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BLAST Premier: How G2 & Gambit Secured Their Finals Slots

The BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown was held in two separate brackets. One team each had the chance to qualify... Fabio | 19. April 2021

The BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown was held in two separate brackets. One team each had the chance to qualify for the Spring Finals. In the end, G2 Esports and Gambit Esports were the ones to book their tickets.

For teams like Astralis, Liquid, and Heroic, this tournament was a major disappointment. But nobody will be more disappointed than Team Vitality. The Frenchmen wanted to play one last tournament alongside Cédric “RpK” Guipouy, as the 31-year-old was to be put on the bench afterwards. But in their first match, they already suffered an upset loss to 9z Team, the arguably biggest underdogs in the entire tournament.

Ironically, the match kicked off with a clear 16-9 victory for Vitality. They seemed to be okay with the explosive style of the South American team, but on Overpass they were swiftly defeated. On Inferno, Franco “dgt” Garcia pulled off a 3k to seal the Frenchmen’s fate. With a 0.83 rating, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut had an uncharacteristically bad day.

However, Heroic put an end to this. On two rather short maps, the Danes dispatched 9z and destroyed their dreams of a Spring miracle on European soil. This didn’t come as a surprise. After all, Heroic had won the Grand Finals of ESL Pro League Season 13 just a few days ago.

HEROIC FALL IN REPEAT MATCH

What came as a surprise, however, was the Danes’ performance against their CIS rivals. Gambit and Heroic had been placed into the bracket in such a way that their confrontation would decide on the Spring Finals slot. In the place of an uber-performance courtesy of Casper “CadiaN” Møller or the crazy overtime victories that his team pulled off, we got to see Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov and his men mount a convincing 16-6 scoreline on Inferno. Gambit had definitely done their homework and thoroughly analyzed the most recent tournament.

After such a blowout loss, Heroic woke up on Vertigo to deliver an almost as dominant 16-9 win. So the playing fieled was leveled again, but it soon became obvious that Gambit would walk home with the victory. CadiaN and his men secured a 7-0 lead, but only managed to win some rounds in between afterwards. With very few exceptions, Gambit raced away with the round points and Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov gunned Heroic down for a 16-12 finish.

So the Danes aren’t quite there yet. But is that actually a surprise? After all, Rasmus “sjuush” Beck and Ismail “refrezh” Ali have only joined the roster a few days ago. Obviously, cadiaN will need more time to do the ground work with this team. Their ESL Pro League victory has revealed their immense potential, but now the other teams know what to go up against. However, the past has shown us that cadiaN knows how to handle this kind of pressure.

So Gambit have already had their revenge. Even though they have lost a trophy earlier on, they now have a shot at securing another tournament victory at the Spring Finals. This time, Heroic can’t even stand in their way.

LIQUID AND ASTRALIS EXIT EARLY

The other side of the bracket got real crazy. Liquid and Astralis already waved goodbye after the Opening Matches. The Danes had to go up against the new OG lineup, which promptly mounted an upset win. Shahar “flameZ” Shushan wasn’t even the driving force behind this, but OG finally managed to beat their overtime curse and win a close map.

Inferno was a one-sided affair. Afterwards, Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen joined the server on Nuke, but he failed to leave a mark. To be fair, he hasn’t exactly been graced with a lot of play-time in recent months. On a 17-19 scoreline, they gave the match away to OG, who later showed up strong against G2 Esports, but eventually lost out on the last map.

Liquid were too sure of themselves going up against Dignitas. After a large chunk of the old guard had left, the new players finally got their moment in the spotlight. Ludvig “HEAP” Alonso and Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson recorded 1.56 and 1.57 ratings each, as they booted Liquid off the tournament on two straight maps. So G2 Esports were the only real favorites left in the bracket.

However, Team Spirit wanted to play around some more. They set themselves on top of Dignitas and arrived in the Grand Finals alongside G2. There, they opened things up with a brutal 16-6 win, making it seem like an upset was bound to occur. But Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač and Nikola “NiKo” Kovač were in a fighting mood. They brought things back on Dust with a 16-12 victory, carrying the match over to a third and final map. There, the two teams entered overtime, in which huNter’ clutched his team to victory. So the second Spring Finals slot went over to G2 Esports, who quickly made up for their disappointing ESL Pro League run.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE SPRING FINALS?

The BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2021 are a long ways away still. First, we can enjoy some DreamHack Masters Spring. Most of the teams will be in attendance there anyways. This means that a lot will change with regards to the preparation and performance of each roster.

BIG and EG might finally be able to stabilize after a string of bad performances. FaZe should have enough time to get things going with Finn “karrigan” Andersen. It stands to question whether Gambit will still be at the top at this point. Natus Vincere need to find out what’s holding them back. Until then, they should be properly scared of meeting Complexity again.