BLAST Showdown: Who Can Secure the Remaining Spots?

Now, the real fight is on for the two remaining spots to the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals. Cloud9, mousesports, FURIA, and Team Liquid have fought well to this point and are just one step away from qualification. But which teams can actually set themselves on top?

DO FURIA ACTUALLY STAND A CHANCE AGAINST LIQUID?

Looking at the pairings of this bracket, it becomes painfully obvious that FURIA have really had an easier time than the rest. Isurus and Virtus.pro were definitely not the most challenging opponents, and still the Brazilians gave away a map in both Best-of-Threes. Liquid, however, managed to swallow their loss to MAD Lions on the first map and persevered. They then dominated MIBR in their follow-up game. With 16-11 and 16-2 wins, they concluded one of the shortest matches at this event. Only Complexity had previously managed to steal the show with their two 16-4 wins over Sprout.

Disregarding of who survives in this match-up, it is unfortunate to see these two teams facing each other. Liquid in particular came to Europe in order to fight and prove themselves against European opposition. Instead, they have mostly gone up against Brazilian teams in this tournament. This is particularly annoying given that the other bracket consists entirely of European rosters.

The only real upside for FURIA is the individual performance of their players. Yuri “yuurih” Santos has earned himself a 1.35 rating so far and is miles ahead of any Liquid player. Even Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato sits on top of the Liquid boys with a 1.24 rating, who have only been able to reach a 1.18 rating with Michael “Grim” Wince. It is worrying to see Russel “Twistzz” VanDulken put up such a weak show, as he usually is one of the top performers for the team. So FURIA are by no means out of the fight, even though their ratings have been artificially inflated due to arguably weaker competition.

HAS THE COLOSSUS FINALLY ARRIVED?

In the hotly anticipated ‘Colossus versus Juggernaut’ fight, Cloud9 managed to secure a narrow victory over Complexity. After they had recorded their first match win over the Ninjas in Pyjamas, they followed this up with a much more impressive performance. In recent time, Complexity had shown great progress with regards to the inclusion of Justin “jks” Savage. But that didn’t help them in their fight against Cloud9, as their players have finally woken up.

Alex “ALEX” McMeekin, who had put up quite the opposite of a great show so far, secured the most kills in this game. For the young in-game-leader, this is an important and redeeming moment, as there are high hopes on him to succeed with this roster.

On Nuke, it was Patrick “es3tag” Hansen who held Cloud9 in the game. But the Complexity shotcaller, Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, held sway. On a 1.44 rating, he was the absolute star of the match and kept Cloud9 from winning early. Complexity secured a 16-13 win, which meant that they had a great chance of closing this match out early. But Cloud9 didn’t falter this easily. On Mirage, they proved that their roster can actually deliver on its premise. They were well-coordinated and made great mid-round decisions. They practically toyed with Complexity. Often times, blameF and his boys didn’t even understand what was happening to them.

However, a 10-5 half for Complexity on the last map, Dust2, signalled towards an end to this match. But the Cloud9 CT side brought everything back. There, they were well-structured and hit so many shots that Complexity failed to find any openings. They tried to fall back to their individual duels, but this didn’t work out great. Apart from Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke and Valentin “poizon” Vasilev, the rest of the players didn’t output enough kills. Despite the 1.44 rating courtesy of k0nfig, who topped everyone else on the server, the map went to Cloud9 on a 16-14 scoreline. So the Colossus has finally recorded its first major victory.

CAN CLOUD9 SHOW UP LIKE THIS AGAINST MOUZ AS WELL?

This question is quite difficult to answer. ALEX and his men have shown great resilience against Complexity, but in the end, the results were still incredibly close and a few mistakes from the Cloud9 camp could have completely altered the course of the match. On top of that, mousesports have also achieved a breakthrough win over Heroic. On the last two maps, the Danes only secured a combined 15 rounds.

So mousesports should really not be underestimated. Cloud9 have to come up with a great plan if they want to take this Best-of-Three home. Today, they will get the chance to qualify for the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals. For this young roster, this could finally be the achievement that silences their doubters and critics.