Spirit qualify for Thunderpick World Championship 2023 playoffs

The Group Stage of the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 is very close to its end, and in the next few hours, we will even know the complete results of Groups C and D.

However, last October 30, we witnessed Spirit’s extraordinary and unexpected victory against MOUZ by 2-0. As a result, the Russian squad qualified for the tournament’s playoffs without losing a single map along the way. In addition, it is also fair to mention that the team not only defeated MOUZ in this Group Stage but also Complexity Gaming, another of the teams that had shown an exceptional level in recent weeks.

There is no doubt that this is excellent news for Spirit, a team that had many problems throughout the season. However, beating such powerful squads as MOUZ and COL allows them to take a step forward to return to their best level and start qualifying for the Tier 1 tournaments.

Team Spirit annihilate MOUZ 2-0

As we mentioned, Spirit was pleasantly surprised in this Group Stage of the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 by defeating COL and MOUZ by 2-0. Complexity and MOUZ were among the teams that showed the best level in the recent ESL Pro League S18 and IEM Sydney 2023. They even finished in second and third place in the latter event, respectively.

However, the Russian squad’s grit made itself felt in this online tournament and achieved two crushing 2-0 victories to seal their qualification to the playoffs.

The series between Spirit and MOUZ was played at Ancient and Mirage.

Ancient

It all started at Ancient, the map pick of Spirit, where we enjoyed a spectacular game from start to finish, which had to be defined in Overtime.

In the first half, MOUZ started in a great way, taking a partial victory by 7-5, thanks to exceptional plays by Dorian “xertioN” Berman. Then, at the change of sides, Spirit hit back with Artem “ArtFr0st” Kharitonov and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets to even the score 12-12 and send the match to Overtime.

Finally, after 6 rounds in OT, Spirit took the victory in their map pick by 16-14 and thus started with a lot of confidence in this second match of the Group Stage.

MOUZ JUST GOT DONKED 🤯🤯🤯🤯@Team__Spirit | #ThunderpickWC pic.twitter.com/UdmqR1BzpZ

— Thunderpick (@thunderpickco) October 30, 2023

Mirage

Things changed on the second map, Mirage, especially in the second half, where MOUZ could not stop Spirit’s attacks, and they conceded by 6-13.

In the first half, Spirit pulled out the chest in their CT Side to take a narrow 7-5 partial victory. Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia and Boris “magixx” Vorobiev were the architects of this good first half for the Russians. Then, at the change of sides, Spirit’s offense, led by Ukrainian zont1x, made itself felt and managed to win 6 of 7 rounds to take the victory on the map by 13-6 and seal their ticket to the playoffs.

2-0 ✅ GG WP, @mousesports #SpiritCS #CS2 pic.twitter.com/NedijVphWK

— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) October 30, 2023

Header: Thunderpick