done enough to keep that economy all invested for round eight. Meno peels back. Zontics on the charge. Oh no, he gives his backup now. He’s a little bit frazzled as he goes back. Swings in over towards A910. You’ve got to kick it up. You’ve got players inbound. Perfect flashbang in order for them to get out from Donut. Zontics to the temple challenge drops it as Blitz is trying to charge outwards alongside Senzu. And Blitz is going to do it all if he has to. Every round finding a way to put his name on it. Shirou catches one, but Techno right there in the same place as his dead leader leaves Chopper smoked off. 1v2. He can go for the spray if he’s got this lineup. He has it. Oh, he does indeed. Instant head shot on that. Now trying the other side of the bomb. Chopper, you got to push. And he doesn’t even test it. No, he didn’t get on it. Oh. Oh, the step got him off. Does he spray a second time? He’ll jump back on. Does he get it? This one comes down to the wire, but I think he’s got it. Oh my goodness. Techno. Whatever. He did the math. That was like a sub one second each time. So, shout out Chopper just giving him the footsteps. Imagine being his teammates watching that go down. Yeah, hearts in your throat. But okay. And that’s it. Cleans house. All the money’s gone for Spirit. Good trades there for the Mongols. Let’s not think too much about that was that was his job finished, man. He maybe Chopper tried to like he tried to reveal himself without having vision, you know, just see if gets right to the end of the smoke. I think he did that as well on the B site. Remember when he was at the top of the smoke? Okay. Yeah. When he jumped. He he was literally just trying to reveal his shoulder or something and bait a shot. Show a little ankle. Yeah. Oh, cuz with the CS2 smokes, you can tell with the darkness now. Uh, okay. Mongols, just don’t lose this round. You put themselves, you know, Techno’s got you in a great spot now with that clutch. Okay, it’s 910, man. Oh, there’s too many shots that he’s he’s just not on point today. Oh man, you’re letting these pistols get real close. Good on him to take the risk of peeking back out. Techno knows that he’s in for a hold and a half because back sight corner and closest support down. It’s only the one out of Techno. Donkey Shiro Zontics the off the digs across the B site. Techno puts you in a golden position to try to get this CT side bash off. And now Shirou’s just hitting another. The pistols come through when 910 misses the cave shot and lets them get that 15 ft closer. I mean, I love that you pointed out because some would say, well, he gets away. He only takes damage. But as soon as you give up space, you create opportunities. And that’s all the TE’s are looking for is a little bit more space so they can get out to better angles. And they found that. And yeah, it’s it’s a it’s a huge knock-on effect, but your OP is only going to have a setup position, a fall back position, and one more maybe before they get smoked out or have to rotate out or whatever. You don’t want to drop that first opportunity. Not when you got pistolers like Spirit have. Not in a moment like this. Two two down in a series, you could be two up in a chance to basically equalize in this game after you win a clutch. And now your opponent’s running away with a T-side that they don’t even rely on straight up. 910 had regrets about his performance versus Vitality the first time around. And to be fair to the Mongols, you know, it’s their first best of five. And so every sort of new challenge has its own set of expectations and circumstances and will take a certain amount of reps to get through. They got that revenge versus vitality. I’m sure that was sweet and I’m sure it was so nice for 910 specifically to to feel that ability to win versus the number one, but now it’s like a new set of demons. The list of successful firsts for the Mongols is a long one. Yeah, that’s true. And as a team, it started within the last like 12 months. They’ve just been knocking down a whole bunch of challenges that most rosters will never be able to do even. And there’s no shame in the first two maps of this first best of five for them. Yeah. Besid besides the pistols, it’s the one thing you’re going to think about the most probably. You know, how could we have done that better? Ah, did we make any mistake? Did we choke on the pistols? Yeah. 1311 and an overtime loss with zero to the four. Hell, just win one. Win one of those maps. extend play, get a map in a B5. Put yourself in a spot where you can afford to lose. That is what could have been and what felt like could still be with that techno clutch and the advantage and the economy. Don’t want to write it off too soon, but Shiro out middle supporting Donkas. He will finally go down with nothing. Leg shot on Mzenho. Crazy find pushed him back. Enzo immediately regresses though. Real smart. He He knows now this is going to be B. They all know in fact Techno will back up as the cave player pushes out. It should be a foregone conclusion. Oh, careful now Senzu. Your teammates have both made safer decisions. And Zeno tries to then get it, but Zontic’s prepared for another layer of defense. Fast moving from mid. Senzu tucked in behind pillar. He’s losing all his team. And Shirou just keeps this so sharp. Spirit keep this so sharp. 