BLAST Premier Fall Groups finals preview

With three best-of-three Finals scheduled for tomorrow, the play-in stage of the Blast Premier Fall Groups is approaching its conclusion. 

The BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 is now in its final stages after delivering thrilling CS:GO action; shocking upsets and incredible comebacks. Complexity Gaming, Evil Geniuses, and BIG are out of the race, while the remaining nine teams are still vying for the six slots at the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022.

Astralis vs. OG – A chance of redemption for both Danish teams

Astralis may have appeared in excellent shape in the group stage, but only those who have been following the Danish esports team at the IEM Rio open qualifications are aware of the team’s true struggles. After securing the first place finish in Group A of Fall Group, the team suffered disappointing setbacks against the underdogs at IEM Road to Rio 2022: European RMR Open Qualifier 2 and Qualifier 3. 

Keeping the disappointing tale of their open qualifiers results aside, Astralis prevailed 16-9 over BIG in their previous group stage matchup, and the Danish team will be expecting nothing less when they face off again tomorrow. Nonetheless, both teams will strive for a comeback before their momentum is razed to the ground

Team Vitality’s overhauled lineup will be put to the test by Natus Vincere

Keeping their domination at Blast Premier events alive, the fan-favorite NAVI secured the top-place finish at the group stage. After a shocking fall against Complexity Gaming, the Ukrainian team rallied against G2 Esports, Complexity Gaming, and Liquid to secure a birth at the finals of the play-in stage.

Team Vitality, on the other hand, got off to a great start with their AWper Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut pulling off miracles for the French team against OG and Ninjas in Pyjamas. After dropping the grand finals of the group stage to Astralis in overtime, the team thrashed G2 Esports in the play-in semifinals to move one step closer to the Fall Finals spot.

The fact that NAVI hasn’t even played with its full force yet makes the Ukrainian team more dangerous compared to G2.  Danyyl “headtr1ck” Valitov filled in for NAVI during the group stage after Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev opted out for personal reasons. NAVI has, however, confirmed that s1mple will be competing in the grand finals, empowering the team with the big gun for the crucial match. Regardless of the result, it would be exciting to witness how the new and revamped Vitality starring the Israeli rifler Lotan “Spinx” Giladi fared against s1mple’s Ukrainian behemoth NAVI.

North American powerhouse Liquid will face the European juggernauts Heroic

After a brilliant run at IEM Cologne, which saw the North American team secure a 5th-6th place finish,  Liquid came out firing at the Group Falls. The team handed upsets to G2 and Complexity Gaming in the close games to secure a place in the grand finals. In the finals, however, NAVI completely decimated Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella and the squad, limiting them to only four rounds before winning the game.

Heroic on the other hand found their path entangled with team FaZe’s, as both the European teams collided twice during the group stage, with each match having a different winner. After winning the first match against BIG, Heroic crumbled at Nuke against the FaZe’s lethal duo of Robin “ropz” Kool and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken. Following another victory against BIG in the lower bracket, Heroic set up their second encounter against FaZe.

With Martin “stavn” Lund Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard taking the charge of the team, Heroic overcame the mighty FaZe in the final and exacted Nuke’s retribution with Inferno. While both teams are equally capable of defeating the other, Heroic may have a little advantage over Liquid since they maintained their composure and consistency better throughout the competition.

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