Spirit break their Vitality curse and reach the EWC semi-finals
There was a stone in Spirit's path, and its name was Vitality. The Russians finally moved it in the Esports World Cup quarter-finals, beating the French side and snapping a six-match losing streak against the same opponent.
This was no minor statistic. Vitality dominated the matchup with a 17-6 map record over the recent period, and Spirit hadn't won a series against them since 2025. The most recent chapter had been especially painful: a 3-0 in the IEM Rio grand final in April, with no room for argument.
Redemption at the right moment
The context multiplies the win's value, because Spirit's tournament had begun in the worst way imaginable. On the group stage's opening day, JiJieHao took them down on Mirage — the year's loudest upset: a team that came through the qualifier sending the world's number two into the lower bracket from their very first match.
It's been uphill ever since. Spirit had to narrowly beat Luminosity, needed a notable comeback against BIG to reach the playoffs, and dispatched B8 2-0 in the Round of 16. And now, the opponent that troubled them most.
donk, in tournament mode
The name holding all this together is the usual one. Danil "donk" Kryshkovets arrives in the semi-finals with a 1.57 rating across the eight maps he's played in Paris, figures that once again make him the tournament's most decisive player.
And he arrives from a strange month: he broke the all-time FACEIT Elo record with 5,434 points, only to then string together five consecutive maps with a negative K/D in the BLAST Bounty final against MOUZ — unprecedented in his career. In Paris he's back to his usual self, and Spirit are back with him.
Vitality leave Paris at the worst possible moment
On the other side, the elimination closes a difficult summer for the French. Vitality had started the tournament well, but B8 had already knocked them into the lower bracket during the group stage with that brutal "Vitality era is officially over" message. They recovered by crushing Lynn Vision and eliminating FaZe 2-0 in the Round of 16, but the road ended here.
The calendar's irony is cruel: barely two days before being eliminated, the organization had announced at its own booth at the event the contract extensions of ZywOo and apEX through 2028.
Last stop: Legacy
Spirit are now the only survivor of the so-called death half — the side of the bracket where the draw placed Falcons, Vitality, NAVI, FaZe, and themselves. The other four are gone.
Their reward is facing Legacy today at 18:55 CEST, the Brazilian side that has eliminated NAVI and Falcons back-to-back without dropping a single map. The winner plays tomorrow's grand final at the Accor Arena.
For Spirit it would cap a comeback that began with a loss to the world's 162nd-ranked team. For Legacy, confirmation that the best tournament in their history can still go further.
Source: HLTV, TechTimes, egamersworld.