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Natus Vincere win BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022

Although they had to overcome great challenges, Natus Vincere won yet another trophy, this time at BLAST Premier Spring... Radu M. | 20. June 2022

Although they had to overcome great challenges, Natus Vincere won yet another trophy, this time at BLAST Premier Spring Finals in Lisbon. Besides the $200,000 main prize, the team has secured a ticket to the World Final. 

One thing that’s very surprising about this victory is how easy most of the matches were for the CIS team.

Na’Vi’s handicap at BLAST Premier Spring Finals

Na’Vi entered the tournament with a huge handicap. Their IGL, Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov, had been removed from the active roster and his place was taken by Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev from MAD Lions.

This was a decent stand-in, but nobody expected him to be effective. Probably motivated by the great opportunity presented to him, sdy played well during BLAST Premier Spring Finals and was never a liability for his team.

Of course, Na’Vi would have never won without the godlike performances of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, and Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy. But these players would not have been able to shine if sdy hadn’t done his job properly.

Na’Vi’s fifth man played so well that s1mple praised his performance, saying that he hopes sdy will play for the team at IEM Cologne as well.

Na’Vi’s run in Spring Finals

Na’Vi played a total of five matches in BLAST Premier Spring Finals and they only struggled against one team — OG. Here’s the recap of Na’Vi’s run in the tournament:

First match against OG

Na’Vi smashed OG on their map pick (Inferno), losing just seven rounds. But then they lost on Mirage (12:16) and Ancient (13:16), leaving the impression that the disadvantage of having to play with a stand-in was too great to overcome.

Group stage elimination match against BIG

The victory against BIG was secured by s1mple, who had a rating 2.0 of 1.48 and a KD score of +24. The others did what they could, but they mostly got carried.

Quarterfinals match against FaZe Clan

This was Na’Vi’s best match at the tournament. Their opponent, FaZe Clan, had entered the race as the number one favorite. On top of that, they had defeated the CIS squad at the most recent CS:GO Major. But despite everything, Na’Vi won with ease — 16:6 on Dust 2 and 16:1 on Inferno. S1mple’s rating 2.0 for this match was 1.80! ElectroNic and b1t were not far behind.

Semifinal match against OG

Na’Vi needed three maps to win this match and somehow managed to lose on Inferno, even though they had destroyed FaZe Clan on it the day before. OG played well and the only thing that saved Na’Vi was once again, s1mple’s performance —1.45 / +23. ElectroNic did a great job as well — 1.32 / +16.

Grand Final against Team Vitality

Vitality had to defeat G2 to play in the Grand Final, so everyone expected a tough match. But the CIS team ended it quickly — 16:8 on Mirage and 16:5 on Overpass.

Header photo: BLAST|BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022