Few events in esports capture the community’s attention like an unexpected blowout in a major final. At IEM Katowice 2025, the battle lines were drawn when Vitality secured a flawless 3-0 victory over Team Spirit, halting the Russian squad’s momentum as they looked to add to their prestigious trophy cabinet, including triumphs at the Shanghai Major and BLAST Bounty.
With a nearly flawless performance, Vitality secured almost every pistol round, taking 4 on Mirage, 5 on Nuke, and 3 on Dust2. In fact, Spirit managed to win only a single force round throughout the series, a statistic that speaks volumes when juxtaposed with their previous season’s impressive 54% win rate—a feat that, statistically, rendered today’s outcome a sub-1% possibility.
Despite Spirit’s strong tournament run, head coach Sergey “hally” Shavaev acknowledged that the team fell short when it mattered most.
“The way we lost those finals was not good. We need to figure out our mental side, first of all,” hally told HLTV. “These games require a lot of energy, and you need to know when to step up your game in a best-of-five.”
Spirit had every reason to believe they could take down Vitality, having beaten them in two previous encounters after a loss at IEM Dallas. But this time, Vitality came prepared, neutralizing Spirit’s biggest weapon: donk.
“I think they outplayed me, first and foremost,” hally admitted. “I knew how to set up our game plan for most of the tournament, but today I couldn’t compensate for how our players performed in micro-situations. They prepared well, and it was tough playing against them. We need to make the right conclusions and use this experience when we meet them again.”
Throughout Spirit’s tournament run, donk was a force of nature, capable of taking over the entire series. But in the grand final, Vitality shut him down completely. The young Russian star finished with a disappointing 0.88 rating and just 69 ADR, a shadow of the player who dominated the semi-final against NAVI.
Vitality’s game plan was clear: neutralize donk early. The result was stark—donk finished with fewer total frags across the three maps than he did in just two maps against NAVI.
“If you play together as a team, donk cannot do what he’s doing,” ZywOo said in the post-match interview.
The disappointment was evident in Spirit’s camp. Shortly after the grand final, players removed their silver medals—an unspoken but clear expression of frustration. Chopper, the team’s IGL, kept his message brief.
“The championship is over for us. What can I say about the game? There’s not much to say. Everything was visible on the server. Sorry, guys. Not today. Thanks to all those who are supporting us. We will train.” — Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov
For donk, the pain was palpable. Speaking to Eefje “sjokz” Depoortere on stream, he didn’t hold back.
“Bad communication, bad decisions, bad aim, bad everything. We were just worse,” he admitted. “We will search for reasons why this happened and we will see then.”
Boris “magixx” Vorobyev was even more blunt in his Telegram post.
“Wow, we got blown out hard.”
Meanwhile, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov expressed his frustration in a short but telling message.
“I was missed by the team.”
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Spirit remains one of the top teams in the world. With two trophies already in the bag this season (Perfect World Shanghai Major and BLAST Bounty), they are far from finished. However, as hally noted, losing two grand finals in such one-sided fashion is unacceptable.
“It was an easy win for Vitality, but this was our fourth consecutive final,” hally said. “That’s a high standard. We’ve won two and lost two, but we can’t afford to lose like this. We’ve got work to do on our psychology. It felt like we wasted a lot of energy in the semifinal against NAVI. We need to learn how to recover before a best-of-five final.”
With a three-week break ahead before ESL Pro League Season 21 kicks off on March 7, Spirit has time to address their weaknesses. We will have to wait and see if they can recover stronger or if this loss will leave lasting scars. One thing is certain—their next encounter with Vitality will be must-watch Counter-Strike.