910’s had some solid off shots, but not this one. Doesn’t even get a chance to fire. It is yet another round for Spirit. Brutal. This is the collapse, right? We You have the golden move like methodically. Meno coming back at a donut after getting tagged that hard. Spirit under 40 seconds. Have to make the move over towards the B site. He makes the reagion. You just have to buy a few more seconds. One guy on site has to get one kill and suddenly this round’s over. But they can’t do it right now. Donsks online. Shirou has been so consistent throughout this final. Pistols only for [ __ ] So they can make mistakes like that. Spirit flashing themselves coming up middle. Senzu hoping to rattle ahead with the Desert Eagle. Bomb sits outside of that doorway. Could have been a key kill, but there’s so many pieces here ready to go for Spirit. Shirou going to even keep this cave challenge going. That’s an off delivered over. Oh, Techno a second. And he grabs the off. Gets into the corner, but missed chance at the third. And you know, Donk is just so bloodthirsty that he’s going to run up into that site. He knows you’re going to try to take that angle to be the hero for this round. And so everything just gets shut down on by the sheer pace of Donk. And we can finally say here on Ancient, he has arrived in this best of five. Yeah, that’s one thing he does well no matter what. Let’s get around at the end. Did it at every map and now it’s just like the last map in general. Nice try from Techno, man. The 257 kills into the instant up upgrade. try to scoop it up right in between. And if Don Exactly. If he wasn’t so bloodthirsty, Techno would have been more prepared to actually turn that into three. It’s a sad reality that starts to burrow into the back of the Mongols minds. This fleeting feeling of a grand finals. It was one thing when you were in it on the first two maps of play, but down 83 05 in the pistols, knowing that you will need that sixth to even have any kind of a challenge on a map where you are outclassed. But they keep trying. You know, the Mongols is a team that has gotten beat up, but always stand back up, dust themselves off and impress us. Sometimes merely one event later. Right now, they’re running away from that B site trying to get ahead as the mid play is announced. Smoke fades and red room. This is looking like a fourth for the Mongols again. 05 in the pistols. The next one damn near necessary. Yeah, better late than never, but never late is better. And Zix here’s you jumping around. Just whatever you do, don’t go into that pistol by throwing this four versus two. And it looks like 910’s got it locked in. Zontics in the corner of red room. Challenge from both sides. And it is indeed that fourth. But if the Mongols don’t have a pistol in them, then I don’t think they have a chance in hell in this BO5 finals. [Music] I think minus magisk plus suitc is a no-brainer instead of mages. It’s a young blood and amazing firepower. I’m not sure if it was needed that much for them. I think mages was a good option. I don’t think he’s been playing his best and I think that Kosuka is just an amazing prodigy. Yoske show in the first tournament that he has the potential to be a really good player. It’s going to be quite tough for them at the beginning. You’re dealing with a star, a star, a star. It’s tough for the rest. Honestly, Kaook, it’s all aggressive players. So, you need like do some balance between this. The problem is like Tess just switch on the anchor position. So, it’s a new things for him. I think Tess has always been doing a good job, but I’m not sure if he’s the anchor that they really need. I don’t think they have that enter presence like Magisk had before. Obviously, Nico had to give up some of his roles, which is a big hit on him. Who knows, maybe he will become the best in his role as well. You have to figure it out on your own. You cannot take a template of another team or like phase 280. It don’t work like that. You need to slowly figure out every player have the pressure, but he showed that the first tournament, he makes silence a lot of people. The moment they got Kyuk and everybody expected them to [ __ ] win everything. So, I think it’s also tough on the players to handle the pressure. He finished 1.4 and for rating. So I think that he’s a crazy talent. On paper, it sounds like a very good change. We will have to see if it actually works out with Tukas firepower. You only get better from this point in my opinion. [Music] Ladies and gentlemen, Thanks for watching. [Music] The all elusive pistol round is what we’re waiting to see if Mongols can win or not. Problem is they weren’t able to catch those when they could have capitalized on a not so hot Donk. His impact still no doubt Bover back on Nuke. You know, we had that 3k in the fire to close out. It’s not like Donk disappeared in this series, but in this game he just comes flying off the press on that T-side. 0 and5 in first rounds for every half. Time to make it different. Donk is going to be by the sheer sprint down through the red room. He’s got so many teammates rushed. And in fact, of all the pistols, this is almost the one that goes worse. Shirro’s Berettas are going to seal it. Five players strong. Spirit too strong. That’s a team that knows they’re going to win the round. The way that Donk ran to CT, they knew exactly how to set up for that exact window pop. Donk threw this