Team Spirit takes down AVANGAR, pro100 to qualify for the FACEIT London Major

Team Spirit has qualified for their first-ever Valve Major in CS:GO history, FACEIT London.

The rising CIS-region team fought through the losers’ bracket of their regional Minor, defeating previous New Challenger AVANGAR and exacting revenge on pro100 for a recent loss in the winners’ bracket. Team Spirit is the fourth New Challenger team to be finalized for the London Major, following Rogue Gaming, compLexity Gaming, and HellRaisers’ recent qualification.

Related: Road to the FACEIT London Major: The format, schedule, and who’s qualified

Even though Spirit topped their group at 2-0, they still fell to pro100 in their first playoff match. Pro100 swept them 2-0 with a 16-12 score on Train and a 16-9 score on Cache, but they were later defeated by HellRaisers in their subsequent match, allowing HellRaisers to qualify for the Major.

Spirit went down to the losers’ bracket to face AVANGAR—a team who finished in last place with an 0-3 record at the last Major, ELEAGUE Boston. Both sides traded 16-12 scorlines on Cache and Dust II, before Spirit wrecked AVANGAR on map three Inferno 16-3. In terms of stats, Vadim “DavCost” Vasilyev and Viktor “somedieyoung” Orudjev sat atop the server with 1.44 and 1.42 HLTV 2.0 ratings, respectively.

To solidify their spot in their first-ever Valve Major, Spirit got revenge on pro100 in the deciding match of the CIS Minor. Spirit absolutely crushed pro100 in their rematch, mainly because the maps were completely different. Their first matchup had Train and Cache picked, while their rematch had Dust II and Nuke. This proved to be a huge factor in their win, as they picked up a 16-3 win on Dust II and a 16-6 win on Nuke to qualify for the Major.

Despite doing so well in the losers’ bracket, Spirit still fell to HellRaisers in the grand final of the Minor, since Ozgur “woxic” Eker dropped a massive 31 kills and 40 kills in their map wins on Overpass and Dust II. HellRaisers will have the first seed in the New Challenger stage and Spirit will have the second seed from September 5 to 9.