by Team Spirit faced off against the Bad News Eagles and secured their last required win to qualify for the IEM Rio Major. The team finished the matchup with a 2-0 victory against their opponents in the qualifying match and advanced to the Counter-strike: Global Offensive tournament with a 3-1 record.
Spirit were one of the PGL Antwerp Major semifinalists and bested Bad News Eagles in the 2-1 pool of the European RMR A’s Swiss round. Bad News Eagles’ performance during the RMRs so far have been commendable. However, the team’s skill was no match to the structured system of their opponents.
The Kosovar esports team participated in the 2021 RMR, where they faced a similar 2-2 pool. At the tournament, Bad News Eagles qualified for the Belgium Major with a 2-1 victory after winning a decider map against SINNERS. The victory made the squad the first esports team in Kosovo to record a Valve-sponsored CS:GO tournament qualification.
Spirit’s map pick was Nuke, and the team kicked off the match by securing five kills via Boris “?magixx?” Vorobiev and Pavel “?s1ren?” Ogloblin. The move placed the team in the lead early on, and they went on to secure five more wins before the Bad News Eagles were able to put up some resistance. The first half of the map closed at 11-4 with Spirit in the lead.
Nuke’s second half saw Dionis “?sinnopsyy?” Budeci execute a double while Rigon “?rigoN?” Gashi produced three closing kills, giving the Kosovar team hope of victory on the map. Spirit quickly executed a forcebuy round and destroyed their opponent’s budding hope. The rest of the map was easy pickings for Spirit, and the team closed Nuke with a 16-6 score.
Mirage did not see Bad News Eagles fare any better, and the team were once again dominated in the map’s first half. Spirit lost the pistol round on the map, but they won the force buy on the CT side.
The Kosovar team used rifles in hand to win back-to-back rounds. However, by the end of the map’s first half, Spirit had recorded over ten wins after tightening the team’s defenses. The first half of the map closed with an 11-4 score.
Spirit once again secured a forcebuy win in Mirage’s second half after losing pistol rounds. Bad News Eagles were discontent with laying low and secured a number of wins in an attempt to push the match into a third decider map.
The franchise seemed to be gaining on Spirit, but it was too late for them. The Russian team won three rounds in a row and ended Mirage with a 16-11 victory.
Magixx produced a consistently good performance for the entire match and was awarded the MVP of the series with a rating of 1.55, as well as 45 frags and 23 deaths.
Bad New Eagles will take on forZe in their next fixture in a bid to qualify to the IEMRio Major as contenders. The Kosovar franchise are designated as outsiders on top esports betting sites with their odds to win placed at $2.05.