nade as he was running out. Didn’t have to hit anybody. He had all of his teammates here ready to catch the slack. It’s absolutely perfect. That is six out of six pistols in a row for Spirit in this series. Typical round two for Mongols. Double Desert Eagle. Unless an eco happens. It will literally be three 0 starts in every single map so far as well. Both sides. Yep. Of every map. 18 rounds in total. Just off pistol wins. Mongols haven’t broken through with lesser weapons. And Zontics going to let Shirou have a taste of it all. Donk, of course, never too far off. Comes in with the last one. But, you know, these were the kinds of rounds, these half buys where we saw Mongols versus Vitality pull it over top of them every once in a while. Really has not been a feature of this series. They’ve gotten kills at times with those moments. They’ve made Spirit a little shaky, but it hasn’t cost Spirit a map, let alone this series. So, there is the save. No plant that last round into a buyup now. It’s very solid looking. Mongols know they’ve got to get it together and fast. Don happy to duel. Senzu gets traded though. Nice refrag here for Zantics. Mid control still taken over by Mongols with the window smoke. Nice and plump. CT is getting active actually. Oh, that’s huge for Chopper. They have so big of a margin of error. Yeah, that’s Yeah, that’s exactly right. Like, do you take that risk otherwise? I mean, it’s just such a big gap that he finds. I say big gap in terms of opportunity, but like the window to grab it is so small. There we go. That’s what they need. Somebody to crack the whip for the Mongols. It’ll be Minho. No shadow scene. Here’s the bomb being plant. No, wait. What? Wow. Chopper. Yeah, that’s that’s what we’re talking about when it comes to margin of error. Yeah, that’s like Chopper is supposed to be one of the more levelheaded players on this team. Now Bong gets away at 50 seconds. It can go back. Shirou is actually thinking about getting to Donut so he can cut this off. But Mino’s coming back. Zay is waiting for his rotation back. Even if Shirou leaves. Oh, but Zoe starts to sprint it. Oh, okay. Okay. Now Z will get so far away that it’s not can kill him. They wanted to lay the plant, but knows now. Yeah. No, he doesn’t. Oh, he didn’t confirm that. No way. No way. Oh boy. Again, we’ve got a chance. There we go. It’s a sad realization as they’ll run back in. Will Zay clear all the donut corners right now? Letting his guard down. Oh, this shot. They cannot afford this cuz only have one health and maybe one health is enough for one more round. Flash deep. Zoe takes a wide angle. Flash is perfection. Zoe sticks it all the way. and hars it from beneath Blitz’s nose. It is insult to injury as we get late into this game. And Zeno with a back turned doesn’t get the kills and you see it. Yeah, it sucks because it’s a moment where like no opportunity was was present. Then maybe Blitz’s call, maybe his rotation creates one and then it’s dropped. Look at this move from Chopper. And as much as it is confidence and everything, it’s actually not rash because in that spot when he gets the kill, no one’s going to watch the molly that’s fresh on that run through. Now the smoke’s coming up on CT. There’s actually no chance to go for the plant again. It is just a good move. If the nature of the first two map losses was backbreaking, then this one’s starting to feel soul crushing. And that’s how you win with a heavy hand, right? You don’t actually just keep playing standard and let the other team adapt to you. You start throwing in confidence moves when the other team is just figuring out how to catch up to themselves. And you love to see that from someone like Chopper who for a long time, you know, he’s had his moments like where he’s gotten nervous and he’s not been able to find himself in really big games. That’s just not the case anymore. Spirit to number one. Chopper leading the team into this, but Don’s going to go down with nothing. Chopper chance to shine. Good move from 910, but the temple player in Zantics has still got a chance between both sides of the attack. Player gets out though. He’ll soften him up with a nade and not finish it off. So now 910 still sitting towards CT spawn. And again, gun rounds are still to be played here by the Mongols. They’ll break through in the 16th to give us a little more action in this grand finals. All right. Bomb has planted. Did actually bait this? Oh my goodness. He I thought Techno saw him. I was going to say the knives are done, right? No, Shirou alive. I don’t know. You know, this is Mongols trying to walk a straight line, balanced, one foot in front of the other. And these aggressive moves from Chopper to just pounce on them like that is just meant to keep them off that balance. comfort. You got Don and 910’s cover was just excellent catching Chopper like that so that the second CT player doesn’t get mowed down in the same spray as Chopper’s one kill. So, there’s something there to believe in. It’s for what it’s worth. It’s a great peak here. I like how Zantics approached this. He got Mino down to 54 health with his H. Really made that second trade possible. Would have been a heroic effort over on the A site, but it’s nice to see Mongols able to get back into this game at least somewhat. gives it up. There is a dangerous looking donut setup between Shirou and Donan