Spirit and FPX to face off in DreamHack Open January grand final

The two teams won their semi-final series against BIG and Gambit, respectively, to reach their first title decider after recent lineup changes.

Spirit and FunPlus Phoenix are set to lock horns in the DreamHack Open January best-of-five grand final on Sunday at 16:00 after impressing at their debut showing with new lineups.

Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov & co. have continued their successful run at the tournament following the additions of two former Espada members, AWPer Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov and sixth man Robert "⁠Patsi⁠" Isyanov, whom the team swapped in and out of the lineup once again in their semi-final affair with BIG.

mir and magixx helped turn the series against BIG around

The Russian-Ukrainian side prevailed against the Germans despite a narrow opening loss on Inferno, where Patsi played instead of degster after impressing on the map against Gambit in the group stage, with the AWPer then returning to the server to help secure Nuke with a team-leading performance and finish off the series following an overtime win on Dust2.

On the other side of the single elimination bracket, FunPlus Phoenix took down Gambit in a three-map affair with their new loaned in-game leader from MOUZ, Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong.

The two sides first traded their picks before it came down to Train, where Asger "⁠Farlig⁠" Jensen helped make up for a sub-par display from the Dutchman with a 31-14 score (1.78 rating), as FPX put up a near-flawless CT side to lock down the series and the spot in the title decider.

Spirit #20 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevAbdul 'degster' GasanovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev BIG #4 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne FunPlus Phoenix #17 Jesse 'zehN' LinjalaChris 'chrisJ' de JongMartin 'STYKO' StykPavle 'Maden' BoškovićAsger 'Farlig' Jensen Asger 'Farlig' Jensen Age: 21 Team: FunPlus Phoenix Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 533 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.63 Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov Age: 23 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 859 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67 MOUZ #11 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýFrederik 'acoR' GyldstrandRobin 'ropz' KoolAurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras Gambit #13 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov Robert 'Patsi' Isyanov Age: 17 Team: SpiritB Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 308 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.67 Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong Age: 30 Team: FunPlus Phoenix Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1703 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.66 Abdul 'degster' Gasanov Age: 19 Team: Spirit Rating 1.0: 1.20 Maps played: 438 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.61 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Espada