The semifinals of IEM Katowice were exactly how we expected. Team Vitality defeated The MongolZ without too many problems while Team Spirit, having adjusted their strategy after the group stage defeat against NAVI, played much better this time and eventually won 2 – 0.
NAVI vs. Spirit
NAVI picked Mirage in the match and Spirit picked Dust II. Nuke was left over. The reason why the Ukrainians picked this map is intuitive: they had already defeated Spirit on it once in this tournament. But it must have crossed their minds that Spirit were now much better prepared.
Despite the obvious strategic trap, NAVI were confident enough that they could win. But things went poorly: 4 – 8 into 8 – 13, largely because Danil “donk” Kryshkovets had an insane performance: 25 – 13.
On the second map, Dust II, he had another great performance: 30 – 23. But this time, NAVI fought much harder and the score was even after each half. In overtime, Spirit managed to win 2 – 4 and qualified for the Grand Final.
Vitality vs. The MongolZ
Vitality looked very impressive in this match. It’s clear that both Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Robin “ropz” Kool are at the top of their game right now. Their combined might is hard to challenge. The scores were 13 – 7 on Mirage and 13 – 9 on Nuke.
Grand Final Predictions
Ahead of the Grand Final, the two teams look evenly matched. On both sides, there are two exceptional players whose synergy is the stuff of esports legends.
The best-of-five format probably favors Spirit because Vitality made a roster change recently and have not yet had ample time to become completely fluent on every single map that they play.
If the match goes all the way, Spirit’s chances of winning are at least 55%. A lot depends on ZywOo, donk, and the map order.
