Team Spirit win ESL One:Road to Rio 2020 CIS championship

Team Spirit defeated Winstrike Team 2-0 in the grand finals of ESL One: Road to Rio 2020 to win the championship and a lion share of the RMR points.

Spirit were the favorites going into the match and showed us why. Winstrike knew they had to give more than 100% to have a chance at defeating Spirit but they fell short in their efforts.

Here is our recap on how Spirit managed to take the championship.

Winstrike went ahead with a Dust II pick, Spirit picked Nuke and Train was last left as the default.

Winstrike started Dust II on the CT side and justified why they picked the map. Spirit were not looking warmed up whilst not being ready with Winstrike preparedness of the match. Winstrike lead after the first half with a 10-5 scoreline and almost certain to take the first map.

It was in the second half Spirit came online and started taking control. “Mir” , “chopper” and “sdy” who were absent in the first half mowed Winstrike in the second half round after round. They managed to build a stable economy which Winstrike were never able to break down. Winstrike could onlu muster 3 rounds and let go a huge to lose 16-13.

“Chopper” had 24 kills, tied with “El1an” and were the best performing players on the server.

Nuke was always going to be difficult for Winstrike , however they tried to fight hard and win only to succumb eventually. They lead after the first half 8:7 again on the CT side but their T side disappointed again. Winstrike again won only 3 rounds on the offensive side to lose 16-11 this time. It was “iDRISBALANCE” who lead the Ct charge to shut Winstrike down.

With the win, Team Spirit collect 1600 RMR points and $15,000 for winning the championship.

Hard Legion defeated Virtus.Pro in the 3rd match play off defeating them 2-1. They lost 14-16 on inferno, but won 16-10 on Overpass and 16-3 on Dust II.

Here is how the RMR points were split up after the conclusion of the final.

Standings	Team	RMR points	Prize money
1.	Team Spirit	1600	$15,000
2.	Winstrike Team	1500	$10,000
3.	Hard Legion Esports	1400	$6,000
4.	Virtus.Pro Parimatch	1300	$5,000
5.	Nemiga gaming	1200	$4,500
6.	Syman Gaming	1100	$3,500
7-8	Gambit Youngesters & Natus Vincere	950	$2,000
9-10	forZe & Espada	750	$1,000
11-12	Team Unique & pro100	550	$0

Note:- The Rio major was scheduled to take place in May 2020 but due to the ongoing pandemic the major was shifted to November 2020. The prize pool of first Major will be added to the November Major. ESL on its part have decided to host three qualification rounds in order for teams to remain at their peak. Each qualifying stage will have Regional Major Points(RMR) which will be added to determine the qualification order. Each qualifying stage will have a prize pool of $255,000 divided across the six regions. To read more about this, click here.

To read other e-sports news, click here.