BLAST Premier Fall Groups: NaVi and NiP advance to Grand Final of their respective groups

The BLAST Premier Fall Groups continue, and we have two new finalists in their respective groups, NaVi and NiP, who performed perfectly in the Lower Bracket to be one step away from a direct ticket to the BLAST Premier Fall Finals.

On NiP’s side, their 2-1 win over COL eliminates the new North American lineup, but there is no doubt it was a good tournament for them. On the other hand, NaVi did the same with BIG, another team with a new lineup, and could only beat Astralis in this tournament.

As a result, NiP will face Team Vitality to define the champion of Group A, while NaVi will have their revenge against Heroic in the Group B final.

Let’s see what happened on the previous day of the BLAST Premier Fall Groups.

NiP and Complexity Gaming give us a spectacular series

There is no doubt that the first match of the day, NiP vs. COL, gave us an incredible BO3, with both teams playing at the highest possible level and demonstrating excellent performance in each round.

It all started in Mirage, NiP’s map pick, where Hampus “hampus” Poser led his team (NiP) to victory with an excellent performance. The first half ended with a favorable score for NiP on their T side. Then, at the change of sides, everything was much more complicated for COL, as NiP managed to put up a good defense to take the victory by 16-9.

On the second map, Overpass, Complexity woke up completely and hit back to even the series 1-1. As has been the case in several matches in this tournament, the T-side of the teams in Overpass is getting better and better, and COL showed an excellent level of play to take a partial first-half victory on the T-side with a score of 10-5. NiP did not have much to do with the change of sides, as they only won two rounds and ended up conceding the map by 7-16.

Finally, everything was defined in Nuke, where we observed the best of each team. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski from COL and Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov from NiP were in charge of fighting intense battles in this decisive map. After both halves ended with a score of 8-7, the map had to be defined in Overtime. Finally, after two overtimes, NiP managed to take the victory by 22-20 and thus qualify for the Group A Final.

What a hard fought battle but @NIPCS takes their revenge on @Complexity after double OT!!#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/QhkuZtWHrK

— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) July 18, 2023

NaVi suffer but get a clean sweep against BIG

There is no doubt that this new NaVi lineup continues to give a lot to talk about, as it is obvious that they do not have complete synergy on the server. However, the team has great individual talent, and they brought it out in their match against BIG to take a clean sweep victory (2-0) to qualify for the Group B final against Heroic.

It all started on Ancient, BIG’s map pick, and we all know why they selected this map, as NaVi looked bad on Ancient in their BO3 against Heroic. However, it was quite the opposite this time, as Mihai “iM” Ivan more than proved why he was one of NaVi’s star signings in the offseason. The first half ended with a score of 11-4 in favor of NaVi. Then, in the second half, with NaVi on the T-side, BIG tried to wake up by the hand of Elias “s1n” Stein. However, the awakening was insufficient, and they fell by 11-16.

The second map, Mirage, was much more balanced, but again, it was due to a lack of attention from NaVi on their TC side. In the first half, we watched iM again display their full potential to lead their team to an 11-4 partial victory. However, the change of sides was completely different, as NaVi’s defense was a disaster, and BIG took advantage of this to get 13-14 down on the scoreboard. Finally, NaVi had to suffer more than enough in a game that seemed to be under control to win 16-14 and stay alive in the tournament.

No OT for Mirage, and @natusvincere moves to the Group Final 🔥#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/VMunvpNdAO

— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) July 18, 2023