BLAST World Final: Liquid and G2 move to the semi-finals

Team Liquid and G2 secured a spot in the semi-finals of the BLAST World Premier Final following their respective victories over Natus Vincere and Vitality today.

Josh “oSee” Ohm and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gainskis’ outstanding play on Overpass and Mirage respectively helped Team Liquid defeat NAVI for the second time in a row. The last time Liquid defeated NAVI in consecutive series was in the summer of 2019 when Liquid decimated NAVI in six consecutive best-of-three series from the end of 2018 through the summer of 2019.

Liquid derails NAVI’s run to move one step closer to the trophy

Liquid secured a handy 16:10 victory over NAVI in the opening map after Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski and Mareks “YEKINDAR'” Gaļinskis decimated the Ukrainian powerhouse with ratings of 1.61 and 1.54 respectively. Natus Vincere turned their fortunes around with a thrilling victory over the North American team on Ancient thanks to Valeriy “⁠b1t⁠” Vakhovskiy and Ilya “⁠Perfecto⁠” Zalutskiy.

Before the Ukrainian team could capitalize on the momentum, Josh “oSee” Ohm and YEKINDAR stepped up for the team. The pair contributed a combined 50 kills to Liquid’s stunning 16:9 triumph on Mirage. 

The victory advances Liquid into the semifinals, where they will face OG at Etihad Arena on Saturday. NAVI, on the other hand, entered the competition with the intention of making a comeback, however, they were unable to advance past the quarterfinals despite using a novel six-player setup. NAVI’s departure from BLAST has shaken up the current standing of the top teams, which has seen three different teams win the last three CS:GO tournaments.

G2 upset Vitality 2:1 to enter the semi-finals 

After a near-perfect performance on Anubis and Nuke, G2 eliminated Vitality, the champions of the ESL Pro League Season 16, from the BLAST Premier World Final. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov was a key player in G2’s victory on the opening map of the series, Nuke. On the first pick, the young rifler recorded 23 kills, frequently landing multiple kills and clutches at crucial times to boost his team to an easy 16:3 victory. 

Lotan “⁠Spinx⁠” Giladi was the standout performer for Vitality on Vertigo, shutting down G2’s big gun completely en route to a 19-15 win. During Anubis, G2 once again started off strong and kept it going throughout the first half. While Vitality tried to mount a comeback, G2 quickly turned the tide on the final map to win the best-of-three series. G2 will play FaZe in the opening semi-final, hoping to exact revenge on the North American squad for their loss during the group stage.

Header: ESL Gaming