HellRaisers have won the CIS Minor leading to the FACEIT Major after defeating Spirit 2-1 in the grand final.

The battle for the bonus money in London began on Overpass, Spirit's map pick. The Russian team, brimming with confidence after qualifying for the Major, opened up the map with a successful A execute, but HellRaisers replied instantly.

Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow's men used that momentum to take control of proceedings, cruising to an 8-1 lead as Spirit struggled to find holes in the defence. The Russians' offense then finally came to life, which allowed them to bring the deficit to five rounds by the end of the half.

After the break, HellRaisers further added to their lead by winning the pistol round, but Spirit rallied back immediately. Vadim "⁠DavCost⁠" Vasilyev's team then kept a fairly watertight defence and won eight of the following nine rounds to take a 14-12 lead. It looked like the match was going to go Spirit's way, but then HellRaisers finally woke up, with the international line-up winning four rounds straight en-route to a 16-14 finish.

woxic dropped a 40 bomb on Dust2

Carrying their momentum into the next map, Mirage, HellRaisers won five rounds right off the bat to get control of the economy and send out a strong message. Pavel "⁠COLDYY1⁠" Veklenko then rose up to the occasion and became the hero that Spirit needed, getting several multi-kill rounds to get his team back in the game.

Down 5-6, HellRaisers still called a timeout in an attempt to halt Spirit's momentum, but the Russian team did not let their foot off the gas and remained in control for a 10-5 half.

Spirit picked up where they had left off, winning the first four rounds of the second half to get within touching distance of map point. HellRaisers then got their first round of the half on a low buy, but Spirit hit back immediately with two in a row to lock down the map.

It all came down to Dust2, where Spirit got off to a dream start. The Russian side began the game on the Terrorist side and ran all over the defence throughout the half, cruising to a 12-3 lead.

HellRaisers knew they had a mountain to climb to turn this game around, and their recovery was initiated by Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk, who opened up the action in the second half with a triple kill. And then Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker stole the show as he led the team to a dream second half.

Unable to build on the few rounds that were going their way, Spirit were kept off any economic development, with HellRaisers sealing the victory in the 30th round on the back of a quad kill from woxic, who dropped a 40 bomb in the game.

CIS Minor - FACEIT Major 2018 final standings: