Spirit oust Liquid from IEM Rio Major, claim final playoff spot

The youngest team in the tournament have sent the North American favorites packing from the event just shy of a top-eight berth.

Spirit have secured their spot in the IEM Rio Major Champions Stage after edging out a 2-1 victory over Liquid in the final match of the Legends Stage, sending the Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella-led side home from the tournament and locking in a back-to-back Major playoff berth for themselves.

The victory is an incredible result for Spirit, who came into the tournament with 17-year-old Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov playing his first Major with relatively little experience at the top level. The team previously made headlines when they made a heroic run to the semi-finals of PGL Major Antwerp, where they narrowly fell to eventual champions FaZe. The departure of Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov, one of the main catalysts in Spirit's run, shortly after the Belgian event cast some doubts on whether Spirit could pull off the same feat this time around, but w0nderful proved more than capable as a replacement and has helped the team make it through to the playoffs again, where they will face HEROIC in the quarter-finals.

Liquid can be nothing but disappointed after their exit from the Major, a tournament where they were considered a dark horse to claim the title before it began, and transformed into more of a favorite following the early exits of FaZe and Vitality. They will be left watching the rest of the Major from the sidelines and have some time to reflect on the loss before their next appearance at the BLAST Premier Fall Final, scheduled to take place from November 23-27.

chopper has led Spirit to another Major playoff appearance

Liquid's decision to start on the T side of Vertigo seemed to initially bare fruit, a pistol round win leading into a 3-0 start before Spirit got their first on the board. A triple kill from Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski allowed Liquid an immediate response to regain control, but they were unable to run away with the proceedings and quickly found themselves stalled out of completing bombsite hits by Spirit in the three ensuing rounds thanks in part to the AWPing impact of w0nderful.

Liquid's struggles to crack into bombsites was so great that they mustered just two successful bomb plants for the rest of the half, winning their first but having the second one end in failure as w0nderful pulled off a 1vs3 clutch to put his team on double-digits heading into the side swap.

Spirit wasted no time in extending their lead once on the T side, cruising to a 14-6 lead to immediately increase pressure on Liquid to almost unbearable levels. A back-and-forth trade resulted in Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's men attaining match point just moments later, and though EliGE scored back-to-back triple kills to keep Liquid in the map for slightly longer, Spirit sealed the victory shortly afterwards, 16-10, to move the series on to Liquid's pick of Mirage.

It was Liquid's turn to put Spirit on the ropes as the second map of the series got underway, a pistol round win from chopper's side being the only time that they would be in the lead for the entirety of the map. The North American team responded immediately with a force-buy in round two, which was followed by a 1vs2 clutch by Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis in the ensuing round to allow Liquid to gain momentum on the T side. From there, nitr0's men remained in control for the rest of the first half, multi-kill rounds from YEKINDAR leaving Spirit to only pick up rounds piecemeal to end up with five to their name at the break.

Spirit began to close the gap once on the T side, winning five of the first six rounds at the start of the second half to bring themselves within one of the North American team. Back-to-back double and triple kill rounds from Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm and EliGE put a halt to the Russian side's climb back into the map, and those rounds were followed up by multi-kills from Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic and a quad kill from oSee to help Liquid clinch victory.

oSee continued to rack up numbers for Liquid at the onset of the Ancient decider, tapping down four with the USP to give Liquid an early round win, which they converted into a 3-0 start thanks to a quad kill from YEKINDAR in the first gun round. Spirit won a half-buy to put a stop to Liquid's momentum, and they gained steam from there, leaving Liquid reeling on the CT-side en route to pulling ahead, 6-3. Liquid managed to stabilize somewhat toward the end of the half, adding four rounds to their tally tp close the gap substantially moving into their own T side effort.

A quad kill from Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev ensured Spirit a win in the last pistol round of the series, but Liquid kept their composure and answered back with three rounds of their own to briefly gain the lead, 10-9. That edge didn't last long however, and magixx and chopper were key in turning the tides in favor of their side. Liquid's chances of a win began to fade as Spirit moved closer to match point, and though NAF helped put together two rounds to give Liquid some breathing room, Spirit consistently shut down bombsite attacks to clinch victory.

IEM Rio Major 2022Best of 3 LiquidMatchpage 1 2 8th November 2022 Spirit 10Vertigo 16 16Mirage 12 13Ancient 16

Liquid	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Keith 'NAF' MarkovicNAF	58 - 49	+9	83.7	1.21
Josh 'oSee' OhmoSee	63 - 48	+15	76.2	1.15
Jonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEliGE	59 - 59	0	66.1	0.98
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisYEKINDAR	52 - 59	-7	75.7	0.97
Nick 'nitr0' Cannellanitr0	36 - 58	-22	53.0	0.75

Spirit	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Pavel 'S1ren' OgloblinS1ren	59 - 54	+5	76.0	1.16
Boris 'magixx' Vorobievmagixx	59 - 52	+7	80.2	1.13
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanovw0nderful	53 - 43	+10	68.5	1.08
Robert 'Patsi' IsyanovPatsi	54 - 62	-8	79.3	0.97
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper	47 - 57	-10	69.4	0.87

IEM Rio Major Legends Stage final standings:

Group Legends Stage 3W - 0L FURIA Cloud9 3W - 1L Outsiders HEROIC fnatic 3W - 2L Natus Vincere Spirit MOUZ 2W - 3L Liquid ENCE BIG 1W - 3L Vitality Sprout Bad News Eagles 0W - 3L FaZe Ninjas in Pyjamas FaZe #2 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenHåvard 'rain' NygaardRussel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenRobin 'ropz' KoolHelvijs 'broky' Saukants Josh 'oSee' Ohm Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 1151 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.62 Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski Age: 25 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1660 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.68 Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov Age: 25 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 1138 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.66 Nick 'nitr0' Cannella Age: 27 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 1447 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.66 Keith 'NAF' Markovic Age: 24 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1621 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Spirit #12 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev Age: 19 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 673 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.63 Vitality #1 Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautLotan 'Spinx' Giladi HEROIC #10 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard Abdul 'degster' Gasanov Age: 21 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 731 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.60 Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Age: 23 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 1150 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.70 Liquid #3 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJosh 'oSee' OhmMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov Age: 17 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 225 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.58