Team Spirit and Vitality reach the IEM Rio 2026 grand final

IEM Rio 2026 semi-final recap

Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2026 moved into its final day overnight, and the semi-finals left us with a grand final that feels right for the way this week has unfolded. Team Spirit booked the first spot by sweeping Team Falcons, while Team Vitality followed with a composed 2-0 win over FURIA Esports to set up a title match between two sides arriving in very different ways.

At EsportBet, readers can also find the latest Counter-Strike betting previews, matchup breakdowns, and tournament coverage as Rio heads into its last day.

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Spirit take control against Falcons

The first semi-final never really developed into the back-and-forth series some expected.

Spirit beat Falcons 2-0, taking Dust2 13-7 before running away with Mirage 13-4, and the match felt more one-sided as it went on. Falcons had a few moments early, but Spirit were cleaner in the important rounds, sharper once the pace changed, and far better at turning small advantages into full control of the map.

What made the win stand out was how balanced Spirit looked. They were not leaning on one giant carry performance or one lucky stretch. The whole side felt connected, and once Mirage started slipping away from Falcons, there was never much sense that a comeback was building.

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Vitality keep FURIA at arm’s length

The second semi-final had a very different atmosphere, with the home crowd trying to push FURIA into one last big run.

Vitality never really allowed it to become that kind of messy, emotional series. They won Overpass 13-10, then repeated the score on Ancient to close out a straight-map win and punch their way into the grand final. FURIA stayed close enough on the scoreboard to hang around, but Vitality still looked like the calmer and more reliable side whenever the rounds started to carry real weight.

That was the biggest difference in the series. FURIA found patches where they looked capable of swinging a map, but Vitality kept answering. They reset quickly, made better use of the big moments, and never let the crowd turn the match into the kind of scrap the Brazilian side needed.

Grand final day now set

That leaves Spirit against Vitality in the best-of-five grand final, while Falcons and FURIA meet in the third-place match.

It is a strong final-day lineup either way. The title match gives Rio two teams that looked completely convincing in the semi-finals, while the third-place decider still features two sides that spent most of the week looking good enough to make the final themselves.

Spirit arrive with momentum and a semi-final performance that looked complete from top to bottom. Vitality come in after another polished playoff win and still carry that familiar feel of a team that gets harder to beat the deeper a tournament goes.

Spirit vs Falcons match stats

Falcons	K-D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
🇷🇺Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov	28-27	+4.03%	78.5	73.0%	1.28
🇧🇦Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač	23-29	-5.79%	71.4	54.1%	0.80
🇷🇺Maksim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin	19-28	-4.68%	66.3	67.6%	0.76
🇩🇰René ‘TeSeS’ Madsen	17-27	-3.81%	53.8	62.2%	0.74
🇲🇰Damjan ‘kyxsan’ Stoilkovski	16-28	-3.34%	60.2	45.9%	0.70
Spirit	K-D	Swing	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
🇷🇺Boris ‘magixx’ Vorobiev	31-17	+6.41%	80.9	83.8%	1.45
🇧🇾Andrey ‘tN1R’ Tatarinovich	28-22	+2.12%	92.0	75.7%	1.25
🇷🇺Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets	26-22	+2.47%	78.4	78.4%	1.18
🇷🇺Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov	28-16	+2.60%	72.5	67.6%	1.16
🇺🇦Myroslav ‘zont1x’ Plakhotia	25-26	-0.01%	72.9	67.6%	0.97

Standout players

Spirit did not need one outrageous solo carry to win this semi-final, but magixx set the tone with 31 kills, an 83.8% KAST, and the best rating on the server at 1.45. tN1R added 92.0 ADR, while donk and sh1ro both finished above a 1.15 rating, which says plenty about how much steady pressure Spirit kept on across both maps.

For Falcons, m0NESY was the only player to finish above a 1.00 rating, and that tells the story of the series pretty quickly. Spirit had more answers, more balance, and far more control once the semi-final settled into its rhythm.