Team Spirit advanced to the IEM Cologne 2026 Major Semi-Finals after a series that will go down as an instant classic in Counter-Strike history.
Their quarter-final against G2 featured five overtimes across two maps as Spirit barely survived a well-prepared G2 roster, finding solutions in a marathon game despite the absence of their coach Sergey ‘hally’ Shavayev.
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How Spirit overcame G2 in an all-time classic in Cologne
Map 1 saw G2 take advantage of Spirit’s struggles on Overpass to deliver five rounds on the T-side, cleanly converting the map behind huge impact from Nikita ‘HeavyGod’ Martynenko, who continued his group stage form to help G2 to a 1-0 lead.
On Map 2 of Dust 2, G2 started with four CT-side rounds, before Spirit answered with five rounds of their own on their way to a 6-6 half. Again, the teams could not be separated as they switched sides.
Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovač stepped up to deny Spirit their first and only map point of regularity before an extraordinary overtime played out, decided by who else than Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets.
As G2 prepared for a 2v1 retake on the B site, donk positioned himself in car, an all-or-nothing spot. In the end, he took all, killing Matúš ‘Matys’ Šimko as he climbed into the site before delivering a crisp one-tap headshot on Álvaro ‘SunPayus’ García.
As the map moved on to Mirage, the Lanxess already knew that the series was special, but it was impossible to know what would follow.
G2 raced to an 8-4 first-half performance, hammering the B site and confounding Spirit IGL Boris ‘magixx Vorobyev. Spirit were on the ropes, but responded in kind to equalize the map at 8-8 before proactive mid plays put G2 back in control.
A last-second defuse put G2 on the brink of victory at 12-9, but the match points, if anything, seemed to lift pressure from Spirit as they played their best rounds to claw the series back and into the first of what would be four overtimes.
In the first overtime, Spirit tasted their first series points before G2 hit back on the T-side, enthralling a jubilant crowd.
The second overtime saw one of the most unbelievable plays in Counter-Strike history as magixx left his team in an A-hit to sneak to B. As the A hit failed, it left him alone in the post-plant against four members of G2.
The Russian planted himself on the shelf position in market and sprayed down G2 as they entered his sights one by one. Even donk and magixx could not believe that Spirit had won the round, but G2 bounced back from their spacing error to bring about overtime number three.
Hearts were in mouths in overtime three as a post-plant saw huNter- flank from the A bombsite through mid, but the G2 IGL luckily arrived just in time to stop Spirit from crossing safely into the sight, giving G2 another lifeline.
As if to summarize the series itself, the last round once again came down to the finest of margins. The final 2v2 saw Myroslav ‘zont1x’ Plakhotia dance around the pillars, just evading his opposition and manipulating the angles to finally bring Spirit over the line 25-22 and giving them an IEM Cologne 2026 Major Playoffs berth.
Should the magixx play be an in-game graffiti? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
Additionally, check out our Esports World Cup 2026 schedule, which has a full breakdown of all seven weeks.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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