As an esports journalist, there are some articles that you know you’re going to end up writing over the course of your career and there are some that just come from nowhere and this is one of those articles. After going 13-1 in their first game of the day at the European RMR B for the Shanghai Major, Team Spirit lost their best of one series to Passion UA.
The two star players of donk and sh1ro had 45 kills between them. Just two players with 45 kills and they were still on the back foot as Passion UA made it to 12 rounds on Anubis. The youngest roster in not the Europe, but the entire RMR managed to hold their own against the IEM Katowice 2024 champions.
How did Passion UA beat Spirit?
This was one of the most stunning games I’ve seen in a very long time. Spirit got off to the expected good start but they definitely underestimated Passion UA. Their lack of experience didn’t make much of a difference when it came down to the final moments and they managed to pull off the biggest upset of the RMRs to date and the biggest win of their careers.
There are those that are calling this loss embarrassing for Spirit and to be honest, I wouldn’t go that far. Sure, they won both pistol rounds but I really don’t think this is indicative of a lack of skill but just severely underestimating the opponent. Once they were caught off guard, Spirit didn’t really come back. Everything from the positioning to the utils was off and they were pushed out of position again and again.
So much of competitive CS comes down to holding your focus and keeping calm in very intense situations and that’s exactly what Passion UA did. It’ll be back to the drawing board for Spirit, who are still in the running to qualify for the Major – there’s no way they won’t use this as the ultimate learning experience.
Who are Passion UA?
You could definitely be forgiven for asking this question. The roster, owned by professional Ukrainian football player Oleksandr Zinchenko, has only been together for a year and have yet to make an appearance at an S tier event.
The entirely Ukrainian roster itself is made up of:
- Dmytro “jambo” Semera
- Nikita “jackasmo” Skyba
- Eduard “zeRRoFIX” Petrovskyi
- Vsevolod “s-chilla” Shchurov
- Rodyon “fear” Smyk
Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s very difficult for new rosters to hold their own against giants of Counter-Strike but perhaps we could see the upset of the decade in Passion UA. Now, having taken down Virtus.Pro earlier in the day, they’re well on their way to qualification for the Perfect World Shanghai Major. They may not be in the clear yet, but we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this roster.
