Spirit has taken down Liquid with reletive ease to reach the semi-finals of Perfect World Shanghai Major. Led by their star man in donk, the CIS side came out swinging at Team Liquid to end their run at the Major as YEKINDAR and co. suffer another difficult loss.
VETO
- Liquid removed Vertigo
- Spirit removed Inferno
- Liquid picked Anubis
- Spirit picked Dust2
- Spirit removed Nuke
- Liquid removed Mirage
- Ancient was left over
Map 1: Anubis; Picked: Liquid; Winner: Spirit
A good start for Team Liquid was shut down by a feisty Team Spirit who went toe to toe being on the CT side. Both teams traded blows and remained separable for most of the first half and individual heroics from donk and Ultimate kept both teams at a leveled scoreline. It is on the T side that Spirit pulled ahead as Liquid failed to find any way to keep Spirit at bay. Despite losing a few rounds, Spirit was mostly in charge of the momentum and eventually closed the game with a respectable scoreline of 13-9.
Map 2: Dust 2; Picked: Spirit; Winner: Liquid
Another solid start for Team Spirit which met little resistance from Liquid as they looked to run over them in the first half. Liquid was able to find its footing by the end of the first half and was able to shrink the gap between the two teams to a 7-5 half. Talking the early lead, Liquid lost to a force buy which gave Spirit the opening to reach the map point. Liquid started to mount a comeback but failed at the final hurdle after almost pulling it off. Spirit edged out the final map with a 13-11 scoreline and booked their place in the semi-finals against MOUZ.
Spirit edging out team Liquid will now have to square up against MOUZ for a spot in the Grand Finals on Sunday. While it was heroic effort, Liquid has shown the world that their latest line up has the potential to deliver at the biggest stage.
