Spirit eliminated as Vitality roll on to BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025 Semi-Finals

It was another rough day at the office for Spirit, who should have been able to secure a spot in the BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025 Semi-Finals over Vitality but, due to various reasons, were unable to see it out. We’ll get to that, though. Meanwhile, paiN Gaming made short work of Passion UA on the other side of the bracket, ensuring chances of a first trophy of 2025 remain well and truly intact.

Spirit anchored by their floor despite donk heroics vs. Vitality

Spirit can only be intensely disappointed at their 2:1 loss over Vitality, which realistically should have been a concrete 2:0 over the defending BLAST Rivals champions. Following a surprise win on Dust2, Spirit flew out of the gates to a 6:2 start on Nuke, but a series of unfortunate events meant their haul in that first half of map two ended there. What should have been a nine-round haul, stopped short at six.

That map two eventually went to Overtime, thanks largely to a remarkable donk 1v5 clutch that will surely take home every Highlight of the Year award across the board. Yet, despite those heroics, Spirit still couldn’t find the firepower to see out map two, so a decider was needed.

DONK WITH THE 1VS5!!! 🤯 #BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/O6gQb9BUPo

— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) November 14, 2025

I wish I could say that map three was any less the donk show, but it wasn’t. A tough showing across the board from his teammates laid bare Spirit’s floor, a stark reminder of why this team seems to be so far from trophies at the moment. It’s hard to point out the biggest offenders, as none of chopper, zweih, nor tN1R covered themselves in glory throughout this series. But this floor proved to be an anchor on the team, and the reason they couldn’t pull this one out the bag.

Credit to Vitality, though. With both maps two and three going to Overtime following Spirit comebacks, even one OT half going wrong meant almost certainly elimination for Vitality. Yet, it was them who showed all the experience when the pressure was at its highest, and a Semi-Finals berth at BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025 is secure.

Passion UA powerless against potent paiN Gaming

It was always something of a miracle that Passion UA had found themselves in the Playoffs of BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025. This team have enjoyed mixed results so far, but the format in Hong Kong meant they were able to secure the Quarter-Finals here right before the Major. But against paiN Gaming, there was only ever going to be one winner. The Brazilians got things done in two, only dropping 11 rounds in total along the way.

It feels as though this former Complexity core has been stuck for a while now, but they continue to persevere as Passion UA. It certainly wasn’t a pretty watch here, with hallzerk mustering just 16 kills across the two maps. Perhaps even more concerning is Kvem’s haul of 13, exactly half of both nicx and Grim, an already low bar to clear.

Meanwhile, for paiN Gaming, a rematch with FURIA awaits. We already saw this Brazilian derby earlier at BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025, and when we spoke to biguzera, he mentioned how much it means in this particular matchup. While FURIA are arguably the top dogs in the scene right now, don’t underestimate the intangibles that go into defining this type of derby matchup.