there. But it’s not like the other parts of the map are without pressure. We see that flash making it a little awkward. But utility comes over top. And if the spirit pistols getting inside of cave were enough to take over this B bomb site, then I believe the Mongols rifle should too. Oh, but Sue go swinging in and drops one. So it’s not all entirely free. Bomb now to follow Senzu. It’s Blitz in pursuit, but a push onto the pillar here from Chopper. SMG holding top ramp knowing that cave is compromised. Swing starts to come out. The SMG on the smoke gets stopped by Blitz, but that’s still a bomb yet to exit out from cave. 35 seconds. Wallbanks trying to find Chopper looking to chip away at his health and he is still somehow standing distracting for the dink and 910 top comes through. But now it’s Chopper still 35 health and he is there to end it. How does Chopper dodge death for that long from that many different directions? You can’t explain it, man. You can’t explain it. You just have to watch and appreciate it. Chopper right there jumping out to replace the anchor that they thought when he was dead that this site was wide open and that they could use their smokes. No, he was a huge distraction. They can’t spam on the back of default. They had to come out and try to scale. Banana was smoked this whole time. Clock was ticking down and Chopper knew that time was on his side, but just enough for Don to come through and get the highlight, but it really was all Chopper. Now Pistol is going to try to gun him down. This is the Mongols classic. This is what have gotten them into openings before, but three players to exit a main in the face of a team spirit that is playing like a team very quickly after replacing a player who was instrumental to their run back in Shanghai. Magic’s shoes are not easy to fill, but Sway has done so. He has found impact throughout this playoffs, through this run, dispatching of their challengers and keeping a good amount of distance between them and Mongols in the finals. Yeah, it’s a slow on boarding process. It feels more akin to Jabby coming onto heroic or bit coming on to Na’Vi. It looks healthy. It looks like it’s moving in the right direction even though it was touted as a risk. This way we saw from the MIGA is starting to show on Spirit. They’re going to make him work for this cuz he’s now left alone for a second. Donk takes it over to the red room as the bomb gets boosted up green. So Zoe’s got another chance here in Malta to shine if he can pull this off. He’s got Don by his side. You trade out Donk and this game is yours. You can be the guy to close it. And so he will with Mzenino’s bomb dropped out in the open. Senzu from not a position he’s too proud of not finding his game in this grand finals. the final player to fall. Back-to- back champions in 2025. From Cologne to Malta, from Bounty 1 to Bounty 2, and an onboarding process criticized because Magic’s a fan favorite felt like it wouldn’t be easy to replace. We’ve seen it now. His best game on Mirage for Ze gives us a reason to believe in a spirit that is still in the process of building. Yeah, and Zontics picking up a win here has got to be special. And for this team, we realize the system and the organization may be bigger than any one of the individual players because they found it and made it fit in a way that you couldn’t expect. No series lost since joined this team. And that comes with a cologne. That comes now with a bounty. And that opens them up to the rest of this season where there is still a major, where there are still big S tier events left to win. Vitality and the first season, the best season in history, and somehow Spirit are right there and now in the number one spot in the world. They’re waiting for Vitality to step back into grand finals so they can take a piece out of them. But Vitality nowhere to be found. Instead, I present to you the Blast Bounty 25 season 2 champions, Team Spirit. [Music] [Music] [Music] this man for a second. Chopper. Two events since the break, two grand finals, two best of five victories here. Two trophies for team spirit. Is the spirit of 2024 back in action. I don’t know. We get some lucky and we get good shape. Let’s see what we’re doing next. Now, I keep asking you about him. There’s one thing that changed. There’s this young guy’s way who’s coming in. We’ve seen him blossom over this event from just holding his own to dominating on maps. What is he changing about this team? Uh he give us more freedom, more firepower and uh more flexible that flexibility. We’ve seen different looks. It’s not just been the Donk show. We’ve had Shirou, we’ve had Ze, we’ve had Zontics, we’ve had you carrying on maps. Is this a flexible spirit that’s ready to contend with any challenge? I don’t know what what do next. We can try to win every tournament where we play, but let’s see what’s what happened next. I’m curious to hear. Last season it was the story of Vitality. You haven’t actually met them since Lisbon. Are you waiting for that test for them to make it far enough to actually challenge you in one of these finals? We try to do that. Dunk, I’ve got to ask you a question. One more interview. One more interview here. Once again, you’ve dominated, but this time it wasn’t just you. Do you feel that this is a spirit team now that has more building around you? Yes. Can anything stop you? I