BLAST Premier World Final: Group Stage recap

Although only two weeks are left before the end of the year, there is still an important trophy to conquer in the CS:GO competitive scene, the BLAST Premier World Final in Abu Dhabi.

Eight of the best teams in the world, those who performed the best throughout 2022, including the winners of the last three Majors played, have been facing each other in this beautiful event since last December 14th.

The goal of each of these teams is, in addition to winning the championship trophy, to win a juicy portion of the $1,000,000 prize pool.

Group Stage Recap

The eight participating teams were divided into two groups of four with double-elimination matches.

Group A

• FaZe Clan
• Outsiders
• G2 Esports
• Team Liquid

Group B

• NaVi
• Heroic
• Team Vitality
• OG

However, the Group Stage of this BLAST Premier World Finals in Abu Dhabi started with the development of all the matches on December 14th.

Team Liquid 2-1 Outsiders

The match that kicked off this tournament was between Team Liquid and Outsiders, where the latter came with the label of favorites after being crowned in the last IEM Rio Major.

The map selection was as follows:

• Team Liquid: Inferno
• Outsiders: Anubis
• Tercer Mapa: Mirage

In Inferno, Outsiders started with everything and won the first half with a spectacular 2-13. Team Liquid tried to react, but it was not enough, and they lost 10-16.

In Anubis, a surprise selection by Outsiders, Team Liquid had an excellent map and managed to take a 16-8 victory. This evened the series and forced the third and decisive map.

Finally, with an extraordinary terrorist side, Team Liquid won, again 16-8, to fight for first place in the next match.

Faze Clan 2-1 G2 Esports

This battle started at Nuke, and after a very tight first half that ended with a very even score, G2 Esports was able to step up and win 16-10.

Inferno in the second match did not disappoint. Likewise, both teams showed a great level and took the game to the first Overtime of the tournament. However, in the end, FaZe Clan pulled out all the stops and took the win 19-17 to force the third map.

Finally, Ancient gave a 180-degree turn to the series, as FaZe Clan managed to win categorically in the first half 13-2, to finally take the victory 16-4 and win the series.

OG 2-1 Heroic

The first of the surprises came on the third map when OG managed to take the victory against Heroic with a very good 2-1 in the series.

The series began on Inferno, with an intense match that ended with a 16-11 victory for OG after an even first half.

The second map, Mirage, was under control by Heroic, and they ended with an excellent 16-9 victory to force the third map, Anubis.

Finally, with what would be the best game so far in the tournament, Anubis was a give-and-take from the start. The teams gave it their all until playing the second Overtime, where OG prevailed and took the win 22-19.

Team Vitality 2-0 NaVi

While it was expected a spectacular clash between ZywOo and s1mple, it was quite the opposite in this match.

Team Vitality was far superior to NaVi throughout this series, even though the first map, Inferno, went to Overtime and ended in favor of Vitality with a 19-16.

In the second map, Nuke, Team Vitality did the same and took the victory 16-11.

Elimination Matches

In the elimination matches, we surprisingly had Outsiders, Heroic, NaVi, and G2 Esports.

Everything would end for the current IEM Rio Major champions, Outsiders, when G2 Esports crushed them with a 0-2 result in the series and an embarrassing 16-1 on the second map.

On the other hand, NaVi fought with Heroic for a lovely series that ended in favor of s1mple and his team with a 1-2 score.

Winners Matches

On the other hand, the winners’ matches were to show us which teams would secure first place in their groups and thus advance to the semifinals.

FaZe Clan beat Team Liquid 2-1 in Group A. At the same time, OG beat Team Vitality with a crushing 0-2 win to take first place in Group B.

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