FURIA is in the Grand Finals of Intel Extreme Masters Krakow, beating Team Spirit 2-1. Having outlasted them in Mirage, followed by a tough beating in Dust2 and returning the favour on Nuke, FURIA showed up with another top-tier performance, continuing the momentum.
VETO
- FURIA removed Ancient
- Spirit removed Inferno
- FURIA picked Mirage
- Spirit picked Dust2
- FURIA removed Anubis
- Spirit removed Overpass
- Nuke was left over
Map 1: Mirage; Pick: FURIA; Winner: FURIA
With a successful retake kicking off the defence for Spirit, FURIA managed to level the scoreline by converting the following round. Winning 6 rounds on the back of that, the Brazilian side found themselves in a 6-2 lead, only to give up the final round to Spirit’s defence and level the scoreline before switching sides. Despite Spirit taking the early lead with a sh1ro clutch, FURIA fought hard to take back control, countering Spirit’s mid-heavy plays round after round. Little by little, the South Americans built a solid scoreline on the defence to hit map point before Spirit won the final two rounds of the series to level the scoreline. Getting back on the scoreboard in the first round of OT, FURIA managed to pull in two consecutive wins in the second half to close the first map and take an early lead. A 30 kill AWP masterclass laid out by FURIA’s young gun molodoy proved to be too much for the CIS side to handle and became instrumental in giving his side the 14-13 win.
Map 2: Dust2; Pick: Spirit ; Winner: Spirit
A quick 1v2 clutch from YEKINDAR sent FURIA to winning ways to kick off the game. While Spirit managed to go toe to toe with them, FURIA remained largely dominant, with Spirit chiming in for a few rounds, making the half very competitive. Switching sides with a 7-5 lead, FURIA gave away the lead to Spirit as they ran a 7-0 streak to close out the game and level the scoreline in dominant fashion. From a close loss on map 1, Spirit levelled the scoreline with a 13-8 win. After a slow start to the series, donk showed up big time for his side to take the series to a 3rd map, dropping 23 kills while zontix showed up with impact across both halves.
Map 3: Nuke; Pick: Decider; Winner: FURIA
Following a disappointing defeat, FURIA got off to a better start with a 6-0 start on the offense of Nuke before Spirit could see a round. Total domination on the offence saw the Brazilians dismantle the Spirit defence piece by piece with a proactive approach. Spirit managed 2 rounds to make a total of 3 by the end of the first half, as FURIA got one foot in the finals before switching sides. 4-0 start for Spirit cut the scoreline, and as they were on the verge of mounting a comeback, FURIA picked up the momentum once again. Winning their first round on the defence, FURIA picked up the 4 rounds they needed and closed the map with little effort. With all the experience on the FURIA side, the young gun of Molodoy came up with the second huge map of the day, with 24 kills to send this team through.
Spirit under a new IGL hasn’t exactly been the team everyone expected them to be, but for them to go out in this fashion is anything but unexpected, given how put-together this FURIA side is. Only time can tell if Magixx as an IGL will work out for this side, but this exit in this fashion should call for introspection within the team.