hope no. There you have it. Spirit reborn. Can anything stop them? Malta, your champions. Team Spirit. Backto back flawless best of five. Spirit were absolute demons in the server tonight. And I love what Mike alludes to there. It feels like Spirit of 2024, the ones that won IM Kavita, the ones that obviously won the major in Shanghai, feels like they might be returning. Maui, they look revitalized. Zoe has been a shot in the arm for them in terms of the not necessarily the scoreboard and what it looks like for him as an individual at the end of it, but it’s that on any given round, you can count on Zway to change the face of a few of them. The way that he’s able to find entries, slither through to defenses, it’s sneaky, it’s tricky. It allows Chopper to have a new tool in his shed. If you want to look at Zoe in one way to to see the positives he brings, it’s really the opening kills he can get on the T-side because Magix’s he went for the plays. He was put in situations, but he generally wasn’t all that successful. While Ze as his replacement actually finds a ton of success in those opening kills, even ones where he’s supposed to be losing them, he can be a good B to to Don’s A on going for openings, and that gives them so many different options. It’s an absolutely incredible outing when you consider Sway literally just joining the side of Team Spirit. We talk about the fact that they won IM Cologne and then they do it once again here in a space of just a few short weeks. Maui, it it’s exceptional what he’s been able to put on the server and translate immediately into results. The progress for Spirit is seemingly linear. That’s what’s got to be terrifying for everybody else that’s playing against them now that is in the running as contenders. Teams like the Mongols, there was a chance for them to probably beat a team like Spirit 4 months ago, but this version of Spirit with Zoe finding those entries on Ancient, I mean, he was he was terrorizing the players on the Mongols towards that B bomb site. So now it’s just such a scary look because you think you can avoid Donk on one side and then Ze, he can hold his own two on the other. Yeah, there was a time when you look at Spirit and you’re thinking counter donk. Shirou’s a little too passive and Shirou won’t be able to get anything done. then we can go from there. But now you’re looking at a spirit squad where they have Donk and if Donk’s not activating, Zay can still get the openings for their closers in Shirou and for now for Zantics. Shout out to Chopper throughout this series as well. Some exceptional cooling, particularly when we’re looking at the T-side now being a little bit more tricky to be working around. Um, and particularly on this map of Ancient, which is just seeming like such a strong pick for Spirit. This is I don’t know. They picked it second in the series, but I feel like Ancient’s got to be their home map. This was so dominant. We were saying it in the pregame. In my eyes, this probably should have been their first pick. But for Chopper, he’s got to relish the fact that he’s got the new tool in Zway. But I also want to just give a brief shout out to Holly. I feel like Holly too is coming up with so many of these game plans, which has proved so effective for Spirit. Yes, a lot of the focal points are around Donk getting some sort of space, but he’s definitely given enough room for people like Shiro to get his own openers when he’s going for those contact plays with the OP or for way to poke and prod on his extremity. I want to echo that exact same sentiment because for so much of this year and part of last year, you would have teams and players in interviews, they would say Spirit, they they don’t run a bad game plan, but they run a simple game plan. You know what you’re getting out of them. you know, the looks they’re going to give you and they do it well, but it’s it’s basic and that we can game plan against it. But now you have, I think in the last couple events, Spirit have really shown the ability to adapt very heavily to teams to give them different looks, to show different things that you you weren’t really expecting coming out of Spirit. So, even with the player change, I think the the adaptation of their strategy is the most impressive thing to me. Call me crazy, but I imagine I I’m theorizing here, Maui. This will be another Donk MVP and it will be his 10th MVP in total in his career. He’s just far stacking them up, right? It’s pretty safe to assume that Freya I don’t see any way that Shirou could take it from him. Sure, Shirou had that one great map on Mirage and he and honestly I think during the online portion Don might have actually lost some of that claim, but the way he bounced back throughout the playoffs on land in Malta is just par for course at this point. It feels unbelievable to even say that a player that has such a a role that has really been you you build up what the most impactful player can possibly be. And I don’t see how you craft anything other than what Donk does in the server. Getting entries for the team, being able to play out mid rounds incredibly well. And it’s a player that you could devise an entire system for and he will always seemingly deliver. Listen, if we were playing golf where you have duos and you take the best shot, then we might be able to combine Zway and Shirou and say that together they had