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BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 Recap Day 4

It’s Day 4 and we’ve witnessed two elimination matches played by four megateams of the CS world. All deserve... | 18. December 2021

It’s Day 4 and we’ve witnessed two elimination matches played by four megateams of the CS world. All deserve to go through but not all can. A creepy pattern is emerging, mirroring BLAST World Final 2020. Are the CS gods toying with us? Too many questions. Read on to find out!

NaVi vs G2

The much-awaited Major Grand Final repeat finally happened, with NaVi and G2 fighting for their lives in this tournament. The loser was to be eliminated, and it was clear that the Ukrainians had no interest in quitting the tournament this early.

The first map was NaVi’s pick, Nuke. NaVi started on the T side, and extensively abused the verticality of the map, taking lower bombsite consistently. They sped to a 7-1 lead with this strat, but G2 switched things up. That turned the half onto its head as the French won it 8-7. NaVi put on a good defense in the second half, rushing to a 15-11 lead, and closing the map 16-14. NiKo put in a 35-kill masterpiece, but still had to settle for 2nd place.

 

The second map was Inferno. NaVi had a good CT side, winning the half 9-6. On their T side though, NaVi had extremely poor Banana control. Yet, some odd A rounds and late B rounds later, they reached match point, 15-13. But G2 persevered and took the match to overtime.G2 continued their rockstrong defense and won the first half 3-0. NaVi did not concede defeat either, as they tied it up 3-3 for double overtime. After winning two T rounds, G2 eventually won double overtime 4-1, and the match had laboured on to the third map.

After two astonishingly competitive maps, Mirage was set up as a grand divider between these two giants. But it barely lived up to the expectation, as G2 horrifically lost 16-4, thanks to a 2.21 rating performance by s1mple, and a total disasterclass from NiKo and co. Was this the Mirage we would’ve gotten had NiKo not missed that Deag shot in the Major Finals?

As was predicted, G2 vs Vitality loser in the UB is practically out. But it was barely a breeze for NaVi as the matchups on Nuke and Inferno were some of the best games of 2021 CS.

Astralis vs Liquid

The clash of dynasties that once were. Liquid played their historic nemesis, Astralis, in yet another elimination tie. I wonder if NaVi rooted for Astralis to avoid Liquid or rooted against Astralis to avenge their first-match loss to the Americans. We will never know. First map was Dust2. Liquid had a puny 20% win rate on it, compared to Astralis’ 60%. So against all mathematical logic, Liquid blew away Astralis 12-3 in the first half and went on to close the map 16-9 after swathing a desperate Danish scream.

The second map was Liquid’s pick, Mirage. Both teams alternate between winning strings of rounds, it was a very balanced half of CS, ending 8-7 in Astralis’ favour. The second half started the same way, as Astralis reached a 13-11 lead. But after that, Liquid went on a spotless streak and won 5 rounds in a row and won the match. A dying Liquid has eliminated their foe twice in a row: IEM Winter and BLAST Global Finals. Historic.

NaVi is set to replay Liquid, this time for elimination. Liquid has time and again proved to be NaVi’s kryptonite, but will they be able to stand tall against this revitalized NaVi? Vitality face Gambit next in the UB Final. The winner will progress to the Grand Final, while the loser will fight the NaVi-Liquid winner in the LB Final. As speculated in the previous article, Vitality might go through after a close game.

History is not on Liquid and Vitality’s side. NaVi’s World Final 2021 matchups are eerily similar to the World Final 2020 ones. NaVi were relegated to the lower bracket by Liquid in 2020. Just like 2021. NaVi had to beat G2 in LB Round 2 in 2020. Just like 2021. NaVi faced Liquid again in LB Round 3 for elimination. Just like 2021.

According to the pattern, Vitality may lose the UB Final and go on to lose to NaVi in the LB Final. I’m not superstitious but….. It’s on you to decide! In 2020, NaVi won 2-0 and eliminated FalleN from his first-ever tournament with Liquid. Will NaVi do the same in 2021 and put a creepily identical end to FalleN’s last-ever tournament with Liquid? Will we come full circle? Only time can tell!