Cloud9 win RES Masters to qualify for BLAST Premier Spring Showdown

Cloud9 have qualified for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown by winning the RES Eastern European Masters: Spring 2023! Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov’s squad is the seventh team to qualify for the online tournament.

The teams that have already joined the Showdown so far include Rare Atom from China, 9INE, OG, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic, and BIG. The last slot for the Spring Showdown is still up for grabs at Pelaajat Nordic Masters Spring, taking place between March 17-19.

Cloud9 win RES European Masters

Cloud9 have qualified for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Europe after winning the RES Eastern European Masters Spring against VOYVODA. The 10th-best team in the world beat the Bulgarian team in a series on two maps with a 16-14 win on Inferno and Overpass to secure a spot in the qualifier for the Spring Showdown.

nafany and his team started their run at the Qualifier in the GSL Group Stage, where they had relatively easy wins against Aurora and DomiNation to advance to the four-team, single-elimination round-robin playoff.

There, Cloud9 faced more opposition than they initially had against Bad News Eagles in the semifinals. The Kosovar team had strong advantages during the Series on both Mirage and Veritgo, but squandered many chances to extend their lead, while Cloud9’s top players shined, winning both maps 2-0.

sh1ro helps C9 to victory

A similar scenario played out in the Grand Final against VOYVODA. Valentin “poizon” Vasilev and the rest of his team put up fierce resistance on both Inferno and Overpass, but were unable to counter Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov’s dominant performance. With 1.58 and 1.41 rating respectively, he helped his team to a 16:14 win on both maps.

Cloud9 are not a BLAST partner team, and the squad did not participate in any BLAST events in 2022. This ended up costing them ranking points and lowered the overall stat value for individual player performance, which becomes important at the end of the year. They are now trying to rectify that by qualifying for the European Spring Showdown.

OG, BIG, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic are still standing between Cloud9 and a spot at the Spring Finals, which will take place from March 29 to April 2. One final team will earn a slot at the Showdown through the Pelaajat Nordic Masters Spring, and will compete with the following seven teams in the battle for a single spot at Spring Finals:

• OG
• Cloud9
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Rare Atom
• Fnatic
• BIG
• 9INE
• Nordic Masters Spring

Header: Cloud9