Banger match between Spirit and Vitality: BLAST Rivals Hong Kong quarter finals recap

After an exciting Group Stage over in Hong Kong, today marked the beginning of the Playoffs of BLAST Rivals Hong Kong.

Kicking off the day with paiN versus Passion UA, could the NA team keep up the strong form they showed during the Group Stage? Or would the Brazilian teams continue to rise towards the end of 2025?

And then onto the main event. Spirit versus Vitality. donk versus ZywOo. A match that speaks for itself.

Let's get into it.

paiN dominate Passion UA

Passion UA may have looked strong in the Group Stage, but all their strengths were absent as they faced the Brazilians of paiN in the quarter-final.

The series began on paiN's pick of Nuke, and although Counter-Strike's most tactical map is typically CT-sided, Passion UA faltered and managed to record just four defensive rounds as paiN got off to a stellar start.

That was all the rounds Passion UA would get, too. paiN showed everyone why the map is CT-sided as we got into the second half, pulling off a clean sweep after the side switch thanks to dav1deuS picking up eight kills in the five rounds played.

13-4. Advantage to paiN.

Needing to get back into the game quickly on their own map pick, things were looking good for Passion UA on Inferno as they quickly built up a 4-1 lead on the more favoured T side.

Four rounds remained a sticking point for the former Complexity boys, though. paiN began to hit hard from that point, picking up a further six rounds in order to head onto their own T side with a 7-5 lead.

And the Brazilians didn't stop in the second half, either. They did allow Passion UA a couple of rounds this time around, a strong performance from everyone on the team saw them overcome their opponents with a 13-7 scorelione.

Vitality take down Spirit after map three OT

The second quarter final of the day kicked off as Spirit and Vitality went head to head on Dust2.

A map that Vitality looked like they might run away with as they got off to an early 5-1 lead on their CT side, Spirit fought back and managed to tie the score at 6-6 going into the break.

The Russian team then came out swinging on their own CT half, picking up four rounds with the bomb going down just once to give themselves a 10-6 advantage.

Vitality made it close, they picked up four of the next five rounds to make it 11-10 in favour of Spirit, but sh1ro proved to just be too strong. His 21 kills combined with some questionable decision making from Vitality and a huge 3k from donk to close the game gave Spirit the first map of the series with a 13-11 scoreline.

Vitality then levelled the series on Nuke, but it took two overtimes in order for them to do so.

After some rough T sides on the map in their recent outings, the BLAST.tv Austin Major champions put them in a great position going into the more favourable CT side with a 6-6 score at the break.

Spirit managed to match their numbers though, coming from behind to send the game to OT after a potential play of the year contender from donk.

OT remained even, although it was Vitality who eventually managed to close it out and send us to a third. A rough map for Spirit all things considered, their two stars donk and sh1ro were the two brightest stars on the server, but they couldn't convert that good form into a map win.

Pushed to Mirage for the decider, Vitality were the first on the board with a win on their CT pistol. However, Spirit fired back immediately, donk and sh1ro combined for some impactful kills on the resulting force buy to make it 1-1.

From there it was all Vitality, though, the Europeans raced to a 6-1 lead as Spirit looked hopeless in offence. Of course, that didn't mean Vitality could keep them down forever, and they held on to a narrow 7-5 lead as they went onto their T half.

The second half was much the same as the first. Strong CT aggression interrupted defaults, whilst messy executes gave anchors too easy kills to secure CT rounds. Another CT side 7-5 half ensued, and we went to OT to find a victor.

Despite the evenness of regulation, OT was anything but. Vitality were dominant in the first half, winning three straight T side rounds to give them a strong 15-12 lead. Spirit did manage to pull one back, but it was too little too late, and Vitality took the win at 16-13 to book themselves a semi-finals clash vs Falcons tomorrow.