Heroic knock Spirit out of IEM Rio to secure semi-final spot

The Danes will face off against either FURIA or Natus Vincere in their next match.

Heroic bagged a 2-0 victory in their IEM Rio Major quarter-final series against Spirit after taking the Russians' map pick Vertigo 16-8 before wrapping up the match on Overpass 16-14. Each member of Heroic pulled their weight and contributed to the victory, but it was the captain Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller who led by example and finished as his team's top fragger with 40 kills and a 1.24 rating throughout the whole series.

Spirit's campaign at the Rio Major comes to an end in the quarter-finals as they exit the competition in 5-8th place. They had the upper hand early on both maps but their inability to capitalize on their advantage ultimately sent them packing from the Major. Igor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov shined on both maps and led his team with 47 kills and a 1.25 rating but in the end his efforts weren't enough to keep Spirit in Rio.

Spirit drew first blood in the series after they turned an unfavorable 2vs5 situation into an opening pistol round win behind Pavel "⁠s1ren⁠" Ogloblin's quad-kill. Both sides remained neck-and-neck as the scoreline read 3-3 before Heroic won six of the next seven thanks to a series of round-defining plays by cadiaN, René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen, and Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck to increase their advantage to 9-4. Spirit constantly opted to attack the A bomb site but were shut down by Heroic's defense time and time again which led to the Danes holding a 10-5 lead at the break.

Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov's crew got the ball rolling on the CT side by taking the first two rounds, narrowing their deficit to three. From that point on, though, Heroic would prove to be too tough an adversary for the Russians as they clinched map point at 15-7 and wrapped up Vertigo 16-8 two rounds later. sjuush was a key factor to his team's success on the offensive as he let his rifle sing and dropped multi-kill after multi-kill with ease.

The Russians scored the opening pistol on Overpass and converted their advantage to a swift 3-0 behind s1ren's flawless start with an 8-0 K-D. Their early success was immediately negated by Heroic who replicated their performance on Vertigo and streaked to an 8-4 advantage on the back of Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard's server-high 14 kills. The CIS squad finally stopped the bleeding in the 13th and were looking poised to claim the following round for themselves, but a magnificent 1vs3 clutch from cadiaN shifted the momentum back to Heroic who entered halftime just six rounds away from the semi-finals.

Spirit came out of the gates swinging and won four straight to kick off the second half which brought Heroic's lead down to just one. Seven rounds later, the Russians would finally catch up to cadiaN's crew and bring the score level at 13 apiece. Even with the game's momentum now behind them, two late pushes into the upper bomb site effectively sealed Spirit's fate as Heroic clinched the series in the final round of regulation with a 16-14 victory.