the most impact, they could be the MVP. But the reality is one player, it’s Donk. And even for an event where they didn’t play that many best of threes, Donk had a negative best of three, the first he’s ever won with Spirit, while being negative, he still ends with something like a 1.48 rating. Like it’s just it’s actually unbelievable that going into this you could say this is an off event for Donk. He still ends by far the highest rated player. And I’m ignoring one of the uh most interesting small details that we picked up on during that trophy lift. Zont stepping on forward and being the one to be hoisting the trophy first. If that doesn’t, you know, allude to a maybe the rumors potentially being true, I I don’t know what will. I love that Spirit give the honors to their gatekeeper of various bomb sites. the the body shot legend, the stoic king, the heartthrob of Chinese girls on social media, everything about Zontics has created such a such a great persona and whatever happens after I I just hope that he lands on his feet because he is honestly such an incredible player. Honestly, I feel like he was we probably we we were so drawn to the Zway story and obviously it’s so hard to avoid talking about Don Shiro, but Zontics held up his end of the bargain so many times. I can’t imagine that he won’t have a ton of offers coming his way. If not, have they already happened, right Vu? Like surely this is a if this transaction is going to go ahead, somebody is going to be putting their hands on it. I’m really interested in how this is going to work out for Spirit themselves to be honest because you look at it and you can say Ta for Zantics is an upgrade, but when you have something that’s working, you don’t want to change that. We saw it happen with Ants with Alex B. They replaced Alex B for an upgrade in theory. went really downhill for them back when they did that. Zontics for Taer in theory. Tener is an upgrade, but I don’t think they were expecting to win back-to-back tournaments when they when they did that one. No. No way. I mean, I I feel like if if Spiran knew this was going to take place, that you’re going to take Cologne, that you’re going to take the bounty and who knows what happens at EWC. I I feel like you would say maybe we pumped the brakes on that one there. But honestly, I’m I feel like Zantics to to give him the trophy lift, it it actually made me emotional there. It actually was a a great moment and who knows like the thing is professional players have talked about this before. You never know when it’s your last and for the heights that Zontics has reached with this roster. You don’t know if this one is his and so for them to give him that honor. I honestly I I give a lot of respect to Spirit as a whole because that’s that was clearly planned. Yeah, that’s exceptional sportsmanship coming out of the side of team Spirit. Um moving back to the Zway conversation, is he now in contention for your rookie of the year? No, no, no, no, no, no. Relax there. Moloy, Mido’s got that. Maloy has been too way too good actually. Ghost. Ghost could be actually depending on how he does in the second half. But I’ve se I’ve seen enough sample size of MOI to know this guy’s serious business. I like Zoe. It’s a great it’s actually been great. In fact, I would even just say now it’s an upgrade. And if anything, that’s the that’s the biggest praise I could give for Zoe right now. That to fill the shoes of Magix who had such an incredible like I’m never going to forget what he did to FaZe. Like he ruined FaZe on Nuke. He destroyed them on that map in those grand finals of Shanghai. But his way, we’ll see if he’s able to do it on the biggest stage, something similar, replicate that kind of success. But in terms of consistency, map to map, he is he’s been a stud. Yeah, that’s I mean that’s his way where you have to realize there’s levels to it. Mido has been around on Furia. He revitalized that team. Zoe is replacing someone who was a fan favorite, great player, but at the same time, he he needs to he would need to pull off some donk numbers to actually overpass Maloi for the year. Well, another grand final in the books for the Mongols and sadly going home second place once more. So, let’s get a few closing thoughts courtesy of Darth Mike. Minho, tough loss here. Best of five down the stretch. Spirit were a little too strong today. What went wrong for you? Uh, I think we had the opportunity to win the first and second maps and I made so many micro mistakes. And that’s cost us a loss. And yeah. Yeah, that’s it. Another step closer to the trophy. Now we’ve seen two grand finals for you guys at these top tier tournaments against top tier competition. This was the first time where we saw you take down one of the big dogs. Do you think this Mongols team is ready to take that next step? Is in that upper echelon now? Yeah. Can I say the last part again? Are you one of the absolute top teams at this point? At this point, I think yeah, and we’re improving as a team, made to finals, improving as a team. That means a lot for me. And we’re going to keep improving and trying try to be the like same as spirit vitality level at every time. So, I’m so happy that we’re improving as a team and making tournament finals. Yeah. What do you think that last step is to lift the trophy? Last. Can you say the last step between you and lifting that trophy? I think it was experience for me. Experience. For me, I have I’m little bit low on experience. I think against the stems. So maybe experience. