BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022 Playoffs preview

The Group Stage of BLAST Premier 2022 Spring Finals is over and everyone who was expected to qualify for the Playoffs managed to do so. However, both groups were won by surprising teams.

The quarterfinal matches are scheduled to take place this Friday, starting with ENCE vs. Team Vitality at 4:30 pm CEST, followed by a clash of FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere at 8 pm CEST.

Group A Results

The big favourites in Group A were FaZe Clan and G2 Esports, followed closely by Team Vitality. PaiN Gaming were doomed from the start simply because the competitive level of this tournament is too high for their current roster. But the others were expected to play well.

The opening matches were won by FaZe Clan against paiN (2–0) and G2 Esports against Vitality (2–1). In the elimination match, Vitality defeated paiN (2–1) without too many problems. In the winners’ match, G2 played incredibly well and made an epic comeback after losing quite badly on Inferno (16:7), upsetting FaZe (2–1).

The star player of Group A was Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, who played vastly better than anyone else on the server, reaching a rating of 1.43 and helping G2 secure a spot in the semifinals.

Group B Results

In Group B, Natus Vincere was known to be in poor form, while ENCE was ranked second globally. This made ENCE easy favorites of the group, however, the group ended up being shockingly won by OG.

The result was a surprise to many because, first of all, OG entered the tournament being ranked 24th globally. The second problem was that they had to play with a stand-in Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov as a result of Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski falling ill. But despite these limitations, they managed to beat both Natus Vincere and ENCE — two of the highest-ranked teams in the world. ENCE finished the group second and Na’Vi finished third.

Quarterfinals preview

It’s a bit difficult to predict what will happen in the first match between ENCE and Vitality, because Vitality played well against G2, while ENCE got defeated by OG and nearly lost against BIG as well. So despite their global rank, the match could easily be won by the French squad.

This battle of FaZe Clan vs. Natus Vincere seems lost for Na’Vi from the start. Unless Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev can solo carry the team to an unlikely victory, FaZe Clan is likely to repeat their performance from the most recent CS:GO Major.

Keep in mind that the CIS crew is currently competing with a stand-in Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev and an improvised IGL. This may work against weaker opponents, but FaZe are the strongest team in the world at the moment.

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