Following their dominant emergence, Spirit came to London following a disappointing run of events which saw them trophyless since IEM Katowice. Most recently Spirit had lost to Vitality in the Semi-Finals of IEM Dallas, collectively falling flat in a 0-2 defeat. Their Semi-Final was vital in shaping both their season, and their burgeoning rivalry against Vitality.
Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov spoke to UKCSGO about the match and the UK crowd following his team’s 2-1 victory over Vitality which saw them set up a perfect ending to their season at the BLAST Spring Final.
First of all congratulations on the win, how did you feel the atmosphere was in London?
Thank you very much. The atmosphere is amazing, a lot of people cheering for them, for us. It’s a good atmosphere and I like it here.
Do you feel like the crowd was against you?
No not sure. It’s like 70/30, 70 for Vitality and 30 for us. But it’s okay!
Do you like being the villain?
No no! Of course no! But these teams like FaZe, Vitality, they have a lot of fans, they play more years on top, in top five, and they have a lot of fans. To get fans cheering for us we need to have the same results as them for a lot of years, getting a lot of positions then it might be good next time.
How long do you believe it will take to get to the same status as these teams?
I think we need to make good results, maybe win tournaments, maybe win this, maybe win more and I guess more people will chant for us.
Who would you prefer to play in the final?
I want to play against Virtus.Pro because they are old friends for me. Every game against them is very hard and I like it because every round, every map versus them is very hard and I want to play against them.
Is there anything you want to say to the fans?
Thank you very much guys for cheering us, we will try to play our best and today all was good.