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate those words from Minho as always, particularly after what was just such a catastrophic end to this grand final because we’re talking about two maps that were so close, such entertaining Counter-Strike, and it just felt like it was a they were out of gas when we moved on to Ancient. It definitely blew up in their faces on the final map of Ancient. Uh the first two felt like they spent absolutely everything. And after those kinds of attempts, it’s hard to muster anymore, especially against what I would argue is Spirit’s Best in Ancient. Yeah, that’s that’s just a heartbreaking loss for Mongols. And when you look at it, they’re wearing their heart on the sleeves. You had Mazinho in one of the last rounds there miss someone from behind. And you could see he was he was heartbroken when that happened. It’s just it’s it’s such a lovable team and to see them lose in a fashion like this where I think at points they deserve the map. They played so well for so much of that and to not even come out with a map to come out which is on paper it’s a 3 0 no matter how well you played you can’t feel too great about that and if they’d have just won a pistol in one of those maps right it could be a completely different fate we could be heading into a map four right now I mean how how do we even break this down without bringing this up I mean to go 0 and six on pistols especially when you have two incredibly close affairs on the first maps I mean you got to break these ones down a little bit I mean you got to look back because gun rounds you played very well most of the time on the anti-eos barring what happened on ancient you also played quite well and the strategies I would say maybe didn’t match spirit in every single capacity but there’s there’s really a case that they played better throughout 90% of the game but the mo what is arguably the most important round of each half they fumbled yeah if you look at this as if it was a best of three they those first two maps I think they probably won more gun rounds than Spirit did I think they did an incredible job with guns in hand and you can you can thrive off of that. You need to win gun rounds. They’re probably the most important rounds other than the pistol rounds. If you can’t win a pistol, you need to win a conversion. You need to win a round two or you need to win a round three. And they weren’t able to do that either. So, as much as we can say what we really like what Mongols did, they just couldn’t win the pistol. When you lose 6-0, there there’s a reason you were losing those. You have to go and find out why and fix that. And it’s such a shame because it tarnishes what was otherwise, you know, some really great game planning coming out of Mongol. Some great individuals firing off. Obviously, I’m kind of putting at ancient in a different category, but those first two maps of Nukem Mirage, super entertaining and some uh real amazing moments coming out from the Mongols. I mean, it was great. We got to see strats versus strats. I mean, Chopper was calling a good game on Mirage. You could argue that Blitz was even calling a better one. The individuals are going to look back at these moments and try to blame them. look at and how to fix all of those gun round mistakes cuz that’s generally what you think of when when you when a single round is seared into your brain. Mazinho is going to look back at when he was in donut when he missed that spray down. But in reality, I think the big macro picture for them is that you just can’t win when you lose 0 and six on pistols. It because they did a great job on the gun rounds. So, they got to really kind of zoom out for a second and just realize, okay, there’s one facet to our game that could have gotten us over the line today and fix it. If I can give Mongols a little bit more credit, I mean, that’s a 910. we talked about before the game. He’s their second best player at times, their best player. So impactful with the OP. He wasn’t really there in the final the way we normally see him. I think he ended with their lowest rated as their lowest rated player. We saw time after time he was missing easy shots, shots he always hits, but they still brought those maps very close. We had great rounds from Techno. I thought he was their most impactful player for much of this series. We had so many good things going for them. If they just had everything they had here, and sad to say, because I’m sure 910 is beating himself up over it right now, if 910 showed up the way he normally does, we’re going to map 400% regardless of pistol. I can only imagine. Um, let’s just take a moment to kind of take a zoom out and look at the context of both these teams now that we’ve had a couple of tournaments into this new season. I believe now Spirit are number one in the live BRS standings. Correct. They do surpass Vitality with this win. Where do you kind of uh place the Mongols in terms of okay, massive result taking down Vitality, making it competitive versus Spirit? Where where are they in your standings right now? The power rankings between me and Vu, I feel like Spirit one, I’d still want to put Vitality too. They have to be two. Yeah. Yeah. Even