When Natus Vincere lost 1 – 2 against Team Spirit in the opening match of group A, everyone felt like this was a very disappointing result and that they had played poorly.
In retrospect, we now realize that Na’Vi was the only team in the tournament that managed to win a map against Spirit. And they did in in style, by coming back from a score of 3 – 9.
Team Spirit won IEM Katowice with unbelievable ease, and it happened almost exclusively thanks to donk. To some extent, sh1ro also played well and he often finished 2nd in terms of individual stats. But donk displayed unbelievable skill and consistency throughout the tournament.
WE ARE YOUR IEM KATOWICE 2024 CHAMPIONS 🔥
Thanks to everyone for the support 🤍🖤#SpiritCS #CS2 #IEMKatowice pic.twitter.com/WXWpEidjlW
— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) February 11, 2024
Spirit’s victory
Spirit started IEM Katowice in the play-in stage, where they defeated Apeks (13 – 0) and The MongolZ (0 – 2). Then, in the group stage, they played against Natus Vincere, Complexity, and FaZe Clan. This last victory, against FaZe, clearly showed Spirit’s level. The two teams would meet again in the Grand Final.
Donk’s performance in all three matches was phenomenal:
- Versus Na’Vi: 57 – 36 / 100.5 ADR / 1.49
- Versus Complexity: 38 – 22 / 105.3 ADR / 1.66
- Versus FaZe: 48 – 24 / 120.5 ADR / 1.83
With these individual stats, it’s clear that donk is way better even than m0NESY. And some have started to ask even bigger questions. Of course, we still need to wait and see what he’ll do for the rest of the season. But if he continues like this, Spirit will win almost everything and he will be regarded as a new s1mple or ZywOo.
In the playoffs, Spirit had to win just two matches, against Team Falcons and FaZe Clan. In both cases, it was obvious that they were going to win, either because of a previous result or because of the huge difference that existed at the individual level between key players.
Against Falcons, donk’s score was 36 – 23 / 94.7 ADR / 1.64. Versus FaZe, he did even better: 82 – 40 / 124 ADR / 1.93. Nobody understands at the moment how he does what he does. How is it even possible for someone who’s just 17 years old and has little LAN experience to compete against the biggest legends in CS2 and win so easily?
Surely, he must be thinking about CS2 all day, every day. But even that shouldn’t be enough to compensate for the lack of experience. Needless to say, donk was the MVP of IEM Katowice 2024.
Header: Team Spirit