The action kicked off on Nuke, where Spirit came out swinging with a 5-0 start. Eternal Fire took some time to get going but managed to make things competitive, closing the gap to 5-11 by halftime. It looked like Spirit had things under control, but the Turkish squad had other plans, mounting an incredible second-half comeback to force overtime. The first OT wasn’t enough to separate the teams, but Spirit showed aggression in the second, delivering a flawless T side and sealing the map 19-15.
Anubis was a completely different story. Eternal Fire dominated from the get-go, racing to a 9-3 lead and putting Spirit on the back foot. The Russian squad tried to mount a response in the second half, but Eternal Fire held strong, shutting down donk and closing out the map to force a decider.
Mirage started as a nail-biter, with both teams locked at 6-6 at halftime. While donk finally found his groove, Eternal Fire’s teamwork kept them in the fight. But in the second half, Spirit flipped a switch, winning all but one round to secure a commanding 13-7 victory. With 50 kills and 1.12 rating across the series, donk was Spirit’s top performer, helping them punch their ticket to the semis.
“It was a tough game, really tough,” donk admitted after the match. “I played really bad, what can I say? I wasn’t doing the things that I’m doing usually, so the game got much harder than it should be.”
Eternal Fire, on the other hand, failed to close out Nuke when they had the chance. They bounced back well on Anubis, with XANTARES leading the charge, but he went quiet on Mirage when his team needed him most. “We tried our best today, to be honest. It was really close on Nuke,” said a disappointed MAJ3R after the match. “But in the end, they played better – congrats to them,” he added.
Spirit now march on to the semi-finals, where they’ll be going up against MOUZ on March 15.