despite the semi-final losses consecutively. Number three is where it gets a little bit trickier. I because in in some ways Mongols and Ma have accomplished very similar things at this point but the problem is that actually to Maus’s credit I mean they did it on a bigger stage in Cologne arguably but for Mongols you made it now to the major grand finals which is the biggest stage and then you also make it to the grand finals here so I mean it’s it’s tough I’m splitting hairs I’m off of dome I’m going to put h I want to put mouse 3 really badly I really want to put mouse 3 it’s been a longer time that they’ve been up Yeah, it’s a long I want to put Mongols three, but not necessarily based on the performances we’ve already seen. I just see Ma is on a bit of a downturn. I see Mongols is on the upswing. I think by the next time they meet, I think there’s a good chance Mongols will be the better team and they will they will take down Ma. But we need to see a headto-head. We haven’t seen one in a bit. We need to see Ma versus Mongols to solidify who really is. And we also need to see Spirit versus Vitality. It’s been a hot minute since that’s happened. Maybe, fingers crossed, that might happen in London. That’s going to be going down in a few weeks time. There’s still tickets available, so get your hands on those now. Uh, London is actually my city. It’s kind of your city as well, Maui, in a way. You did live there. Any recommendations for the people out there if they’re joining us for the open? Just like Zantics on a bomb site, I gatekeep. I’m not telling people my spots. What are you talking about? Mommy actually has a whole map, so DM me if you want to get the restaurant recommendations from that. Um, VU, it has been an absolute pleasure to work a desk with you. Have you had fun up here? It’s been a great week. No, I hated it. No, it was it was great. I think we had a great desk. We uh I really enjoyed working with you. I think we’ve worked together once a long time. Online, so we’re discounting that. We’re not online, Vu. We’re Lanners. That’s what we are. A huge thank you to all of our sponsors, in particular, Gaming Monster, for allowing us to call this beautiful studio our home for the past few weeks. And as always, massive shout out to production for making this show possible. We’ll see you in just a few weeks at Last Open London. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Love you. [Music] [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music]
https://BLAST.tv/live – 100% certified best place to watch BLAST Premier Bounty in 1440p! 📺
The underdogs have their eyes on the bag LIVE from Malta 💰👀🇲🇹
BLAST Premier Bounty S2, GRAND FINAL (rolling start):
Team Spirit vs The MongolZ – Bo5 (16:00 CEST)
This is BLAST Premier, the YouTube channel dedicated to bringing you the very best in competitive CS2 matchplay!
We’ll be streaming live from our CS2 tournaments around the world, featuring the world’s elite CS2 teams. Can’t catch it live? Don’t worry we’ll also be bringing you the best CS2 highlights and clips from our tournaments.
🔔 Never miss a single frag, subscribe to the BLAST Premier now: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9k–dE_UE0Faxzgb_DDkYQ?sub_confirmation=1
🔔 Missed some of the action? Subscribe to our BLAST CS2 Highlights Channel!
https://www.youtube.com/@BLASTPremierHighlights?sub_confirmation=1
▶️ Check out our BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUyxNQ-iXnxhSrwxeq-WwV6SNT3LDy3O8
📣 FOLLOW BLAST:
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/BLASTPremier
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blastpremier
🦋 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/blastpremier.com
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blasttv
Check out our NEW BLAST.tv app currently in beta!
App Store 👉 https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/blast-tv/id6474734441
Google Play 👉 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.blast.portal.android&hl=en&gl=US
#BLASTPremier #CS2 #LIVE #livestream #esports #gaming #counterstrike #cs #BLAST #blastbounty #blastopen #blastrivals #cs2gameplay #cs2esports #counterstrike2
About Counter-Strike 2 (from its Steam page):
For over two decades, Counter-Strike has offered an elite competitive experience, one shaped by millions of players from across the globe. And now the next chapter in the CS story is about to begin. This is Counter-Strike 2.
A free upgrade to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 marks the largest technical leap in Counter-Strike’s history. Built on the Source 2 engine, Counter-Strike 2 is modernized with realistic physically-based rendering, state of the art networking, and upgraded Community Workshop tools.
In addition to the classic objective-focused gameplay that Counter-Strike pioneered in 1999, Counter-Strike 2 features:
All-new CS Ratings with the updated Premier mode
– Global and Regional leaderboards
– Upgraded and overhauled maps
– Game-changing dynamic smoke grenades
– Tick-rate-independent gameplay
– Redesigned visual effects and audio
– All items from CS:GO moving forward to CS2
The Counter-Strike esports scene is one of the biggest and most popular of them all, and have been for over 20 years! For CS2, BLAST Premier are dedicated to bringing you the most exciting and enjoyable viewing experience that the pro CS2 scene has to offer! 💥