Spirit suffer first-ever 13-0 in CS2 - and still beat FUT
BLAST Rivals Hong Kong opened with a shock shutout on Nuke, a Spirit comeback, and Vitality winning on apEX's return.
By MgHz
The last tournament before PGL Major Singapore got going in Hong Kong on Wednesday, and day one at BLAST Rivals delivered a scoreline nobody saw coming.
A coach-powered shutout
FUT arrived without krabeni, who could not travel because of visa issues, so coach coolio took his place in the server. That did not stop them from handing Spirit a 13-0 on Nuke - the first time the organisation has been shut out on a CS2 map, and the first 0-13 of donk's career.
The result made little sense on paper. FUT had lost every Nuke map they had played against VRS top-five sides over the past year, while Spirit had won five straight Nukes picked by their opponents. Instead, SunPayus was everywhere, and Spirit's four players besides donk had just four kills between them nine rounds in. A dziugss 1v1 clutch against sh1ro sealed it.
Spirit had won the opening map, Cache, and they regrouped on Ancient to close out the series 2-1 and advance. Afterwards donk kept it short, blaming "a really bad T side" and brushing off questions about his form.
Vitality win on apEX's return
Earlier in the day, Vitality beat Falcons 2-0 (13-10 on Anubis, 13-10 on Dust2) in apEX's first official match back in the lineup after jL's stand-in spell. ropz led the server, while Falcons dropped all four pistol rounds. Vitality now face FURIA in the Group A upper final.
Why it matters
BLAST Rivals runs from 11 to 15 November with eight invited teams and a $1,000,000 prize pool. It is the final test for most Major contenders - and FUT, who play in Stage 2 in Singapore, just showed they can punish anyone, even with their coach playing.
Sources: match facts and post-match comments as reported by HLTV and pley.gg; event details from esports.gg. Written independently by VetoTime; no text or photos copied. Cover: original VetoTime graphic.