OG, NAVI and Liquid win BLAST Premier: Fall Groups Finals

OG, Natus Vincere, and Team Liquid prevailed in the finals of the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022, each taking home $27,500 in prize money along with a guaranteed spot at the Fall Finals.

Astralis, Team Vitality, and Heroic still have a chance to qualify for the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022 through today’s Last Chance Matches. But before that, here’s the recap of the event’s finals.

Astralis vs. OG 

OG defeated Astralis 2-0 in a nail-biting close match to cap off their run in the lower bracket on a winning note. After dropping two opening games against Astralis and Vitality in the group stage, OG came out firing in the play-in stage. Beginning their lower bracket with a brilliant victory over Complexity Gaming, the team overcame FaZe Clan to reach the finals.

In the final, however, the fierce duo of OG, Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, and Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov completely dominated Astralis throughout the series. The duo put on outstanding performances for the team at Ancient and Mirage, recording a K/D of 48-40 and 47-29, respectively. For Astralis, to qualify for the Fall Final and avoid the Showdown gauntlet, they must win the best-of-three against FaZe in the Last Chance Stage. 

Natus Vincere vs. Team Vitality

After a close race between the two European teams, NAVI defeated Vitality in the finals to continue their dominance at BLAST competitions. Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, NAVI’s in-game leader, demonstrated outstanding skills through his effective K/D score of 19/14, helping the Ukrainian team secure Inferno handily.

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, on the other hand, emerged as the game’s most dominant player with a total of 38 kills after recording a K/D of 25/17 at Mirage. His lethal playstyle utterly eclipsed Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen’s match-saving effort, helping the Ukrainian team close Mirage 16-13. The setback knocks Vitality down to the Last Chance bracket, where they will face G2 in a rematch for a Fall Final spot.

Team Liquid vs. Heroics

Team Liquid’s 2-0 victory over Heroic in the third final bracket preserved North American eligibility for BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022. The North American team completely destroyed Heroic at Vertigo and Overpass with stand-in Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gainskis leading the charge for the team.

Although the entire Liquid team looked promising during the best-of-three series, YEKINDAR’s performance was indeed a game-changer. With a K/D of 44-26 and an average damage per round of 101.1 across the two maps, the Latvian rifler earned ta HLTV rating of 1.55. With this win, Liquid qualified for LAN in Copenhagen, while Heroic are relegated to the Last Chance match against Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Header: PGL