#Heroic defeated #Spirit 16-8 on the Russians’ chosen map, #Vertigo, before winning the match 16-14 on Overpass to secure a 2-0 victory in their #IEMRioMajor quarterfinal series. Heroic’s members all pitched in and helped the team win, but captain Casper #cadiaN Meller set the bar high, finishing as the series’ top fragger with 40 kills, and carried the team with a 1.24 rating.

Spirit exits the Rio Major competition in 5-8th position, bringing an end to their campaign there. Early on both maps, they held the upper hand, but their inability to take advantage of that advantage ultimately caused them to leave the Major.

Igor #Wonderful Zhdanov was outstanding on both maps and led his team with 47 kills and a 1.25 rating, but ultimately Spirit dropped to R despite his efforts.

The Match Recap

Spirit won the initial pistol round with to Pavel #s1ren Ogloblin’s quad-kill, gaining first blood in the series despite the adverse 2vs5 circumstance. The score stayed close at 3-3 until Heroic won six of the following seven games, increasing their lead to 9-4, thanks to several game-defining plays by cadiaN, René #TeSeS Madsen, and Rasmus #sjuush Beck. The Danes held a 10-5 lead at the half as Spirit repeatedly chose to target the A bomb site but were repeatedly stopped by Heroic’s defense.

On the CT side, Leonid #chopper Vishnyakov’s crew got things going by winning the opening two rounds and cutting their deficit to three. Heroic, however, would go on to prove to be too formidable a foe for the Russians, as they secured map point at 15-7 and defeated Vertigo 16-8 two rounds later. Sjuush was a crucial part of his team’s offensive performance since he let his rifle sing and casually dropped multi-kill after multi-kill.

Due to s1ren’s immaculate start with an 8-0 K-D, the Russians quickly increased their advantage to 3-0 after scoring the opening pistol on Overpass. Their early success was quickly overturned by Heroic, who mimicked their play on Vertigo and sped to an 8-4 lead behind Jakob #jabbi Nygaard’s server-high 14 kills.

The CIS team finally stopped the bleeding in the 13th round, and it appeared as though they would win the next round for themselves. However, an outstanding 1vs3 clutch from cadiaN gave Heroic the upper hand, and they were only six rounds away from the semifinals at the time of halftime.

As the second half got underway, Spirit started strong and won four straight games, cutting Heroic’s advantage to just one. The Russian team finally caught up to cadiaN’s team after seven rounds, leveling the score at 13 all.

Even though they had lost the momentum of the game, Heroic won the series with a 16-14 victory in the last regulation round after two late pushes onto the upper bomb site effectively ended Spirit’s chances.