Spirit vs. DENDELE at BLAST Open Porto 2026:The Reigning Champions' First Test
Team Spirit open BLAST Open Porto 2026 three days after winning the Esports World Cup, against a team they've never played before — DENDELE, formerly Sharks Esports, fresh off an upset win over FURIA.
Team Spirit open BLAST Open Porto 2026 three days after winning the Esports World Cup 2026, and their first opponent is a team they've never played before: DENDELE, the rebranded Brazilian roster formerly known as Sharks Esports.
It's a straightforward gap in level on paper — the reigning EWC champions against a South American qualifier team — but DENDELE arrive with one real result to point to: an upset win over FURIA just a month ago.
Match
Spirit vs. DENDELE
Tournament
BLAST Open Porto 2026Stage
Group A · Opening Round
Date
August 26, 2026
Time
13:30 CEST
Format
Best of 3
Player names link to their HLTV.org profiles.
Straight From an EWC Title Into an Opponent They've Never Faced
Spirit's five-man core of donk, sh1ro, tN1R, magixx and zont1x has been unchanged since a December 2025 lineup swap reinstated magixx and zont1x, and it just won the Esports World Cup 2026 outright — beating Vitality, Legacy and FUT in succession, with donk named tournament MVP after a run of 88 kills to 70 deaths and a 91.9 ADR. That title came only three days before this opener, leaving Spirit with almost no time to rest before facing a team they have literally never played, in any format, at any event.
The Team That Beat FURIA, Now Facing the World's Best
DENDELE is Sharks Esports under a new name — the org partnered with Brazilian Kings League club DENDELE FC and rebranded in late July, with the roster and coaching staff carried over unchanged. That roster's best 2026 result came at BLAST Bounty Season 2 in late July, where it beat FURIA 2-1 in the Round of 32, before falling just short of that event's LAN finals against FaZe. It's the one signature scalp DENDELE brings into Porto, and it's enough to make this more than a formality — even against a Spirit side playing at as high a level as anyone in the world right now.
DENDELE's koala was named in HLTV's Prospects spotlight after leading South America with a 1.23 rating through the region's BLAST Porto qualifiers — a real, recent form note for a player about to share a server with the reigning EWC MVP.
No History, Big Stakes for the Winner
A Spirit win keeps them in Group A's upper bracket, likely against the winner of Aurora vs. G2 in the same-day semifinal. A DENDELE win — Spirit's first-ever loss to the organization — would send the reigning champions to the lower bracket just three days after lifting a trophy, while keeping DENDELE alive in the upper bracket of an eight-team, double-elimination group.
