Spirit and ALLIN–two teams consisting of four players from Russia and one from Ukraine–met in the upper-bracket final of the StarLadder CIS Minor with a spot for the ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier on the line.
The best-of-three series started on ALLIN's Mirage, where Nikolay "mir" Bityukov lead his team to a dominating 16-4 victory after they picked up 11 rounds on the CT side of the map.
On the following map, Overpass, ALLIN's Leonid "chopper" Vishnyakov had a massive performance, finishing with a 29-19 K-D. However, his team wasn't able to keep up and they let the second map slip, losing it 16-14 as Spirit forced the third map of the series.
DavCost was a steady contributor in Spirit's victory
DavCost was a steady contributor in Spirit's victory
Moving on to the decider, Spirit managed to get a slim 8-7 lead on the Terrorist side of Dust2. Vadim "DavCost" Vasilyev and Anton "tonyblack" Kolesnikov's 2v5 on the A site turned out to be crucial as it allowed Spirit to edge out the third map with another 16-14–securing them a spot at the Major Qualifier in Atlanta.
StarLadder Regional Minor Championship CIS - ELEAGUE Major 2017Best of 3 SpiritMatchpage 2 1 13th November 2016 ALLIN 4Mirage 16 16Overpass 14 16Dust2 14
Spirit
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Dmitry 'S0tF1k' ForostyankoS0tF1k
65 - 53
+12
90.0
1.22
Vadim 'DavCost' VasilyevDavCost
60 - 53
+7
72.9
1.12
Dmitriy 'Dimaoneshot' BandurkaDimaoneshot
47 - 53
-6
73.3
0.99
Pavel 'COLDYY1' VeklenkoCOLDYY1
47 - 52
-5
70.1
0.98
Anton 'tonyblack' Kolesnikovtonyblack
43 - 52
-9
68.6
0.96
ALLIN
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper
59 - 50
+9
90.7
1.19
Sergey 'keshandr' Nikishinkeshandr
51 - 50
+1
63.7
1.01
Dmitriy 'jR' ChervakjR
46 - 45
+1
64.1
0.98
Pavel 'hutji' Lashkovhutji
52 - 57
-5
77.1
0.95
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukovmir
54 - 61
-7
73.9
0.93
After losing the upper-bracket final, ALLIN had another chance to get to the Major Qualifier in a best-of-one consolidation final match against VwS.
There was a lot of pressure on both teams to perform, but it was seemingly the Lithuanians that struggled to cope with it as they had a bad start to the Terrorist side of Train.
After going down 5-0, VwS managed to get two rounds on the board but couldn't build momentum, ending the half with just five Terrorist rounds.
After the switch, ALLIN showed some all-out aggression and swiftly closed out the match 16-6, dropping only one round on their T-side.
StarLadder Regional Minor Championship CIS - ELEAGUE Major 2017Best of 1 VwSMatchpage 6 16 13th November 2016 ALLIN 6Train 16
ALLIN
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Nikolay 'mir' Bityukovmir
27 - 13
+14
112.3
1.76
Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakovchopper
21 - 9
+12
100.1
1.62
Dmitriy 'jR' ChervakjR
13 - 4
+9
80.6
1.35
Pavel 'hutji' Lashkovhutji
16 - 13
+3
72.5
1.20
Sergey 'keshandr' Nikishinkeshandr
11 - 11
0
55.9
0.97
VwS
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
Aurimas 'Kvik' KvakšysKvik
14 - 16
-2
58.1
0.85
Lukas 'lukjjE' BaciliunaslukjjE
9 - 15
-6
46.3
0.73
Eimantas 'pounh' Lazickaspounh
10 - 18
-8
55.9
0.64
Andrius 'TORAS' BalciunasTORAS
8 - 19
-11
52.5
0.58
Nikolaj 'kalinka' Rysakovkalinka
9 - 20
-11
61.2
0.45
Only the grand final between Spirit and ALLIN is left to be played at the CIS minor, as the two Atlanta-bound teams will play a rematch with $15,000 on the line.
The following teams will be attending the ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier:
MOUZ
Ninjas in Pyjamas
OpTic
G2
Dignitas
Envy
FaZe
CLG
GODSENT
HellRaisers
TYLOO
Renegades
Spirit
ALLIN
Americas #1
Americas #2
Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.