Team Spirit Zont1ix after Cologne elimination: “We’re just not on the server, we just have to wake up”

2024’s first gaming season had everyone buzzing about Team Spirit and their extraordinary marksman, Danil “donk”. The chatter revolved mainly around what could have been because Team Spirit was largely absent from top-tier events. This season presented a golden opportunity for Team Spirit to assert their dominance, starting with a victory at IEM Cologne. However, alas, it never came to pass.

After losing Ancient, things got a bit tough for us.)

Regrettably, the world of Computer Science (CS) has taken an unexpected turn. Spirit’s performance in EWC fell short of expectations, and their assignments in BLAST groups placed them against relatively weaker opponents. Yesterday’s defeat at TheMongolz’ hands was a significant setback. Admittedly, the team conceded on the second map themselves.

“Everything went wrong. […] The preparation we had for [these] three tournaments is not enough.” – G2 Snax

The setback G2 suffered at the hands of SAW in their previous game was indeed disheartening, pushing them into a lower-tier clash with Spirit to determine who advances in IEM Cologne. However, today’s contest left no room for doubt about which team would rebound swiftly from the outset.

IEM Cologne Rosters – Spirit vs G2

The game commenced on Nuke, where huNter demonstrated a remarkable performance on the CT side. His rifle tally reached an impressive 20 kills in the initial half, establishing a new personal best on Nuke. Team Spirit, conversely, only managed to secure 3 rounds throughout the entire half, and G2 decisively overpowered them, finishing the map with a strong lead of 13-3. With IEM Cologne, Team Spirit was dangerously close to elimination and displayed no indication of resilience.

Even though their worst LAN loss was 13-3 against Mirage, Spirit’s performance in that game seemed even more disappointing. As G2 began on the attacking side, they built a four-round streak from the pistol round. Spirit managed only one round during the retake attempt, after which G2 swiftly finished them off, securing a 13-1 win to end the match.

What went wrong for Spirit at IEM Cologne?

Reflecting on the interviews following our recent match, Donk summed up the situation quite accurately. When queried about Team Spirit’s whereabouts over the past two days, his succinct response was, “We were offline.” The triumph of Team Spirit at IEM Katowice was a spectacular display of teamwork all around. However, in subsequent tournaments, their impressive deep runs have sometimes been marred by an absent star player. But when the entire team seems to disappear without a trace, it becomes challenging to pinpoint any specific tactical errors.

The Spirit team needs to reorganize, move past IEM Cologne, and get back to their usual hard work. With the Shanghai Major in their sights, they have to slot everything back into the finely tuned Chopper-hally strategy once again.

Featured Image via Viola Schuldner and ESL